nt
to Nero to put off the conference to the following day, as the
Carthaginians held that day sacred from the transaction of any serious
business. Not even then was the cheat suspected. Hasdrubal having
gained the indulgence he sought for that day also, immediately quitted
his camp with his cavalry and elephants, and without creating any
alarm escaped to a place of safety. About the fourth hour the mist,
being dispelled by the sun, left the atmosphere clear, when the Romans
saw that the camp of the enemy was deserted. Then at length Claudius,
recognising the Carthaginian perfidy, and perceiving that he had been
caught by trickery, immediately began to pursue the enemy as they
moved off, prepared to give battle; but they declined fighting. Some
skirmishes, however, took place between the rear of the Carthaginians
and the advanced guard of the Romans.

18. During the time in which these events occurred, neither did those
states of Spain which had revolted after the defeat that was
sustained, return to the Romans, nor did any others desert them. At
Rome, the attention of the senate and people, after the recovery of
Capua, was not fixed in a greater degree upon Italy than upon Spain.
They resolved that the army there should be augmented and a general
sent. They were not, however, so clear as to the person whom they
should send, as that, where two generals had fallen within the space
of thirty days, he who was to supply the place of them should be
selected with unusual care. Some naming one person, and others
another, they at length came to the resolution that the people should
assemble for the purpose of electing a proconsul for Spain, and the
consuls fixed a day for the election. At first they waited in
expectation that those persons who might think themselves qualified
for so momentous a command would give in their names, but this
expectation being disappointed, their grief was renewed for the
calamity they had suffered, and then regret for the generals they had
lost. The people thus afflicted, and almost at their wits' end, came
down, however, to the Campus Martius on the day of the election,
where, turning towards the magistrates, they looked round at the
countenances of their most eminent men, who were earnestly gazing at
each other, and murmured bitterly, that their affairs were in so
ruinous a state, and the condition of the commonwealth so desperate,
that no one dared undertake the command in Spain. When suddenly