After this he stood upon the wall, and with the help of those
who assembled round him, beat off the rest, for not many had reached the
top, or effected anything commensurate with the boldness of the attempt.
Having thus escaped the danger, the Romans threw their sentinel down the
rock; while on Manlius they conferred by vote a reward for his bravery,
intended more for honour than advantage; for each man gave him a day's
rations, which consisted of half a Roman pound of meal, and the fourth
part of a Greek cotyle of wine.
XXVIII. This affair disheartened the Gauls, who were also in want of
provisions, for they could not forage as before for fear of Camillus,
while disease also crept in among them, encamped as they were in the
ruins of Rome among heaps of dead bodies, while the deep layer of ashes
became blown by the wind into the air, making it dry and harsh, and the
vapours of the conflagrations were injurious to breathe. They were
especially distressed by the change from a cloudy country where there
are plenty of shady retreats, to the flat burning plains of Rome in
autumn, and their siege of the Capitol became wearisome, for they had
now beleaguered it for seven months; so that there was much sickness in
their camp, and so many died that they no longer buried the dead. Yet
for all this the besieged fared no better. Hunger pressed them, and
their ignorance of what Camillus was doing disheartened them; for no one
could reach them with news, because the city was strictly watched by
Gauls.
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