22.48
By this
time the Roman left wing, where the allied cavalry were fronting the
Numidians, had become engaged, but the fighting was slack at first owing to
a Carthaginian stratagem. About 500 Numidians, carrying, besides their
usual arms and missiles, swords concealed under their coats of mail, rode out
from their own line with their shields slung behind their backs as though they
were deserters, and suddenly leaped from their horses and flung their shields
and javelins at the feet of their enemy. They were received into their ranks,
conducted to the rear, and ordered to remain quiet. While the battle was
spreading to the various parts of the field they remained quiet, but when the
eyes and minds of all were wholly taken up with the fighting they seized the
large Roman shields which were lying everywhere amongst the heaps of slain
and commenced a furious attack upon the rear of the Roman line. Slashing
away at backs and hips, they made a great slaughter and a still greater panic
and confusion. Amidst the rout and panic in one part of the field and the
obstinate but hopeless struggle in the other, Hasdrubal, who was in
command of that arm, withdrew some Numidians from the centre of the
right wing, where the fighting was feebly kept up, and sent them m pursuit of
the fugitives, and at the same time sent the Spanish and Gaulish horse to the
aid of the Africans, who were by this time more wearied by slaughter than by
fighting.
