Textus Originalis

BOOK I. 74. 10-15

Traduzione

English — scholarly

W. R. Paton

attacks on the enemy. And now, when they saw the general gone into the city and the mass of the army living at their ease owing to their success and slipping out of the camp, they formed themselves into a body and attacked the camp, killing a number of the Carthaginians and forcing the rest to ignominious flight into the city under the protection of the walls and gates. They captured all the baggage and all the siege material of Hanno, who had brought it out of the city in addition to his other supplies and thus put it into the hands of the enemy. But this was not the only instance of his indolence; for a few days later, when the enemy were encamped opposite to him at a place called Gorza, although he twice had opportunities of defeating them in a pitched battle and twice by surprising them, they having encamped very near him, he is described as having let all these chances slip for no apparent reason. 75. The Carthaginians, therefore, seeing that he was mismanaging matters, appointed Hamilcar Barcas to the command and dispatched him to the war, giving him seventy elephants, all the additional mercenaries they had been able to collect and the deserters from the enemy, as well as the civic cavalry and infantry, the whole force amounting to about ten thousand men. Hamilcar, at his very first striking a blow, terrorized the enemy and broke their spirit by the unexpectedness of the attack; and he next raised the siege of Utica, showing himself to be worthy of his past achievements and answering the expectations of the populace. His conduct of the operation was as