im. The
ambassadors did not leave the place until they saw the troops embarked
on board the ships; then reporting this at home as a matter of
certainty, they spread, not only among their own people, but likewise
among the enemy, a confident assurance of the approach of Roman
succours.

13. The consul, when a specious appearance had been sufficiently
exhibited, ordered the soldiers to be recalled from the ships; and, as
the season of the year now approached when it would be proper to enter
on action, he pitched a winter camp at the distance of three miles
from Emporiae. From this post he frequently led out his troops to
ravage the enemy's country; sometimes to one quarter, sometimes to
another, as opportunity offered, leaving only a small guard in the
camp. They generally began their march in the night, that they might
proceed as far as possible from the camp, and surprise the enemy
unawares; and this practice disciplined the new-raised soldiers, and
great numbers of the enemy were cut off; so that they no longer dared
to venture beyond the walls of their forts. When he had made himself
thoroughly acquainted with the temper of the enemy, and of his own
men, he ordered the tribunes and the praefects, with all the horsemen
and centurions, to be called together, and addressed them thus: "The
time is arrived, which you have often wished for, when you might have
an opportunity of displaying your valour. Hitherto you have waged war
rather as marauders than as regular troops; you shall now meet your
enemies hand to hand, in regular fight. Henceforward you will have
it in your power, instead of pillaging country places, to exhaust the
treasures of cities. Our fathers, at a time when the Carthaginians
had in Spain both commanders and armies, and had themselves neither
commander nor soldiers there, nevertheless insisted on its being an
article of treaty, that the river Iberus should be the boundary of
their empire. Now, when two praetors of the Romans, when a consul, and
three armies are employed in Spain, and, for near ten years past, no
Carthaginian has been in either of its provinces, yet we have lost
that empire on the hither side of the Iberus. This it is your duty to
recover by your valour and arms; and to compel this nation, which is
in a state rather of giddy insurrection than of steady warfare, to
receive again the yoke which it has shaken off." After thus generally
exhorting them, he gave notice, that he intended to mar