sion
of the battle rested mainly on the legionaries, riding up to the
center of the line he led the charge himself, and personally grappled
with the enemy, at the same time cheering on and exhorting his
soldiers to the charge. Hannibal, on the other side, did the same, for
he too had taken his place on the center from the commencement. The
Numidian horse on the Carthaginian right were meanwhile charging the
cavalry on the Roman left; and tho, from the peculiar nature of their
mode of fighting, they neither inflicted nor received much harm, they
yet rendered the enemy's horse useless by keeping them occupied, and
charging them first on one side and then on another. But when
Hasdrubal, after all but annihilating the cavalry by the river, came
from the left to the support of the Numidians, the Roman allied
cavalry, seeing his charge approaching, broke and fled.

At that point Hasdrubal appears to have acted with great skill and
discretion. Seeing the Numidians to be strong in numbers, and more
effective and formidable to troops that had once been forced from
their ground, he left the pursuit to them; while he himself hastened
to the part of the field where the infantry were engaged, and brought
his men up to support the Libyans. Then, by charging the Roman legions
on the rear, and harassing them by hurling squadron after squadron
upon them at many points at once, he raised the spirits of the
Libyans, and dismayed and deprest those of the Romans. It was at this
point that Lucius AEmilius fell, in the thick of the fight, covered
with wounds: a man who did his duty to his country at the last hour of
his life, as he had throughout its previous years, if any man ever
did. As long as the Romans could keep an unbroken front, to turn first
in one direction and then in another to meet the assaults of the
enemy, they held out; but the outer files of the circle continually
falling, and the circle becoming more and more contracted, they at
last were all killed on the field; and among them Marcus Atilius and
Gnaeus Servilius, the Consuls of the previous year, who had shown
themselves brave men and worthy of Rome in the battle. While this
struggle and carnage were going on, the Numidian horse were pursuing
the fugitives, most of whom they cut down or hurled from their horses;
but some few escaped into Venusia, among whom was Gaius Terentius, the
Consul, who thus sought a flight, as disgraceful to himself, as his
conduct in office had b