On the following night a slaughter was made in the Roman camp by the auxiliary
Gauls, which appeared greater from the tumult than it proved in reality. Two
thousand infantry and two hundred horse, having killed the guards at the gates,
desert to Hannibal; whom the Carthaginians having addressed kindly, and excited
by the hope of great rewards, sent each to several states to gain over the minds
of their countrymen. Scipio, thinking that that slaughter was a signal for the
revolt of all the Gauls, and that, contaminated with the guilt of that affair,
they would rush to arms as if a frenzy had been sent among them, though he was
still suffering severely from his wound, yet setting out for the river Trebia
at the fourth watch of the following night with his army in silence, he removes
his camp to higher ground and hills more embarrassing to the cavalry. He escaped
observation less than at the Ticinus: and Hannibal, having despatched first
the Numidians and then all the cavalry, would have thrown the rear at least
into great confusion, had not the Numidians, through anxiety for booty, turned
aside into the deserted Roman camp. There whilst, closely examining every part
of the camp, they waste time, with no sufficient reward for the delay, the enemy
escaped out of their hands; and when they saw the Romans already across the
Trebia, and measuring out their camp, they kill a few of the loiterers intercepted
on that side of the river. Scipio being unable to endure any longer the irritation
of his wound, caused by the roughness of the road, and thinking that he ought
to wait for his colleague, (for he had now heard that he was recalled from Sicily,)
fortified a space of chosen ground, which, adjoining the river, seemed safest
for a stationary camp. When Hannibal had encamped not far from thence, being
as much elated with the victory of his cavalry, as anxious on account of the
scarcity which every day assailed him more severely, marching as he did through
the territory of the enemy, and supplies being no where provided, he sends to
the village of Clastidium, where the Romans had collected a great stock of corn.
There, whilst they were preparing for an assault, a hope of the town being betrayed
to them was held out: Dasius, a Brundusian, the governor of the garrison, having
been corrupted for four hundred pieces of gold, (no great bribe truly,) Clastidium
is surrendered to Hannibal. It served as a granary for the Carthaginians while
they lay at the Trebia. No cruelty was used towards the prisoners of the surrendered
garrison, in order that a character for clemency might be acquired at the commencement
of his proceedings.
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