22.5
In the
universal panic, the consul displayed all the coolness that could be expected
under the circumstances. The ranks were broken by each man turning
towards the discordant shouts; he re-formed them as well as time and place
allowed, and wherever he could be seen or heard, he encouraged his men
and bade them stand and fight. "It is not by prayers or entreaties to the gods
that you must make your way out," he said, "but by your strength and your
courage. It is the sword that cuts a path through the middle of the enemy,
and where there is less fear there is generally less danger." But such was the
uproar and confusion that neither counsel nor command could be heard, and
so far was the soldier from recognising his standard or his company or his
place in the rank, that he had hardly sufficient presence of mind to get hold
of his weapons and make them available for use, and some who found them
a burden rather than a protection were overtaken by the enemy. In such a
thick fog ears were of more use than eyes; the men turned their gaze in every
direction as they heard the groans of the wounded and the blows on shield or
breastplate, and the mingled shouts of triumph and cries of panic. Some who
tried to fly ran into a dense body of combatants and could get no further;
others who were returning to the fray were swept away by a rush of
fugitives. At last, when ineffective charges had been made in every direction
and they found themselves completely hemmed in, by the lake and the hills
on either side, and by the enemy in front and rear, it became clear to every
man that his only hope of safety lay in his own right hand and his sword.
Then each began to depend upon himself for guidance and encouragement,
and the fighting began afresh, not the orderly battle with its three divisions of
principes, hastati, and triarii, where the fighting line is in front of the
standards and the rest of the army behind, and where each soldier is in his
own legion and cohort and maniple. Chance massed them together, each man
took his place in front or rear as his courage prompted him, and such was
the ardour of the combatants, so intent were they on the battle, that not a
single man on the field was aware of the earthquake which levelled large
portions of many towns in Italy, altered the course of swift streams, brought
the sea up into the rivers, and occasioned enormous landslips amongst the
mountains.
