and wrath. Despite himself his heart rose with
a leap of triumph. A moment later he caught the little, beady eyes of
the consul looking through him, as it were, while the thin mouth
beneath writhed itself into a sneer.

"You hope? That is well," said Paullus. "Young men fight better and
die better when they hope; but I will show you how a Roman soldier can
give up his life for naught. I would wish," he added with lowered
voice and speaking as if in self-communion, "that more of our horsemen
had adopted the Greek arms. Reed spears and ox-hide bucklers will not
stand long against heavy cavalry. A temple to Mars the avenger, if I
had but a front of Illyrian horse! See now! There are the scum!"

His voice rose eagerly at the last words, and Sergius turned from the
dark face now flashing with a sudden animation, and looked southward
over the plain. For a moment the dust was too thick; then it seemed to
clear away, and the Carthaginian army burst into view.

Undulating like the open sea and rolling steadily on like the long,
slow sweep of billows upon a level shore, the glory of barbaric war
drew near. On their left, resting upon the river's bank, rode the
Spanish and Gallic cavalry, strengthened here and there by a horse and
man in full armour like those of the Clinabarians; and the face of
Paullus clouded again when he noted what opponents he must meet: men,
horses, arms--all heavier than his own with the exception of a few
turmae newly equipped in the Greek fashion. Beyond them, thrown back
in echelon, marched Africans in little squares of sixteen front. These
had substituted for their own equipment the Roman spoils of Trasimenus
and Trebia. Then, and again somewhat in advance, came alternate
companies of Gauls and Spaniards spread out in long thin array; the
former stripped to the navel, their hair tied up in a tufted knot, and
bearing their great swords upon their shoulders; the Spaniards
glittering in their purple-bordered tunics of snowy linen. The waving
pikes of phalanges told of more Africans who seemed to lie in echelon
beyond, while far away, toward the low hills overgrown with copsewood
that formed the eastern horizon, clouds of swift-moving dust, amid
which shadows darted hither and thither at seeming random, marked the
presence of the wild riders of Numidia who were to face the horsemen of
Italy and of the Latin name. In front of all, the plain was dotted
with naked men advancing at regular in