22.17
As
soon as it was dark, the camp silently broke up; the oxen were driven some
distance in front of the column. When they had reached the foot of the
mountains where the roads began to narrow, the signal was given and the
herds with their flaming horns were driven up the mountain side. The
terrifying glare of the flames shooting from their heads and the heat which
penetrated to the root of their horns made the oxen rush about as though
they were mad. At this sudden scampering about, it seemed as though the
woods and mountains were on fire, and all the brushwood round became
alight and the incessant but useless shaking of their heads made the flames
shoot out all the more, and gave the appearance of men running about in all
directions. When the men who were guarding the pass saw fires moving
above them high up on the mountains, they thought that their position was
turned, and they hastily quitted it. Making their way up to the highest points,
they took the direction where there appeared to be the fewest flames,
thinking this to be the safest road. Even so, they came across stray oxen
separated from the herd, and at first sight they stood still in astonishment at
what seemed a preternatural sight of beings breathing fire. When it turned
out to be simply a human device they were still more alarmed at what they
suspected was an ambuscade, and they took to flight. Now they fell in with
some of Hannibal's light infantry, but both sides shrank from a fight in the
darkness and remained inactive till daylight. In the meantime Hannibal had
marched the whole of his army through the pass, and after surprising and
scattering some Roman troops in the pass itself, fixed his camp in the district
of Allifae.