at the war might have been
terminated had not the pursuit been stopped. Hannibal was not much
grieved at that loss; nay, rather he felt convinced, that the temerity
of the more presumptuous consul, and of the soldiers, particularly the
fresh ones, would be lured by the bait; and besides, all the
circumstances of the enemy were as well known to him as his own: that
dissimilar and discordant men were in command; that nearly two-thirds
of the army consisted of raw recruits. Accordingly, concluding that he
now had both a time and place adapted for an ambuscade, on the
following night he led his troops away with nothing but their arms,
leaving the camp filled with all their effects, both public and
private. His infantry drawn up he conceals on the left, on the
opposite side of the adjoining hills; his cavalry on the right; his
baggage in an intermediate line he leads over the mountains through a
valley, in order that he might surprise the enemy when busy in
plundering the camp, deserted, as they would imagine, by its owners,
and when encumbered with booty. Numerous fires were left in the camp,
to produce a belief that his intention was to keep the consuls in
their places by the appearance of a camp, until he could himself
escape to a greater distance, in the same manner as he had deceived
Fabius the year before.

42. When it was day, the outpost withdrawn first occasioned surprise,
then, on a nearer approach, the unusual stillness. At length, the
desertion being manifest, there is a general rush to the pavilions of
the consuls, of those who announced the flight of the enemy so
precipitate, that they left their camp, with their tents standing;
and, that their flight might be the more secret, that numerous fires
were left. Then a clamour arose that they should order the standards
to be advanced, and lead them in pursuit of the enemy, and to the
immediate plunder of the camp. The other consul too was as one of the
common soldiers. Paulus again and again urged, that they should see
their way before them, and use every precaution. Lastly, when he could
no longer withstand the sedition and the leader of the sedition, he
sends Marius Statilius, a prefect, with a Lucanian troop, to
reconnoitre, who, when he had ridden up to the gates, ordered the rest
to stay without the works, and entered the camp himself, attended by
two horsemen. Having carefully examined every thing, he brings back
word that it was manifestly a snare: that fire