ul; and they ordered such of the troops of
Marcellus's army as had fled from Cannae, to be transported into
Sicily, to serve there as long as the war continued in Italy. Thither,
likewise, were ordered to be sent as unfit to serve with him, the
weakest of the dictator's troops, no time of service being appointed,
but the legal number of campaigns. The two legions in the city were
voted to the other consul who should be elected in the room of
Posthumius; and they resolved that he should be elected as soon as the
auspices would permit. Besides, two legions were immediately to be
recalled from Sicily, out of which the consul, to whom the city
legions fell, might take what number of men he should have occasion
for. The consul Caius Terentius Varro was continued in his command for
one year, without lessening the army he had for the defence of Apulia.

26. During these transactions and preparations in Italy, the war in
Spain was prosecuted with no less vigour; but hitherto more favourably
to the Romans. The two generals had divided their troops, so that
Cneius acted by land, and Publius by sea. Hasdrubal, general of the
Carthaginians, sufficiently trusting to neither branch of his forces,
kept himself at a distance from the enemy, secured by the intervening
space and the strength of his fortifications, until, after much
solicitation, four thousand foot and five hundred horse were sent him
out of Africa as a reinforcement. At length, inspired with fresh
hopes, he moved nearer the enemy; and himself also ordered a fleet to
be equipped and prepared for the protection of the islands and
sea-coasts. In the very onset of renewing the war, he was greatly
embarrassed by the desertion of the captains of his ships, who had
ceased to entertain a sincere attachment towards the general and the
Carthaginian cause, ever since they were severely reprimanded for
abandoning the fleet in a cowardly manner at the Iberus. These
deserters had raised an insurrection among the Tartessians, and at
their instigation some cities had revolted; they had even taken one by
force. The war was now turned from the Romans into that country, which
he entered in a hostile manner, and resolved to attack Galbus, a
distinguished general of the Tartessians, who with a powerful army
kept close within his camp, before the walls of a city which had been
captured but a few days before. Accordingly, he sent his light-armed
troops in advance to provoke the enemy to battle