o that of Scipio and proposed that Hannibal
should be attacked instantly.

Scipio, who was still suffering from the wound he had received in the
cavalry engagement, urged that the Roman army should remain where they
were, if necessary, through the coming winter. He pointed out that
Hannibal's Gaulish allies would lose heart at seeing him inactive, and
would cease to furnish him with supplies, and that he would be obliged
either to attack them at a disadvantage or to retire from the position
he occupied. But Sempronius was an ambitious man, the time for the
consular election was approaching, and he was unwilling to leave for his
successor the glory of crushing Hannibal.

The fact, too, that Scipio was wounded and unable to take part in the
battle added to his desire to force it on, since the whole glory of the
victory would be his. He therefore told his colleague that although he
saw the force of his arguments, public opinion in Rome was already so
excited at Hannibal having been allowed, without a battle, to wrest so
wide a territory from Rome, that it was absolutely necessary that an
action should be fought. The two armies were now united on the Trebia,
and opinion was among the officers and troops, as between the consuls,
widely divided as to the best course to be pursued.

Hannibal's spies among the natives kept him acquainted with what was
going on in the Roman camp, and he determined to provoke the Romans to
battle. He therefore despatched two thousand infantry and a thousand
cavalry to ravage the lands of some Gaulish allies of the Romans.
Sempronius sent off the greater part of his cavalry, with a thousand
light infantry, to drive back the Carthaginians.

In the fight which ensued the Romans were worsted. Still more furious,
Sempronius marched to support them with his army. Hannibal called in
his troops and drew them off before Sempronius would arrive. The
disappointment and rage of the Roman general were great, and Hannibal
felt that he could now bring on a battle when he would. He determined
to fight in the plain close to his own position. This was flat and bare,
and was traversed by the Trebiola. This stream ran between steep banks
below the level of the plain; its banks were covered with thick bushes
and reeds, and the narrow gap across the plain was scarce noticeable.

On the evening of the twenty-fifth of December Hannibal moved his army
out from the camp and formed up on the plain facing the Trebia,
o