30.5
After
making these arrangements he summoned a council of war and ordered the
spies to report what they had discovered, and at the same time requested
Masinissa who knew all about the enemy to give the council any information
he could. He then laid before them his own plan of operations for the coming
night and directed the tribunes to lead the troops out of camp as soon as the
trumpets sounded on the break-up of the council. In obedience to his order
the march out began at sunset. About the first watch the column of march
was deployed into line of battle. After advancing in this order at an easy pace
for seven miles they reached the hostile camp about midnight. Scipio
assigned a portion of his force, including Masinissa and his Numidians, to
Laelius with instructions to attack Syphax and fire his camp. Then he took
Laelius and Masinissa apart and appealed to them each separately to make
up by extra care and diligence for the confusion inseparable from a night
attack. He told them that he should attack Hasdrubal and the Carthaginian
camp, but would wait until he saw the king's camp on fire. He had not to
wait long, for when the fire was cast on the nearest huts it very soon caught
the next ones and then running along in all directions spread over the whole
camp. Such an extensive fire breaking out at night naturally produced alarm
and confusion, but Syphax's men thinking it was due to accident and not to
the enemy rushed out without arms to try and extinguish it. They found
themselves at once confronted by an armed foe, mainly Numidians whom
Masinissa, thoroughly acquainted with the arrangement of the camp, had
posted in places where they could block all the avenues. Some were caught
by the flames, whilst half asleep in their beds, numbers who had fled
precipitately, scrambling over one another were trampled to death in the
camp gates.
