1But when he came to Africa, an army was handed over to him by the proconsul Spurius Albinus which was sluggish and unwarlike, able to bear neither danger nor toil, readier with tongue than with hand, a plunderer of the allies and itself the plunder of the enemy, kept without discipline or restraint. 2So the new general gained more anxiety from their bad character than help or good hope from the number of his soldiers. 3Metellus nevertheless decided, although the delay of the elections had shortened the summer campaigning season and he thought the citizens' minds were intent on the outcome, not to touch the war before he had compelled the soldiers to labour under the discipline of their ancestors.
4For Albinus, stunned by the disaster of his brother Aulus and of the army, after he had decided not to go out of the province, for as much of the summer season as he was in command, kept the soldiers for the most part in a stationary camp, except when the stench or a lack of fodder had forced him to change the site. 5But neither was the camp fortified, nor were the watches posted in military fashion; 5each man was absent from the standards as he pleased; 5camp followers mingled with the soldiers roamed about day and night, and in their wanderings they laid waste the fields, stormed farmhouses, vied with one another in driving off plunder of cattle and slaves, and exchanged it with traders for imported wine and other such things; 5besides this they sold the grain issued by the state and bought bread from day to day; 5in short, whatever disgraces of idleness and luxury can be spoken of or imagined, all of them were in that army, and others besides.