21.60
While
these events were in progress in Italy, Cn. Cornelius Scipio, who had been
sent with a fleet and an army to Spain, commenced operations in that
country. Starting from the mouth of the Rhone, he sailed round the eastward
end of the Pyrenees and brought up at Emporiae. Here he disembarked his
army, and beginning with the Laeetani, he brought the whole of the maritime
populations as far as the Ebro within the sphere of Roman influence by
renewing old alliances and forming new ones. He gained in this way a
reputation for clemency which extended not only to the maritime populations
but to the more warlike tribes in the interior and the mountain districts. He
established peaceable relations with these, and more than that, he secured
their support in arms and several strong cohorts were enrolled from amongst
them. The country on this side the Ebro was Hanno's province, Hannibal had
left him to hold it for Carthage. Considering that he ought to oppose Scipio's
further progress before the whole province was under Roman sway, he fixed
his camp in full view of the enemy and offered battle. The Roman general,
too, thought that battle ought not to be delayed; he knew he would have to
fight both Hanno and Hasdrubal, and preferred dealing with each singly
rather than meeting them both at once.. The battle was not a hard-fought
one. The enemy lost 6000; 2000, including those who were guarding the
camp, were made prisoners; the camp itself was carried and the general with
some of his chiefs was taken; Cissis, a town near the camp, was successfully
attacked. The plunder, however, as it was a small place, was of little value,
consisting mainly of the barbarians' household goods and some worthless
slaves. The camp, however, enriched the soldiers with the property
belonging not only to the army they had defeated but also to the one serving
with Hannibal in Italy. They had left almost all their valuable possessions on
the other side of the Pyrenees, that they might not have heavy loads to carry.
