At dawn of light the next day the camp broke up, and the rest of the army began
to move forward. The mountaineers, on a signal being given, were now assembling
from their forts to their usual station, when they suddenly behold part of the
enemy overhanging them from above, in possession of their former position, and
the others passing along the road. Both these objects, presented at the same
time to the eye and the mind, made them stand motionless for a little while;
but when they afterwards saw the confusion in the pass, and that the marching
body was thrown into disorder by the tumult which itself created, principally
from the horses being terrified, thinking that whatever terror they added would
suffice for the destruction of the enemy, they scramble along the dangerous
rocks, as being accustomed alike to pathless and circuitous ways. Then indeed
the Carthaginians were opposed at once by the enemy and by the difficulties
of the ground; and each striving to escape first from the danger, there was
more fighting among themselves than with their opponents. The horses in particular
created danger in the lines, which, being terrified by the discordant clamours
which the groves and re-echoing valleys augmented, fell into confusion; and
if by chance struck or wounded, they were so dismayed that they occasioned a
great loss both of men and baggage of every description: and as the pass on
both sides was broken and precipitous, this tumult threw many down to an immense
depth, some even of the armed men; but the beasts of burden, with their loads,
were rolled down like the fall of some vast fabric. Though these disasters were
shocking to view, Hannibal however kept his place for a little, and kept his
men together, lest he might augment the tumult and disorder; but afterwards,
when he saw the line broken, and that there was danger that he should bring
over his army, preserved to no purpose if deprived of their baggage, he hastened
down from the higher ground; and though he had routed the enemy by the first
onset alone, he at the same time increased the disorder in his own army: but
that tumult was composed in a moment, after the roads were cleared by the flight
of the mountaineers; and presently the whole army was conducted through, not
only without being disturbed, but almost in silence. He then took a fortified
place, which was the capital of that district, and the little villages that
lay around it, and fed his army for three days with the corn and cattle he had
taken; and during these three days, as the soldiers were neither obstructed
by the mountaineers, who had been daunted by the first engagement, nor yet much
by the ground, he made considerable way.
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