27.46
The
consul Livius had issued a secret order by means of the tessera that the
tribunes should take in the tribunes who were coming; the centurions, the
centurions; the cavalry, their mounted comrades; and the legionaries, the
infantry. It was not desirable to extend the camp, his object was to keep the
enemy in ignorance of the other consul's arrival. The crowding together of a
larger number of men in the restricted space afforded by the tents was
rendered all the easier because Claudius' army, in their hurried march, had
brought hardly anything with them except their arms. On the march,
however, their numbers had been augmented by volunteers, partly old
soldiers who had served their time and partly young men who were anxious
to join. Claudius enlisted those whose appearance and strength seemed to
qualify them for service. Livius' camp was in the neighbourhood of Sena, and
Hasdrubal was about half a mile distant. When he found that he was nearing
the place, the consul halted where he was screened by the mountains, so as
not to enter the camp before night. Then the men entered in silence and were
conducted to the tents, each by a man of his own rank, where they received
the warmest of welcomes and most hospitable entertainment. Next day a
council of war was held, at which the praetor L. Porcius Licinus was
present. His camp was now contiguous with that of the consuls; before their
arrival he had adopted every possible device to baffle the Carthaginian by
marching along the heights and seizing the passes, so as to check his
advance, and also by harassing his columns whilst on the march. Many of
those present at the council were in favour of postponing battle in order that
Nero might recruit his troops worn out with the length of the march and
want of sleep, and also might have a few days for getting to know his enemy.
Nero tried to dissuade them from this course, and earnestly implored them
not to endanger the success of his plan after he had made it perfectly safe by
the rapidity of his march. Hannibal's activity, he argued, was so to speak
paralysed by a mistake which he would not be long in rectifying; he had
neither attacked the camp in the absence of its commander, nor had he made
up his mind to follow him on his march. Before he moved, it was possible to
destroy Hasdrubal's army and march back into Apulia. "To give the enemy
time by putting off the engagement would be to betray their camp in Apulia
to Hannibal and give him a clear road into Gaul, so that he would be able to
form a junction with Hasdrubal when and where he pleased. The signal for
action must be given at once, and we must march on to the field and profit
by the mistakes which both our enemies are making, the distant one and the
one close at hand. That one does not know that he has to deal with a smaller
army than he supposes, this one is not aware that he has to meet a larger and
stronger one than he imagines." As soon as the council broke up, the red
ensign was displayed and the army at once took the field.
