re decree of the senate was added, to the effect that all those
whom the censor had stigmatized, should serve on foot, and be sent
into Sicily to join the remains of the army of Cannae, a class of
soldiers whose time of service was not to terminate till the enemy was
driven out of Italy. The censors, in consequence of the poverty of the
treasury, having abstained from receiving contracts for the repairs of
the sacred edifices, the furnishing of curule horses, and similar
matters, the persons who had been accustomed to attend auctions of
this description, came to the censors in great numbers, and exhorted
them to "transact all their business and let out the contracts in the
same manner as if there were money in the treasury. That none of them
would ask for money out of the treasury before the war was concluded."
Afterwards the owners of those slaves whom Tiberius Sempronius had
manumitted at Beneventum, came to them, stating that they were sent
for by the public bankers, to receive the price of their slaves, but
that they would not accept of it till the war was concluded. This
disposition on the part of the commons to sustain the impoverished
treasury having manifested itself, the property of minors first, and
then the portions of widows, began to be brought in; the persons who
brought them being persuaded, that their deposit would no where be
more secure and inviolable than under the public faith. If any thing
was bought or laid in for the widows and minors, an order upon the
quaestor was given for it. This liberality in individuals flowed from
the city into the camp also, insomuch that no horseman or centurion
would accept of his pay, and those who would accept it were reproached
with the appellation of mercenary men.

19. Quintus Fabius, the consul, was encamped before Casilinum, which
was occupied by a garrison of two thousand Campanians and seven
hundred of the soldiers of Hannibal. The commander was Statius Metius,
who was sent there by Cneius Magius Atellanus, who was that year
Medixtuticus and was arming the slaves and people without distinction,
in order to assault the Roman camp, while the consul was intently
occupied in the siege of Casilinum. None of these things escaped
Fabius. He therefore sent to his colleague at Nola, "That another army
was requisite, which might be opposed to the Campanians, while the
siege of Casilinum was going on; that either he should come himself,
leaving a force sufficient for the