exploits. Besides, knowing that he should have to deal only with
new-levied and unexperienced troops, he was desirous of taking advantage
of the ardour of the Gauls, who were extremely desirous of fighting; and
of Scipio's absence, who, by reason of his wound, could not be present in
the battle. Mago was therefore ordered to lie in ambush with two thousand
men, consisting of horse and foot, on the steep banks of a small rivulet
which ran between the two camps, and to conceal himself among the bushes
that were very thick there. An ambuscade is often safer in a smooth open
country, but full of thickets, as this was, than in woods, because such a
spot is less apt to be suspected. He afterwards caused a detachment of
Numidian cavalry to cross the Trebia with orders to advance at break of
day as far as the very barriers of the enemy's camp, in order to provoke
them to fight; and then to retreat and repass the river, in order to draw
the Romans after them. What he had foreseen, came directly to pass. The
fiery Sempronius immediately detached his whole cavalry against the
Numidians, and then six thousand light-armed troops, who were soon
followed by all the rest of the army. The Numidians fled designedly; upon
which the Romans pursued them with great eagerness, and crossed the Trebia
without resistance, but not without great difficulty, being forced to wade
up to their very arm-pits through the rivulet, which was swoln with the
torrents that had fallen in the night from the neighbouring mountains. It
was then about the winter-solstice, that is, in December. It happened to
snow that day, and the cold was excessively piercing. The Romans had left
their camp fasting, and without having taken the least precaution; whereas
the Carthaginians had, by Hannibal's order, eaten and drunk plentifully in
their tents; had got their horses in readiness, rubbed themselves with
oil, and put on their armour by the fire-side.

They were thus prepared when the fight began. The Romans defended
themselves valiantly for a considerable time, though they were half spent
with hunger, fatigue, and cold; but their cavalry was at last broken and
put to flight by that of the Carthaginians, which much exceeded theirs in
numbers and strength. The infantry also were soon in great disorder. The
soldiers in ambuscade sallying out at a proper time, rushed on a sudden
upon their rear, and completed the overthrow. A body of above ten thousand
men resolutely fought t