surprised at the sudden arrival of the Romans, and busy in consultations, when they might have excited confusion among the troops during their hurry in passing the river. In the mean time the Romans brought over all their baggage, and threw it together in a heap, and seeing the enemy, at length, begin to move, and having no time for fortifying a camp, they formed their line of battle. In the centre were placed the fifth legion, serving under Calpurnius, and the eighth, under Quintius, which composed the principal strength of their army. All the way to the enemy’s camp they had an open plain, free from all danger of ambush. 31. When the Spaniards saw the two bodies of Romans, on their side of the river, they rushed suddenly out of the camp, and advanced to battle at full speed, that they might fall upon them before they should unite and put themselves in order. The fight, in the beginning, was urged with great fury; the Spaniards being elated by their late success, and the Roman soldiery inflamed to rage, by a discomfiture to which they were unaccustomed. The centre, consisting of two legions of the greatest bravery, fought with the utmost vigour. The enemy, seeing that they could not be forced from their ground by any other means, resolved to make their attack in form of a wedge; and this body, becoming continually more numerous and more compact, pressed hard on them. When the prætor, Calpurnius, perceived that his line was distressed in this part, he hastily despatched two lieutenants-general, Titus Quintilius Varus and Lucius Juventius Thalna, to animate the courage of the two legions, who were ordered to say, that “all hopes of victory, and of retaining possession of Spain, depended entirely on them. If they should give ground, not a man in that whole army would ever see Italy, no, nor even the farther bank of the Tagus.” He himself, at the head of the cavalry of the two legions, making a small circuit, charged the flank of the wedge, which was pressing upon his centre. Quintius, likewise, with his cavalry, charged the enemy on the other flank; but the horsemen of Calpurnius fought with far greater spirit, while the prætor himself exceeded all others. He was the first that struck down one of the enemy, and he pushed in among the troops in the centre, in such a manner that it was hard to distinguish to which side he belonged. Thus the horse were animated by the extraordinary valour of the prætor, and the infantry by that of the horse. Shame, because they saw the prætor in the midst of the enemy’s weapons, inspired the foremost centurions. They all, therefore, earnestly pressed the standard-bearers, urging them to carry forward the ensigns, and the soldiers to follow with speed. All set up the shout anew, and made an attack as violent as if it were made from the higher ground. Like a flood, therefore, they broke and bore down the enemy in dismay, nor could they be resisted, pouring in one