This office was given to
the quaestors, who were generally chosen from the younger nobility, and
were thus prepared for the higher magistracies by acquiring a
practical acquaintance with finance.
16. The soldiers were subject to penalties of life and limb at the
discretion of the commander-in-chief, without the intervention of a
court-martial; but it deserves to be recorded that this power was
rarely abused. 17. There were several species of rewards to excite
emulation; the most honourable were, the civic crown of gold to
him who had saved the life of a citizen; the mural crown to him who
had first scaled the wall of a besieged town; a gilt spear to him who
had severely wounded an enemy; but he who had slain and spoiled his
foe, received, if a horseman, an ornamental trapping; if a foot
soldier, a goblet.
18. The lower classes of the centuries were excused from serving in
the army, except on dangerous emergencies; but they supplied sailors
to the navy. We learn, from a document preserved by Polyb'ius, that
the Romans were a naval power at a very early age.
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