s it was light, they raised their rampart by stones collected
from the neighbouring valleys around them on all sides, with the
determination to defend themselves by works, since there was but
little protection in their arms. But the desertion of their allies
made it appear safer to fly than stay. Attanes, prince of the
Turdetani, began this revolt; he deserted at the head of a numerous
band of his countrymen. Then two fortified towns, together with their
garrisons, were delivered up by their praefects to the Romans. And,
lest the evil should spread more widely, now that the disposition
to revolt from the Carthaginians had evinced itself in one instance,
Hasdrubal decamped during the silence of the ensuing night.

16. The troops in the outposts having brought word, as soon as it was
light, that the enemy had departed, Scipio, despatching his cavalry
in advance, ordered the army to move forward; and so rapidly were they
led, that had they directly followed the track of the fugitives, they
would certainly have overtaken them; but they trusted to the report of
their guides, that there was a shorter cut to the river Baetis, where
they might attack them while crossing it. Hasdrubal, being precluded
from passing the river, turned his course to the ocean; and they now
advanced in disorder and in the manner of fugitives, so that the Roman
legions were left considerably behind. The cavalry and light-armed,
attacking sometimes their rear, and sometimes their flank, harassed
and delayed them; and as they were obliged to halt, in consequence of
these frequent annoyances, and engaged sometimes the cavalry, at other
times the skirmishers and the auxiliary infantry, the legions came up.
After this it was no longer a fight, but a butchering as of cattle,
till the general himself, who was the first to run away, made his
escape to the neighbouring hills with about six thousand men half
armed; the rest were slain or made prisoners. The Carthaginians
hastily fortified an irregular camp on the highest eminence, and from
thence they defended themselves without difficulty, the enemy failing
in his attempt to get at them, from the difficulty of the ascent. But
a siege in a place bare and affording no means of subsistence, was
hardly to be supported, even for a few days; the troops therefore
deserted to the enemy. At last the general himself, having procured
some ships, for the sea was not at a great distance, left his army by
night and effected