or these,
the Celtiberians and Lusitanians. All supplies, therefore, from every
quarter, were cut off, except such as the ships conveyed by the Po.
There was a magazine near Placentia, both fortified with great care
and secured by a strong garrison. In the hope of taking this fort,
Hannibal having set out with the cavalry and the light-armed horse,
and having attacked it by night, as he rested his main hope of
effecting his enterprise on keeping it concealed, did not escape the
notice of the guards. Such a clamour was immediately raised, that it
was heard even at Placentia. The consul; therefore, came up with the
cavalry about daybreak, having commanded the legions to follow in a
square band. In the mean time an engagement of cavalry commenced, in
which the enemy being dismayed because Hannibal retired wounded from
the fight, the fortress was admirably defended. After this, having
taken rest for a few days, and before his wound was hardly as yet
sufficiently healed, he sets out to lay siege to Victumviae. This
magazine had been fortified by the Romans in the Gallic war;
afterwards a mixture of inhabitants from the neighbouring states
around had made the place populous; and at this time the terror
created by the devastation of the enemy had driven together to it
numbers from the country. A multitude of this description, excited by
the report of the brave defence of the fortress near Placentia, having
snatched up their arms, went out to meet Hannibal. They engaged on the
road rather like armies in order of march than in line of battle; and
since on the one side there was nothing but a disorderly crowd, and on
the other a general confident in his soldiers, and soldiers in their
general, as many as thirty-five thousand men were routed by a few. On
the following day, a surrender having been made, they received a
garrison within their walls; and being ordered to deliver up their
arms, as soon as they had obeyed the command, a signal is suddenly
given to the victors to pillage the city, as if it had been taken by
storm; nor was any outrage, which in such cases is wont to appear to
writers worthy of relation, left unperpetrated; such a specimen of
every kind of lust, barbarity, and inhuman insolence was exhibited
towards that unhappy people. Such were the expeditions of Hannibal
during the winter.

58. For a short time after, while the cold continued intolerable, rest
was given to the soldiers; and having set out from his wint