He included his naval camp also within
one and the same rampart. The camp for the legions being stationed on
the middle of the isthmus, the ships, which were drawn on land, and
the mariners occupied the northern shore, the cavalry a valley on the
south inclining towards the other shore. Such were the transactions in
Africa up to the close of autumn.
36. Besides the corn collected from all parts of the surrounding
country by plunder, and the provisions imported from Italy and Sicily,
Cneius Octavius, propraetor, brought a vast quantity out of Sardinia
from Tiberius Claudius the praetor, whose province Sardinia was; and
not only were the granaries already built filled, but new ones were
erected. The army wanted clothing, and Octavius was instructed
to consult with the praetor in order to ascertain if any could
be procured and sent out of that province. This business was also
diligently attended to. One thousand two hundred gowns and twelve
thousand tunics were in a short time sent. During the summer in which
these operations were carried on in Africa, Publius Sempronius, the
consul, who had the province of Bruttium, fought an irregular kind
of battle with Hannibal in the Crotonian territory while actually on
march; they fought with their troops drawn more in order of march than
of battle. The Romans were driven back, and as many as twelve hundred
of the army of the consul were slain in this affair, which was more
a tumult than a battle. They returned in confusion to their camp. The
enemy, however, dared not assault it. But, during the silence of the
following night, the consul marched away, and having sent a messenger
before him to Publius Licinius, the proconsul, to bring up his
legions, united his forces with his. Thus two generals and two armies
returned to Hannibal. Nor did either party delay to fight, as the
forces of the consul were doubled, and the Carthaginian was inspirited
by recent victory. Sempronius led his legions into the front line;
those of Licinius were placed in reserve. The consul, in the beginning
of the battle, vowed a temple to Fortuna Primigenia if he routed
the enemy that day, and he obtained the object of that vow. The
Carthaginians were routed and put to flight; above four thousand armed
men were slain, a little under three hundred taken alive, with forty
horses and eleven military standards. Hannibal, dispirited by this
adverse battle, led his troops away to Croton. At the same time, in
another part of Italy, Etruria, almost the whole of which had
espoused the interest of Mago, and had conceived hopes of effecting
a revolution through his means, was kept in subjection by the consul
Marcus Cornelius, not so much by the force of his arms as the terror
of his judicial proceedings. In the trials he had instituted there,
in conformity with the decree of the senate, he had shown the utmost
impartiality; and many of the Tuscan nobles, who had either themselves
gone, or had sent others to Mago respecting the revolt of their
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