Kitap 41
20
. . . . . .
21
. . . Scipio, the alien jurisdiction. The province of Sardinia had fallen to M. Atilius, but he was ordered to sail to Corsica with the new legion which the consuls had raised-5000 infantry and 300 cavalry. Whilst he was engaged in that war, Cornelius' command in Sardinia was extended. To Cnaeus Servilius in Further Spain and P. Furius Philus in Hither Spain were voted 3000 Roman infantry and 150 cavalry, and of Latin allied troops 5000 infantry and 300 cavalry. Lucius Claudius received no reinforcements for Sicily. In addition to these troops the consuls were required to raise two fresh legions in full strength, both of infantry and cavalry, and also 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry from the Latin allies. The work of enrolment was all the more difficult for the consuls, because the pestilence which the year before had attacked the cattle had now turned into an epidemic, and those who fell victims to it seldom survived the seventh day; those who did survive were subject to a long and tedious illness, which generally took the form of a quartidian ague. The deaths occurred chiefly amongst the slaves and their unburied bodies lay scattered in all the streets, and not even in the case of the free population could the funeral rites be carried out decently The corpses lay untouched by dog and vulture and slowly rotted away, and it was generally observed that neither in this nor in the previous year had a vulture been anywhere seen.
