Book 5
3.18
Now famine began to afflict Rome, the supplies by sea being cut off by Pompeius, and Italian agriculture ruined by the wars. Whatever food was produced was consumed by the troops. Many robberies were committed by night in the city. There were acts of violence worse than robbery which went unpunished, and which were supposed to have been committed by soldiers. The people closed their shops and drove the magistrates from their places as though there were no need of courts of justice, or of the useful arts in a city oppressed by hunger and infested with brigands.
