small a hurt; and dashing themselves on the ground, they lay scattered over the place. Some rushing against the enemy were overwhelmed with darts; and when any of them came near, they were slain by the swords of the light infantry. A soldier of this description carries a shield three feet long, and, in his right hand, javelins, which he throws at a distance. He is begirt with a Spanish sword, and when he must fight in close encounter, having shifted his spears into his left hand, he draws it. There were few of the Gauls now left; and these, seeing themselves overpowered by the light infantry, and the battalions of the legions advancing, fled in confusion to the camp, now full of tumult and dismay, as the women, children, and others unfit to bear arms, were all crowded together there. The hills, thus abandoned by the enemy, were seized by the victorious Romans. 22. At this juncture, Lucius Manlius and Caius Helvius, having marched up as high as the sloping hills allowed them to do, after they came to insuperable steeps, turned towards that side of the mountain which alone had a practicable ascent; and began, as if by concert, to follow the consul’s party at a moderate distance; being driven by necessity to adopt the plan, now, which would have been the best at the beginning. For in such disadvantageous ground reserves have often been of the utmost use; for instance, should the first line happen to be repulsed, the second may both cover their retreat, and, being fresh, succeed to their place in the fight. The consul, as soon as the vanguard of the legions reached the hills taken by the light infantry, ordered the troops to halt and take breath; at the same time he showed them the bodies of the Gauls spread about the hills, asking them, “Since the light troops had fought such a battle, what might be expected from the legions, from a regular army, and from the spirit of the bravest soldiers? They ought certainly to take the camp into which the enemy had been driven in confusion by the light infantry.” He then orders the light infantry to go forward, who, while the army halted, had not spent their time in idleness, but in gathering weapons about the hills, that there might be a sufficient supply of missiles. They now approached the camp. The Gauls, lest their fortifications might not give them sufficient protection, had posted themselves, in arms, on the outside of the rampart. Then being overwhelmed with weapons of every description, since in proportion as they were more numerous and crowded together, the less likely were the weapons to fall between them without effect, they were driven in an instant within their trenches, leaving only strong guards at the entrances of the gates. Against the crowd that fled into the camp a vast quantity of missile weapons was discharged, and the shouts, intermixed with lamentations of the women and children, showed that great numbers were wounded. The first line of the legions hurled