Both the consuls and all the strength of Rome being now opposed to Hannibal,
made it sufficiently obvious that the Roman empire could either be defended
by those forces, or that there was no other hope left. Yet the one consul being
dispirited by the battle of the cavalry and his own wound, wished operations
to be deferred: the other having his spirits unsubdued, and being therefore
the more impetuous, admitted no delay. The tract of country between the Trebia
and the Po was then inhabited by the Gauls, who, in this contest of two very
powerful states, by a doubtful neutrality, were evidently looking forward to
the favour of the conqueror. The Romans submitted to this conduct of the Gauls
with tolerable satisfaction, provided they did not take any active part at all;
but the Carthaginian bore it with great discontent, giving out that he had come
invited by the Gauls to set them at liberty. On account of that resentment,
and in order that he might at the same time maintain his troops from the plunder,
he ordered two thousand foot and a thousand horse, chiefly Numidians, with some
Gauls intermixed, to lay waste all the country straightforward as far as the
banks of the Po. The Gauls, being in want of assistance, though they had up
to this time kept their inclinations doubtful, are forced by the authors of
the injury to turn to some who would be their supporters; and having sent ambassadors
to the consul, they implore the aid of the Romans in behalf of a country which
was suffering for the too great fidelity of its inhabitants to the Romans. Neither
the cause nor the time of pleading it was satisfactory to Cornelius; and the
nation was suspected by him, both on account of many treacherous actions, and
though others might have been forgotten through length of time, on account of
the recent perfidy of the Boii. Sempronius, on the contrary, thought that it
would be the strongest tie upon the fidelity of the allies, if those were defended
who first required support. Then, while his colleague hesitated, he sends his
own cavalry, with about a thousand spearmen on foot in their company, to protect
the Gallic territory beyond the Trebia. These, when they had unexpectedly attacked
the enemy while scattered and disordered, and for the most part encumbered with
booty, caused great terror, slaughter, and flight, even as far as the camp and
outposts of the enemy; whence being repulsed by the numbers that poured out,
they again renewed the fight with the assistance of their own party. Then pursuing
and retreating in doubtful battle, though they left it at last equal, yet the
fame of the victory was more with the Romans than the enemy.
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