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. 19. This
interesting record is the copy of a treaty concluded with the
Carthaginians, in the year after the expulsion of the kings. It is not
mentioned by the Roman historians, because it decisively establishes a
fact which they studiously labour to conceal, that is, the weakness
and decline of the Roman power during the two centuries that followed
the abolition of royalty, when the power of the state was monopolized
by a vile aristocracy. In this treaty Rome negociates for the cities
of La'tium, as her dependencies, just as Carthage does for her subject
colonies. But in the course of the following century, Rome lost her
supremacy over the Latin cities, and being thus nearly excluded from
the coast, her navy was ruined.

20. At the commencement of the first Punic war, the Romans once more
began to prepare a fleet, and luckily obtained an excellent model in a