to the view. The bodies of horses and men
lay mingled in dreadful confusion, as they had fallen, some dead,
others still alive, the men moaning, crying for water, and feebly
struggling from time to time to disentangle themselves from the
heaps of carcasses under which they were buried. The deadly and
inextinguishable hate which the Carthaginians felt for their foes not
having been appeased by the slaughter of forty thousand of them, they
beat down and stabbed these wretched lingerers wherever they found
them, as a sort of morning pastime after the severer labors of the
preceding day. This slaughter, however, could hardly be considered a
cruelty to the wretched victims of it, for many of them bared their
breasts to their assailants, and begged for the blow which was to put
an end to their pain. In exploring the field, one Carthaginian soldier
was found still alive, but imprisoned by the dead body of his Roman
enemy lying upon him. The Carthaginian's face and ears were shockingly
mangled. The Roman, having fallen upon him when both were mortally
wounded, had continued the combat with his teeth when he could no
longer use his weapon, and had died at last, binding down his
exhausted enemy with his own dead body.

The Carthaginians secured a vast amount of plunder. The Roman army was
full of officers and soldiers from the aristocratic ranks of society,
and their arms and their dress were very valuable. The Carthaginians
obtained some bushels of gold rings from their fingers, which Hannibal
sent to Carthage as a trophy of his victory.

CHAPTER X.

SCIPIO.

B.C. 215-201

Reason of Hannibal's success.--The Scipios.--Fragments of the
Roman army.--Scipio elected commander.--Scipio's energy.--Case of
Metellus.--Metellus yields.--Consternation at Rome.--The senate
adjourns.--Hannibal refuses to march to Rome.--Hannibal makes his
head-quarters at Capua.--Hannibal sends Mago to Carthage.--Mago's
speech.--The bag of rings.--Debate in the Carthaginian senate.--The
speech of Hanno in the Carthaginian senate.--Progress of the
war.--Enervation of Hannibal's army.--Decline of the Carthaginian
power.--Marcellus.--Success of the Romans.--Siege of Capua.--Hannibal's
attack on the Roman camp.--He marches to Rome.--Preparations for a
battle.--Prevented by storms.--Sales at auction.--Hasdrubal crosses the
Alps.--Livius and Nero.--Division of the provinces.--The intercepted
letters.--Nero's perplexity.--Laws of military discipline.--