Quibus tam maculosis accessere flagitia disciplinae castrensis, cum miles cantilenas meditaretur, pro iubilo molliores: et non saxa (ut erant antehac) armato cubile, sed pluma et flexiles lectuli, et graviora gladiis pocula (testa enim bibere iam pudebat), quaerebantur et aedes marmoreae, cum scriptum sit antiquitatibus, Spartanum militem coercitum acriter, quod procinctus tempore ausus sit videri sub tecto.
To these conditions, shameful as they were, were added serious defects in military discipline. In place of the war-song the soldiers practised effeminate ditties; the warriors bed was not a stone (as in days of yore), but feathers and folding couches; their cups were now heavier than their swords (for they were ashamed to drink from earthenware); they even procured houses of marble, although it is written in the records of old that a Spartan soldier was severely punished because during a campaign he dared to be seen under a roof.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book22.json