had horses
brought to him from Cyrenaica, and armour from Brutium, and began the
war again.

Never had his genius been so impetuous and fertile. For five moons he
dragged his enemies after him. He had an end to which he wished to guide
them.

The Barbarians had at first tried to encompass him with small
detachments, but he always escaped them. They ceased to separate then.
Their army amounted to about forty thousand men, and several times they
enjoyed the sight of seeing the Carthaginians fall back.

The horsemen of Narr' Havas were what they found most tormenting. Often,
at times of the greatest weariness, when they were advancing over the
plains, and dozing beneath the weight of their arms, a great line of
dust would suddenly rise on the horizon; there would be a galloping up
to them, and a rain of darts would pour from the bosom of a cloud filled
with flaming eyes. The Numidians in their white cloaks would utter
loud shouts, raise their arms, press their rearing stallions with their
knees, and, wheeling them round abruptly, would then disappear. They had
always supplies of javelins and dromedaries some distance off, and they
would return more terrible than before, howl like wolves, and take to
flight like vultures. The Barbarians posted at the extremities of the
files fell one by one; and this would continue until evening, when an
attempt would be made to enter the mountains.

Although they were perilous for elephants, Hamilcar made his way in
among them. He followed the long chain which extends from the promontory
of Hermaeum to the top of Zagouan. This, they believed, was a device for
hiding the insufficiency of his troops. But the continual uncertainty in
which he kept them exasperated them at last more than any defeat. They
did not lose heart, and marched after him.

At last one evening they surprised a body of velites amid some big
rocks at the entrance of a pass between the Silver Mountain and the Lead
Mountain; the entire army was certainly in front of them, for a noise
of footsteps and clarions could be heard; the Carthaginians immediately
fled through the gorge. It descended into a plain, and was shaped like
an iron hatchet with a surrounding of lofty cliffs. The Barbarians
dashed into it in order to overtake the velites; quite at the bottom
other Carthaginians were running tumultuously amid galloping oxen. A man
in a red cloak was to be seen; it was the Suffet; they shouted this to
one another; and t