d down and slain on
the first charge: afterwards the troops running up to those who were
engaged, and their forces being thus placed on an equality? the battle
began to be fierce; nor would there have been many actions equally
memorable, had not the combatants been separated by a shower of rain
attended with a tremendous storm. On that day, after having engaged in
a slight contest, and with inflamed minds, they retired, the Romans to
the city, the Carthaginians to their camp. Of the Carthaginians,
however, there fell from the shock of the first sally not more than
thirty, of the Romans not one. The rain continued without intermission
through the whole night, until the third hour of the following day,
and therefore, though both parties were eager for the contest, they
nevertheless kept themselves within their works for that day. On the
third day Hannibal sent a portion of his troops into the lands of the
Nolans to plunder. Marcellus perceiving this, immediately led out his
troops and formed for battle, nor did Hannibal decline fighting. The
interval between the city and the camp was about a mile. In that
space, and all the country round Nola consists of level ground, the
armies met. The shout which was raised on both sides, called back to
the battle, which had now commenced, the nearest of those cohorts
which had gone out into the fields to plunder. The Nolans too joined
the Roman line. Marcellus having highly commended them, desired them
to station themselves in reserve, and to carry the wounded out of the
field but not take part in the battle, unless they should receive a
signal from him.

45. It was a doubtful battle; the generals exerting themselves to the
utmost in exhorting, and the soldiers in fighting Marcellus urged his
troops to press vigorously on men who had been vanquished but three
days before, who had been put to flight at Cumae only a few days ago,
and who had been driven from Nola the preceding year by himself, as
general, though with different troops. He said, "that all the forces
of the enemy were not in the field; that they were rambling about the
country in plundering parties, and that even those who were engaged,
were enfeebled with Campanian luxury, and worn out with drunkenness,
lust, and every kind of debauchery, which they had been indulging in
through the whole winter. That the energy and vigour had left them,
that the strength of mind and body had vanished, by which the Pyrenees
and the tops