+11.+ Such was Scipio’s address to his men. Meanwhile Hannibal
had put his men also into position. His elephants, which numbered
more than eighty, he placed in the van of the whole army. Next his
mercenaries, amounting to twelve thousand, and consisting of Ligurians,
Celts, Baliarians, and Mauretani; behind them the native Libyans
and Carthaginians; and on the rear of the whole the men whom he had
brought from Italy, at a distance of somewhat more than a stade. His
wings he strengthened with cavalry, stationing the Numidian allies on
the left wing, and the Carthaginian horsemen on the right. He ordered
each officer to address his own men, bidding them rest their hopes of
victory on him and the army he had brought with him; while he bade
their officers remind the Carthaginians in plain terms what would
happen to their wives and children if the battle should be lost. While
these orders were carried out by the officers, Hannibal himself went
along the lines of his Italian army and urged them “to remember the
seventeen years during which they had been brothers-in-arms, and the
number of battles they had fought with the Romans, in which they had
never been beaten or given the Romans even a hope of victory. Above
all, putting aside minor engagements and their countless successes, let
them place before their eyes the battle of the River Trebia against
the father of the present Roman commander; and again the battle in
Etruria against Flaminius; and lastly that at Cannae against Aemilius,
with none of which was the present struggle to be compared, whether in
regard to the number or excellence of the enemy’s men. Let them only
raise their eyes and look at the ranks of the enemy; they would see
that they were not merely fewer, but many times fewer than those with
whom they had fought before, while, as to their soldierly qualities,
there was no comparison. The former Roman armies had come to the
struggle with them untainted by memories of past defeats: while these
men were the sons or the remnants of those who had been beaten in
Italy, and fled before him again and again. They ought not therefore,”
he said, “to undo the glory and fame of their previous achievements,
but to struggle with a firm and brave resolve to maintain their
reputation of invincibility.”
Such were the addresses of the two commanders.
[Sidenote: A stampede of the elephants.]
[Sidenote: Flight of the Carthaginian cavalry.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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