rdering the corps commanded by his brother Mago to enter the bed of the
Trebiola, and to conceal themselves there until they received his orders
to attack. The position Mago occupied would bring him on the left rear
of an army which had crossed the Trebia, and was advancing to attack
the position taken up by Hannibal. Having thus prepared for the battle,
Hannibal proceeded to provoke it.

At daybreak on the twenty-sixth he despatched a strong body of horsemen
across the river. Crossing the Trebia partly by ford and partly by
swimming, the Carthaginian horse rode up to the palisade surrounding
the Roman camp, where, with insulting shouts and the hurling of their
javelins, they aroused the Roman soldiers from their slumber. This
insult had the desired effect, Sempronius rushed from his tent, furious
at what he deemed the insolence of the Carthaginians, and called his
troops to arms. With their accustomed discipline the Romans fell into
their ranks. The light cavalry first issued from the palisade, the
infantry followed, the heavy cavalry brought up the rear. The insulting
Numidians had already retired, but Sempronius was now determined to
bring on the battle. He marched down the river and crossed at a ford.

The water was intensely cold, the river was in flood, the ford waist
deep as the soldiers marched across it. Having gained the opposite bank,
the Roman general formed his army in order of battle. His infantry,
about forty-five thousand strong, was formed in three parallel lines;
the cavalry, five thousand strong, was on the flanks. The infantry
consisted of sixteen thousand Roman legionary or heavy infantry, and
six thousand light infantry. The Italian tribes, allied to Rome, had
supplied twenty thousand infantry; the remaining three thousand were
native allies. The infantry occupied a front of two and a half miles in
length; the cavalry extended a mile and a quarter on each flank. Thus
the Roman front of battle was five miles in extent.

Hannibal's force was inferior in strength; his infantry of the line were
twenty thousand strong. He had eight thousand light infantry and ten
thousand cavalry. The Carthaginian formation was much deeper than the
Roman, and Hannibal's line of battle was less than two miles long. In
front of it were the elephants, thirty-six in number, divided in pairs,
and placed in intervals of a hundred yards between each pair.

While the Romans, exposed to a bitterly cold wind, chilled to the bon