tween these light-armed
troops was indecisive. But as soon as the Iberian and Celtic cavalry
got at the Romans, the battle began in earnest, and in the true
barbaric fashion: for there was none of the usual formal advance and
retreat; but when they once got to close quarters, they grappled man
to man, and, dismounting from their horses, fought on foot. But when
the Carthaginians had got the upper hand in this encounter and killed
most of their opponents on the ground--because the Romans all
maintained the fight with spirit and determination--and began chasing
the remainder along the river, slaying as they went and giving no
quarter; then the legionaries took the place of the light-armed and
closed with the enemy. For a short time the Iberian and Celtic lines
stood their ground and fought gallantly; but, presently overpowered by
the weight of the heavy-armed lines, they gave way and retired to the
rear, thus breaking up the crescent. The Roman maniples followed with
spirit, and easily cut their way through the enemy's line; since the
Celts had been drawn up in a thin line, while the Romans had closed up
from the wings toward the center and the point of danger. For the two
wings did not come into action at the same time as the center: but the
center was first engaged because the Gauls, having been stationed on
the arc of the crescent, had come into contact with the enemy long
before the wings, the convex of the crescent being toward the enemy.
The Romans, however, going in pursuit of these troops, and hastily
closing in toward the center and the part of the enemy which was
giving ground, advanced so far that the Libyan heavy-armed troops on
either wing got on their flanks. Those on the right, facing to the
left, charged from the right upon the Roman flank; while those who
were on the left wing faced to the right, and, dressing by the left,
charged their right flank, the exigency of the moment suggesting to
them what they ought to do. Thus it came about, as Hannibal had
planned, that the Romans were caught between two hostile lines of
Libyans--thanks to their impetuous pursuit of the Celts. Still they
fought, tho no longer in line, yet singly or in maniples, which faced
about to meet those who charged them on the flanks.

Tho he had been from the first on the right wing, and had taken part
in the cavalry engagement, Lucius AEmilius still survived. Determined
to act up to his own exhortatory speech, and seeing that the deci