rol was in the
hands of a general named Annius Bassus. Silvanus was quite ineffective
as a general, and wasted every chance of action in talking about it.
Bassus, while showing all due respect, managed him completely, and was
always ready with quiet efficiency to do anything that had to be done.
Their force was further increased by enlisting the best of the marines
from the Ravenna fleet, who were clamouring for service in the
legions. The vacancies in the fleet were filled by Dalmatians. The
army and its generals halted at Fanum Fortunae,[134] still hesitating
what policy to adopt, for they had heard that the Guards were on the
move from Rome, and supposed that the Apennines were held by troops.
And they had fears of their own. Supplies were scarce in a district
devastated by war. The men were mutinous and demanded 'shoe-money',[135]
as they called the donative, with alarming insistence. No provision
had been made either for money or for stores. The precipitate greed of
the soldiers made further difficulties, for they each looted what
might have served for them all.

I find among the best authorities evidence which shows how 51
wickedly careless were the victorious army of all considerations of
right and wrong. They tell how a trooper professed that he had killed
his brother in the last battle, and demanded a reward from his
generals. The dictates of humanity forbade them to remunerate such a
murder, but in the interests of civil war they dared not punish it.
They had put him off with the plea that they could not at the moment
reward his service adequately. And there the story stops. However, a
similar crime had occurred in earlier civil wars. In the battle which
Pompeius Strabo fought against Cinna at the Janiculum,[136] one of his
soldiers killed his own brother and then, realizing what he had done,
committed suicide. This is recorded by Sisenna.[137] Our ancestors, it
seems, had a livelier sense than we have both of the glory of good
deeds and the shame of bad.[138] These and other such instances from
past history may be appropriately cited, whenever the subject seems to
demand either an example of good conduct or some consolation for a
crime.

Antonius and his fellow generals decided to send the cavalry ahead 52
to explore the whole of Umbria, and to see whether any of the
Apennines were accessible by a gentler route; to summon the eagles and
standards[139] and all the troops at Verona,[140] and