25.33
When
Hasdrubal became aware that the Romans formed only a small portion of the
army and that they were depending entirely upon their Celtiberian auxiliaries,
he determined to detach the latter from their Roman service. He was quite at
home with every form of treachery known to barbarians, and especially those
practised by the tribes amongst whom he had for so many years been
campaigning. Both camps were full of Spaniards, who had no difficulty in
understanding each other's language, and secret interviews were held, in the
course of which he made an agreement with the Celtiberian chieftains, by the
offer of a large bribe, that they should withdraw their forces. They did not
look upon this as very atrocious conduct, for it was not a question of turning
their arms against the Romans, and though the money was quite equal to the
pay they received in war, it was given them to abstain from war. Then, too,
the mere rest from the toils of the campaign, the thought of returning home,
the delight of seeing their friends and their possessions were universally
welcomed. So the mass of the troops were quite as easily persuaded as their
chiefs, and they had nothing to fear from the Romans who were too few in
number to keep them lack by force. This is a thing against which Roman
generals will always have to be on their guard, and instances such as these
ought to serve as warnings that they must not depend upon foreign
auxiliaries to such an extent as not to have in their camp a preponderance of
that solidity and fighting power which native troops can alone supply. The
Celtiberians took up their standards and marched off. The Romans asked
them why they were going, and appealed to them to stay where they were,
but the only answer they got was that they were called away by a war at
home. When Scipio saw that his allies could not be detained by either
appeals or force and that without them he was no match for the enemy,
whilst a junction with his brother was out of the question, he determined to
retreat as far as he could; this seemed the only safe measure to adopt. His
one object was to avoid an encounter on open ground with the enemy who
had crossed the river and were pressing closely at his heels.
