21.53
To no
one in the whole army did the victory appear more important or more
decisive than to the consul himself. What gave him especial pleasure was that
he had proved superior in that arm in which his colleague had been worsted.
He saw that the spirits of his men were restored, and that there was no one
but his colleague who wished to delay battle; he believed that Scipio was
more sick in mind than in body, and that the thought of his wound made him
shrink from the dangers of the battlefield. "But we must not be infected by a
sick man's lethargy. What will be gained by further delay, or rather, by
wasting time? Whom are we expecting as our third consul; what fresh army
are we looking for? The camp of the Carthaginians is in Italy, almost in sight
of the City. They are not aiming at Sicily and Sardinia, which they lost after
their defeats, nor the Spain which lies on this side the Ebro; their sole object
is to drive the Romans away from their ancestral soil, from the land on which
they were born. What groans our fathers would utter, accustomed as they
were to warring round the walls of Carthage, if they could see us, their
descendants, with two consuls and two consular armies, cowering in our
camp in the very heart of Italy, whilst the Carthaginian is annexing to his
empire all between the Alps and the Apennines." This was the way he spoke
when sitting by his incapacitated colleague, this the language he used before
his soldiers as though he were haranguing the Assembly. He was urged on,
too, by the near approach of the time for the elections, and the fear that the
war, if delayed, might pass into the hands of the new consuls, as well as by
the chance he had of monopolising all the glory of it while his colleague was
on the sick list. In spite, therefore, of the opposition of Cornelius he ordered
the soldiers to get ready for the coming battle.
Hannibal saw clearly what was the best course for the enemy to
adopt, and had very little hope that the consuls would do anything rash or
ill-advised. When, however, he found that what he had previously learnt by
hearsay was actually the case, namely, that one of the consuls was a man of
impetuous and headstrong character, and that he had become still more so
since the recent cavalry action, he had very little doubt in his own mind that
he would have a favourable opportunity of giving battle. He was anxious not
to lose a moment, in order that he might fight whilst the hostile army was
still raw and the better of the two generals was incapacitated by his wound,
and also whilst the Gauls were still in a warlike mood, for he knew that most
of them would follow him with less alacrity the further they were dragged
from their homes. These and similar considerations led him to hope that a
battle was imminent, and made him desirous of forcing an engagement if
there was any holding back on the other side. He sent out some Gauls to
reconnoitre -as Gauls were serving in both armies they could be most safely
trusted to find out what he wanted -and when they reported that the
Romans had prepared for battle, the Carthaginian began to look out for
ground which would admit of an ambuscade.