and gave
orders to march. In the hurry and confusion occasioned by a march
by night, their guides were not watched with sufficient care and
attention. One of them stopped in a place of concealment which he had
beforehand fixed upon in his mind, the other swam across the river
Metaurus, at a ford with which he was acquainted. The troops, thus
deserted by their guides, at first wandered up and down through the
fields; and some of them, overpowered with sleep, and fatigued with,
watching, stretched themselves on the ground here and there, leaving
their standards thinly attended. Hasdrubal gave orders to march along
the bank of the river until the light should discover the road; but,
pursuing a circuitous and uncertain course along the turnings and
windings of that tortuous river, with the intention of crossing it
as soon as the first light should discover a place convenient for
the purpose he made but little progress; but wasting the day in a
fruitless attempt to discover a ford, for the further he went from the
sea the higher he found the banks which kept the river in its course,
he gave the enemy time to overtake him.

48. First Nero arrived with the whole body of his cavalry, then
Porcius came up with him, with the light infantry. And while these
were harassing his weary troops on every side, and charging them, and
the Carthaginian, stopping his march, which resembled a flight, was
desirous of encamping on an eminence, on the bank of the river, Livius
came up with all his foot forces, not after the manner of troops on
march, but armed and marshalled for immediate action. When they had
united all their forces, and the line was drawn out, Claudius took
the direction of the battle in the right wing, Livius in the left; the
management of the centre was given to the praetor. Hasdrubal, when he
saw that an engagement was inevitable, giving over the fortification
of a camp, placed his elephants in the front line, before the
standards; on either side these he placed in the left wing the Gauls
to oppose Claudius, not so much from any confidence he reposed in
them, as because he believed them to be dreaded by the enemy; the
right wing he took to himself against M. Livius, together with the
Spaniards, in whom, as being veteran troops, he placed his greatest
hopes. Behind the elephants, in the centre, the Ligurians were posted;
but his line was rather long than deep. The Gauls were covered by
a hill, which extended in front. That