fter his flight, retired
to Adrumetum. Marcus Rufus, the quaestor, pursued him with twelve ships,
which Curio had brought from Sicily as convoy to the merchantmen, and
seeing a ship left on the shore, he brought her off by a towing rope,
and returned with his fleet to Curio.

XXIV.--Curio detached Marcus before with the fleet to Utica, and marched
thither with his army. Having advanced two days, he came to the river
Bagrada, and there left Caius Caninius Rebilus, the lieutenant, with the
legions; and went forward himself with the horse to view the Cornelian
camp, because that was reckoned a very eligible position for encamping.
It is a straight ridge, projecting into the sea, steep and rough on both
sides, but the ascent is more gentle on that part which lies opposite
Utica. It is not more than a mile distant from Utica in a direct line.
But on this road there is a spring, to which the sea comes up, and
overflows; an extensive morass is thereby formed; and if a person would
avoid it, he must make a circuit of six miles to reach the town.

XXV.--Having examined this place, Curio got a view of Varus's camp,
joining the wall and town, at the gate called Bellica, well fortified by
its natural situation, on one side by the town itself, on the other by a
theatre which is before the town, the approaches to the town being
rendered difficult and narrow by the very extensive out-buildings of
that structure. At the same time he observed the roads very full of
carriages and cattle which they were conveying from the country into the
town on the sudden alarm. He sent his cavalry after them to plunder them
and get the spoil. And at the same time Varus had detached as a guard
for them six hundred Numidian horse, and four hundred foot, which king
Juba had sent to Utica as auxiliaries a few days before. There was a
friendship subsisting between his [Juba's] father and Pompey, and a feud
between him and Curio, because he, when a tribune of the people, had
proposed a law, in which he endeavoured to make public property of the
kingdom of Juba. The horse engaged; but the Numidians were not able to
stand our first charge; but a hundred and twenty being killed, the rest
retreated into their camp near the town. In the meantime, on the arrival
of his men-of-war, Curio ordered proclamation to be made to the merchant
ships, which lay at anchor before Utica, in number about two hundred,
that he would treat as enemies all that did not set sail immed