ommanded at Capua, with an equal
number of infantry, and eight hundred horse of the Latin confederacy.
This army Nero embarked at Puteoli, and conveyed over into Spain.
Having arrived at Tarraco with his ships, landed his troops, hauled
his ships ashore, and armed his mariners to augment his numbers, he
proceeded to the river Iberus, and received the army from Titus
Fonteius and Lucius Marcius. He then marched towards the enemy.
Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, was encamped at the black stones in
Ausetania, a place situated between the towns Illiturgi and Mentissa.
The entrance of this defile Nero seized, and Hasdrubal, to prevent his
being shut up in it, sent a herald to engage that, if he were allowed
to depart thence, he would convey the whole of his army out of Spain.
The Roman general having received this proposition gladly, Hasdrubal
requested the next day for a conference, when the Romans might draw up
conditions relative to the surrender of the citadels of the towns, and
the appointment of a day on which the garrisons might be withdrawn,
and the Carthaginians might remove every thing belonging to them
without imposition. Having obtained his point in this respect,
Hasdrubal gave orders that as soon as it was dark, and during the
whole of the night afterwards, the heaviest part of his force should
get out of the defile by whatever way they could. The strictest care
was taken that many should not go out that night, that the very
fewness of their numbers might both be more adapted to elude the
notice of the enemy from their silence, and to an escape through
confined and rugged paths. Next day they met for the conference; but
that day having been spent, on purpose, in speaking and writing about
a variety of subjects, which were not to this point, the conference
was put off to the next day. The addition of the following night gave
him time to send still more out; nor was the business concluded the
next day. Thus several days were spent in openly discussing
conditions, and as many nights in privately sending the Carthaginian
troops out of their camp; and after the greater part of the army had
been sent out, he did not even keep to those terms which he had
himself proposed; and his sincerity decreasing with his fears, they
became less and less agreed. By this time nearly all the infantry had
cleared the defile, when at daybreak a dense mist enveloped the whole
defile and the neighbouring plains; which Hasdrubal perceiving, se