STRATAGEMS, IV. i. 42-45
Quintus Fabius Maxiimis cut off" the right hands of deserters.^
When the consul Gaius Curio was campaigning near Dyrrhachium in the war against the Uardani,- and one of the five legions, having mutinied, had refused service and declared it would not follow his rash leadership on a difficult and dangerous enter- prise, he led out four legions in arms and ordei'ed them to take their stand in the ranks with weapons drawn, as if in battle. Then he commanded the mutinous legion to advance without arms, and forced its members to strip for work and cut straw under the eves of armed guards. The following day, in like manner, he compelled them to strip and dig ditches, and by no entreaties of the legion could he be induced to renounce his purpose of withdrawing its standards, abolishing its name, and distributing its members to fill out other legions.
In the consulship of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, the soldiers, who after the battle of Cannae had been banished to Sicily by the Senate, peti- tioned the consul Marcellus to be led to battle. Marcellus consulted the Senate, who declared it was not their pleasure that the public welfare should be trusted to those who had proved disloyal. Yet they empowered Marcellus to do what seemed best to him, provided none of the soldiers should be relieved of duty, honoured with a gift or reward, or conveyed back to Italy, so long as there were any Carthaginians in the country.^
Marcus Salinator, when ex-consul, was condemned by the people because he had not divided the booty equally among his soldiers.*
- 218 B.C. Cf. Livy xxvii. 34, xxix. 37.
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