2 To supply the troops with food was a very difficult task, as the exhausted land was unable to furnish what was wanted.

It was therefore necessary in the wars with Philip, Antiochus, and the Etolians, and now in the war with Perseus, to send out large quantities of corn from Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa.

3 If such a convoy was de- layed or destroyed the operations in the field could easily be paralysed, and it is therefore not unlikely that the inactivity of the army up to this time was owing to some stoppage in the supply of provisions.

On the other hand, the soldiers were compelled, by the scantiness of supplies, to get what they wanted wherever they could find it, and thus many an act of cruelty may be explained or excused.

Hortensius, probably for the purpose of replenishing his plunder- stores, which were reduced by the fault of his predecessor, sailed along the coast to levy contributions from the dif- ferent maritime cities, and among others from Abdera in Thrace, from which he demanded one hundred thousand denarii and fifty thousand modii of wheat.