then returned for and
carried across. They gave no signs of alarm whatever while they were
driven along as it were on a continuous bridge. The first fear was,
when, the raft being loosed from the rest, they were hurried into the
deep. Then pressing together, as those at the edges drew back from the
water, they produced some disorder, till mere terror, when they saw
water all around, produced quiet. Some, indeed, becoming infuriated,
fell into the river; but, steadied by their own weight, having thrown
off their riders, and seeking step by step the shallows, they escaped
to the shore.

29. Whilst the elephants were conveyed over, Hannibal, in the mean
time, had sent five hundred Numidian horsemen towards the camp of the
Romans, to observe where and how numerous their forces were, and what
they were designing. The three hundred Roman horsemen sent, as was
before said, from the mouth of the Rhone, meet this band of cavalry;
and a more furious engagement than could be expected from the number
of the combatants takes place. For, besides many wounds, the loss on
both sides was also nearly equal: and the flight and dismay of the
Numidians gave victory to the Romans, now exceedingly fatigued. There
fell of the conquerors one hundred and sixty, not all Romans, but
partly Gauls: of the vanquished more than two hundred. This
commencement, and at the same time omen of the war, as it portended to
the Romans a prosperous issue of the whole, so did it also the success
of a doubtful and by no means bloodless contest. When, after the
action had thus occurred, his own men returned to each general, Scipio
could adopt no fixed plan of proceeding, except that he should form
his measures from the plans and undertakings of the enemy: and
Hannibal, uncertain whether he should pursue the march he had
commenced into Italy, or fight with the Roman army which had first
presented itself, the arrival of ambassadors from the Boii, and of a
petty prince called Magalus, diverted from an immediate engagement;
who, declaring that they would be the guides of his journey and the
companions of his dangers, gave it as their opinion, that Italy ought
to be attacked with the entire force of the war, his strength having
been no where previously impaired. The troops indeed feared the enemy,
the remembrance of the former war not being yet obliterated; but much
more did they dread the immense journey and the Alps, a thing
formidable by report, particularly to the