1But in this difficulty I find that Metellus was a man no less great and wise than in his dealings with the enemy: so great was the self-control with which he steered a course between currying favour and cruelty. 2For first, by an edict, he removed the aids to idleness: no one was to sell bread or any other cooked food in the camp, camp followers were not to accompany the army, no soldier, whether of the line or of the ranks, was to have a slave or a pack animal in camp or on the march; 2for everything else he set strict limits. 2Besides this, he moved camp every day by cross-country routes, fortified it with rampart and ditch just as if the enemy were at hand, posted frequent watches and went round them himself with his officers; 2likewise on the march he was present now among the foremost, now among the hindmost, often in the middle, so that no one should leave the ranks, that they should advance in close order with the standards, and that the soldier should carry his own food and arms.
3So, by preventing offences rather than punishing them, he soon put the army in good heart.