vity." There is a woody
eminence branching down from the mountains into the upper end of the
plain nearer to the side of Passignano, and on this stands a white
village called Torre. Polybius seems to allude to this eminence as the
one on which Hannibal encamped, and drew out his heavy-armed Africans
and Spaniards in a conspicuous position.[623] From this spot he
despatched his Balearic and light-armed troops round through the
Gualandra heights to the right, so as to arrive unseen and form an
ambush amongst the broken acclivities which the road now passes, and to
be ready to act upon the left flank and above the enemy, whilst the
horse shut up the pass behind. Flaminius came to the lake near Borghetto
at sunset; and, without sending any spies before him, marched through
the pass the next morning before the day had quite broken, so that he
perceived nothing of the horse and light troops above and about him, and
saw only the heavy-armed Carthaginians in front on the hill of Torre.
The consul began to draw out his army in the flat, and in the mean time
the horse in ambush occupied the pass behind him at Borghetto. Thus the
Romans were completely enclosed, having the lake on the right, the main
army on the hill of Torre in front, the Gualandra hills filled with the
light-armed on their left flank, and being prevented from receding by
the cavalry, who, the further they advanced, stopped up all the outlets
in the rear. A fog rising from the lake now spread itself over the army
of the consul, but the high lands were in the sunshine, and all the
different corps in ambush looked towards the hill of Torre for the order
of attack. Hannibal gave the signal, and moved down from his post on the
height. At the same moment all his troops on the eminences behind and in
the flank of Flaminius rushed forwards as it were with one accord into
the plain. The Romans, who were forming their array in the mist,
suddenly heard the shouts of the enemy amongst them on every side, and
before they could fall into their ranks, or draw their swords, or see by
whom they were attacked, felt at once that they were surrounded and
lost. There are two little rivulets which run from the Gualandra into
the lake. The traveller crosses the first of these at about a mile after
he comes into the plain, and this divides the Tuscan from the Papal
territories. The second, about a quarter of a mile further on, is called
"the bloody rivulet;" and the peasants point out an