s of
their swift barbs, were Numidians, Africans of feminine aspect, covered
with white veils, wearing women's earrings and slippers, perfumed, with
eyes painted black, but who were impetuous in combat and fought in full
career using their lances with great skill. Around the camp fires in the
gardens stalked athletic negroes from Libya, with kinky hair and
glistening teeth, smiling in stupid satisfaction as they wrapped their
naked limbs in garments of rich weave which they had just stolen,
shivering with cold as soon as they drew away from the fire, as if
suffering martyrdom in the cool morning air. These dark, shiny-skinned
men, so seldom seen in Saguntum, excited the curiosity of the citizens
almost as much as the Amazons who audaciously passed on a gallop close
to the walls to obtain a better view of the city. They were young women,
slender, their skins bronzed by exposure. Their hair floated behind
their helmets like a barbaric decoration, and they wore no other
clothing than a broad tunic open on the left side, displaying sinewy
limbs clinging to their horses' ribs. Over the breast some wore
corselets of bronze-scales, also open on the left side to give greater
freedom in fighting, displaying the roundness of their small breasts
made firm and hard by fatiguing exercise. They rode their wild nervous
horses bareback, guiding them with a delicate bridle, and as they
galloped in groups the ferocious animals bit and kicked each other, thus
enlivening the desperate race. The Amazons approached close to the
walls, laughing and hurling insults which the Saguntines did not
understand; they waved their lances and shields; and when a cloud of
arrows and stones was flung after them, they dashed away, with
wind-swept drapery, turning their heads to repeat their mocking
gestures.

The besieged distinguished in the dark crowd of soldiers the cuirasses
of certain horsemen which shone like plates of gold. They were the
Carthaginian captains, some rich men of Carthage who followed Hannibal,
sons of opulent merchants who marched with the army more like shepherds
than like chiefs, covered with metal from head to foot for protection
against blows, and, with the genius of their race, more devoted to
administering the conquests and in sharing the booty than in seeking
glory in combat.

In addition to these people, those on the walls who were familiar with
them pointed out the other troops of the besieging army. Some with skin
the col