lingers were then recalled,
and the heavy infantry of the two armies stood facing each other. The
Carthaginians took up close order, and, shoulder to shoulder, their
bodies covered with their shields, they advanced to meet the legions of
Rome. As they moved, their music--flute, harp, and lyre--rose on the
air in a military march, and keeping step the long line advanced with
perfect order and regularity. In the centre were the Carthaginian foot
soldiers and their African allies, clothed alike in a red tunic, with
helmet of bronze, steel cuirass and circular shield, and carrying,
besides their swords, pikes of twenty feet in length. On the left were
the Spaniards, in white tunics bordered with purple, with semicircular
shields four feet in length and thirty-two inches in width, armed with
long swords used either for cutting or thrusting.

On the left were the native allies, naked to the waist, armed with
shields and swords similar to those of the Gauls, save that the swords
were used only for cutting.

Sempronius brought up his second line to fill the intervals in the
first, and the Romans advanced with equal steadiness to the conflict;
but the much greater closeness of the Carthaginian formation served
them in good stead. They moved like a solid wall, their shields locked
closely together, and pressed steadily forward in spite of the desperate
efforts of the Roman centre in its more open order to resist them; for
each Roman soldier in battle was allowed the space of a man's width
between him and his comrade on either side, to allow him the free use of
his weapon. Two Carthaginians were therefore opposed to each Roman, in
addition to which the greater depth of the African formation gave them a
weight and impetus which was irresistible.

While this fight was going on the Numidian horsemen, ten thousand
strong, charged the Roman cavalry. These, much more lightly armed than
their opponents and inferior in numbers, were unable for a moment to
withstand the shock, and were at once driven from the field. Leaving the
elephants to pursue them and prevent them from rallying, the Numidian
horsemen turned and fell on the flanks of the long Roman line; while at
the same moment the Carthaginian slingers, issuing out again from behind
the main body, opened a tremendous fire with stones heated in furnaces
brought to the spot.

Although taken in flank, crushed under a storm of missiles, with their
cavalry defeated and their centre br