[100] "Provisions, the supply of which is the chief difficulty in large armies, they can obtain only from Macedonia, a mountainous region, and the narrow country of Thessaly, and this must be carried to them overland with severe labor. If they try to obtain any from Africa, or Lucania, or Apulia, Pompeius, Murcus, and Domitius will cut them off entirely. We have abundance, and it is brought to us daily by sea without labor from all the islands and mainlands which lie between Thrace and the river Euphrates, and without hindrance, since we have no enemy in our rear. So it rests with us either to hasten the battle, or by delaying it to waste the enemy by hunger. Such and so great, fellow-soldiers, are our preparations, so far as they depend on human foresight. May the future event correspond to these preparations by your efforts and by the help of the gods. As we have paid you all that we promised for your former exploits and have rewarded your fidelity with abundant gifts, so for this greater battle we will, under the favor of the gods, provide you a reward worthy of it. And now, to increase the zeal with which you already advance to your task, and in remembrance of this assembly and of these words, we will make an additional gift from this platform -- to each soldier 1500 Italic drachmas,1 to each centurion five times that sum, and to each tribune in proportion."
1 This is the only place in Appian where we find the phrase "Italic drachmas." What is meant is the Roman denarius, equal to sixteen American cents.
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
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