ight, so as both to cut off his
stragglers, who had gone out to a distance from the camp in search of
wood and forage, and riding up to the very gates of his camp, and
charging into the midst of his advanced guards, to fill every quarter
with the utmost confusion. By night also alarm was frequently
occasioned in the gates and rampart by his sudden attacks. Nor was
there any time or place at which the Romans were exempt from fear and
anxiety; and driven within their rampart, and deprived of every
necessary, they suffered in a manner a regular siege; and it appeared
that it would have been still straiter, if Indibilis, who it was
reported was approaching with seven thousand five hundred Suessetani,
should form a junction with the Carthaginians. Scipio, though a wary
and provident general, overpowered by difficulties, adopted the rash
measure of going to meet Indibilis by night, with the intention of
fighting him wherever he should meet him. Leaving, therefore, a small
force in his camp, under the command of Titus Fonteius,
lieutenant-general, he set out at midnight, and meeting with the
enemy, came to battle with him. The troops fought in the order of
march rather than of battle. The Romans, however, had the advantage,
though in an irregular fight; but the Numidian cavalry, whose
observation the general supposed that he had escaped, suddenly
spreading themselves round his flanks, occasioned great terror. After
a new contest had been entered into with the Numidians, a third enemy
came up in addition to the rest, the Carthaginian generals having come
up with their rear when they were now engaged in fighting. Thus the
Romans were surrounded on every side by enemies; nor could they make
up their minds which they should attack first, or in what part,
forming themselves into a close body, they should force their way
through. The general, while fighting and encouraging his men, exposing
himself wherever the strife was the hottest, was run through the right
side with a lance; and when the party of the enemy, which, formed into
a wedge, had charged the troops collected round the general, perceived
Scipio falling lifeless from his horse, elated with joy, they ran
shouting through the whole line with the news that the Roman general
had fallen. These words spreading in every direction, caused the enemy
to be considered as victors, and the Romans as vanquished. On the loss
of the general the troops immediately began to fly from the fie