22.51
Hannibal's officers all surrounded him
and congratulated him on his victory, and urged that after such a magnificent
success he should allow himself and his exhausted men to rest for the
remainder of the day and the following night. Maharbal, however, the
commandant of the cavalry, thought that they ought not to lose a moment.
"That you may know," he said to Hannibal, "what has been gained by this
battle I prophesy that in five days you will be feasting as victor in the
Capitol. Follow me; I will go in advance with the cavalry; they will know
that you are come before they know that you are coming." To Hannibal the
victory seemed too great and too joyous for him to realise all at once. He
told Maharbal that he commended his zeal, but he needed time to think out
his plans. Maharbal replied: "The gods have not given all their gifts to one
man. You know how to win victory, Hannibal, you do not how to use it."
That day's delay is believed to have saved the City and the empire. The next
day, as soon as it grew light, they set about gathering the spoils on the field
and viewing the carnage, which was a ghastly sight even for an enemy. There
all those thousands of Romans were lying, infantry and cavalry
indiscriminately as chance had brought them together in the battle or the
flight. Some covered with blood raised themselves from amongst the dead
around them, tortured by their wounds which were nipped by the cold of the
morning, and were promptly put an end to by the enemy. Some they found
lying with their thighs and knees gashed but still alive; these bared their
throats and necks and bade them drain what blood they still had left. Some
were discovered with their heads buried in the earth, they had evidently
suffocated themselves by making holes in the ground and heaping the soil
over their faces. What attracted the attention of all was a Numidian who was
dragged alive from under a dead Roman lying across him; his ears and nose
were torn, for the Roman with hands too powerless to grasp his weapon
had, in his mad rage, torn his enemy with his teeth, and while doing so
expired.
