(no subject)

[timelets]

“...while our own men have to grind their hearts out in frost and snow, living under canvas and not permitted to sheathe their swords even in those months which have always brought a respite from all wars, whether by sea or land. To campaign upon compulsion, summer and winter alike? Why, this is slavery beyond any imposed by the kings, or by those haughty consuls in the old days before we tribunes existed; it is worse than anything done by the gloomy and remorseless power of the dictatorship, or by the self–willed and arrogant decemvirs.”
...
“For some reason or other – perhaps because of the sudden change from excessive cold to excessive heat – the hard winter was followed by an unhealthy summer. Plague was rife, and neither human beings nor animals were immune.”

-- Titus Livy. “The Early History of Rome.”