25.35
The
Carthaginian generals were not slow to take advantage of their success.
After allowing their men the needful rest, they proceeded straight from the
battle-field by forced marches to Hasdrubal, fully expecting that when they
had joined forces the war could be brought to a close. When they reached his
camp, the generals and the soldiers, in high spirits over their recent victory,
exchanged hearty congratulations at the destruction of so great a commander
and his entire army, and looked forward with confidence to winning another
victory as complete. The report of the terrible disaster had not reached the
Romans, but there was a gloomy silence, a secret foreboding, such as usually
happens when men feel a presentiment of coming misfortune. The general,
who saw himself deserted by his allies and knew that the forces of the enemy
were so largely augmented, was led still further by his own conjectures and
inferences to suspect the occurrence of some disaster much sooner than to
entertain any hopes of success. "How," he asked himself, "could Hasdrubal
and Mago have brought up their army without opposition if they had not
brought their own share of the war to a successful close? How could his
brother have failed to stop them or to follow them up so that if he could not
prevent their forming a junction he could at least have united his own forces
with those of his brother?" Filled with these anxieties he believed that the
only safe course for him for the time being was to retreat from his present
position as far as he could. He accordingly accomplished a considerable
march in a single night, unobserved by the enemy and therefore unmolested.
When it grew light the enemy became aware of his departure, and sending on
the Numidians in advance, commenced the pursuit with the utmost speed of
which they were capable. The Numidians came up with them before
nightfall, and by making repeated charges on flank and rear compelled them
to come to a halt and defend themselves. Scipio, however, urged them to
fight as well as they could and keep moving forward before they were
overtaken by the infantry.
