r, and begged him to lead them on and wait no longer. Ordering
the cavalry to ride round the line of chariots and attack the infantry
in flank, he closed up the foremost ranks, and with the trumpet sounding
the charge, attacked the Carthaginians.

XXVIII. They manfully encountered his first assault, and being armed
with iron cuirasses and brass helmets, and protected with large shields,
they were able to withstand the thrust of the Greek spears. But when the
struggle came to be decided with swords, where skill as well as strength
was employed, there suddenly broke upon them from the mountains a
terrible storm of thunder with vivid flashes of lightning. The mist,
which had hitherto hung about the mountain peaks, now rolled down on to
the field of battle, with violent gusts, hail, and rain. The Greeks
received it on their backs, while the rain beat into the faces of the
barbarians, and the lightning dazzled their eyes, as the storm swept
violently along with frequent flashes from the clouds. These were great
disadvantages, especially to inexperienced men, as the thunder and the
pattering of the rain and hail on their armour prevented their hearing
the commands of their officers. The Carthaginians, not being lightly
equipped, but, as has been narrated, in complete armour, slipped on the
muddy ground and were encumbered by the wet folds of their dress, which
rendered them less active in the fight, and easily overcome by the
Greeks, since when they fell in the slippery mud they could not rise
again with their shields. The river Krimesus, which had been held up by
the multitudes that were crossing it, was now swollen to a torrent by
the rain, and the plain through which it runs, lying as it does under
many steep glens and ravines, was now covered with streams not running
in the ordinary channels, in which the Carthaginians stumbled and were
hard bested.

At last, from the violence of the storm, and the Greeks having cut to
pieces their front rank, a chosen body of four hundred men, the great
mass turned and fled. Many were overtaken and slain on the plain, and
many more perished in the river, while the light-armed troops prevented
most of them from gaining the shelter of the mountains. It was said that
among the myriads of slain there were three thousand citizens of
Carthage--a great loss and grief to that city, for they belonged to the
noblest and richest classes; nor do we ever hear of so many native
Carthaginians having p