Et ante eum paucis annis tam severum illius Q. Macedonici in his gentibus imperium fuit, ut, cum urbem Contrebiam nomine in Hispania oppugnaret, pulsas praecipiti loco quinque cohortes legionarias eodem protinus subire iuberet, facientibusque omnibus in procinctu testamenta, velut ad certam mortem eundum foret, non deterritus proposito, quem moriturum miserat militem victorem recepit: tantum effecit mixtus timori pudor spesque desperatione quaesita.
A few years before in this same country Quintus Macedonicus had exercised command as general with a discipline of remarkable rigour. For instance, in an assault upon a Spanish town called Contrebia he ordered five legionary cohorts, which had been driven down from a steep escarpment, forthwith to march up it again. Though the soldiers were making their wills on the battlefield, as though they were about to march to certain death, he was not deterred, but afterwards received the men, whom he sent forth to die, back in camp victorious. Such was the effect of shame mingled with fear, and of a hope born of despair.
final_alignments\Velleius_Paterculus_Compendium.json