neral murmur in the Roman camp, that this eminence ought
to be occupied and secured by a fort, lest if it should be seized
by Hannibal they should have the enemy, as it were, immediately over
their heads. Marcellus was moved by this consideration, and observed
to his colleague, "Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen and
reconnoitre? The matter being examined with our own eyes, will make
our measures more certain." Crispinus consenting, they set out with
two hundred and twenty horsemen, of which forty were Fregellans, the
rest Tuscans. Marcus Marcellus, the consul's son, and Aulus Manlius,
military tribunes, together with two prefects of the allies, Lucius
Arennius and Manius Aulius, accompanied them. Some historians have
recorded, that Marcellus had offered sacrifices on that day, and that
in the first victim slain, the liver was found without its head; in
the second, that all the usual parts were present, and that there was
also an excrescence in the head. That the aruspex was not, indeed,
pleased that the entrails should first have appeared mutilated and
foul, and then too exuberant.

27. But the consul Marcellus was influenced by so ardent a desire
of engaging with Hannibal, that he never thought their camps close
enough. At that time also, as he quitted the rampart, he gave orders
that the troops should be ready when occasion required, in order
that if the hill, which they were going to examine, were thought
convenient, they might collect their baggage and follow them. Before
the camp there was a small plain; the road thence to the hill was open
and exposed to view on all sides. A watchman who was stationed, not
under the expectation of so important an event, but in order that they
might be able to intercept any stragglers who had gone too far from
the camp in search of wood or forage, gave a signal to the Numidians
to rise simultaneously one and all from their concealment. Those who
were to rise from the very summit of the hill, and meet the enemy,
did not show themselves until those whose business it was to intercept
their passage in the rear, had gone round. Then they all sprang up
from every side, and, raising a shout, commenced an attack. Although
the consuls were in such a position in the valley that they could
neither make good their way up the hill, which was occupied by the
enemy, nor retreat as they were intercepted in the rear, yet the
contest might have been continued longer had not a retreat, commenc