EVOUS SLAVERY,
OR TO FIGHT IN SINGLE COMBAT WITH ONE ANOTHER ON CONDITION THAT THE
VICTORS SHOULD BE RELEASED WITHOUT RANSOM. WHEN THEY ACCEPTED THE
SECOND ALTERNATIVE, HE SET THEM TO FIGHTING. AND AT THE END OF THE
CONFLICT HE ADDRESSED his own soldiers, encouraging them and whetting
their eagerness for war. Scipio also did this on the Roman side. Then
the contest began and looked at the outset as if it would involve the
entire armies: but Scipio in a preliminary cavalry skirmish was
defeated, lost many men, was wounded and would have been killed, had
not his son Scipio, though only seventeen years old, come to his aid;
he was consequently alarmed lest his infantry should similarly meet
with a reverse, and he at once fell back and that night withdrew from
the field.

[Footnote 29: Gnaeus Scipio is meant whenever Zonaras writes this
form.]

VIII, 24.--Hannibal did not learn of his withdrawal till daybreak and
then went to the Po, and finding there neither rafts nor boats,--for
they had been burned by Scipio,--he ordered his brother Mago to swim
across with the cavalry and pursue the Romans, whereas he himself
marched up toward the sources of the river and commanded that the
elephants cross where the tributary streams converged. In this manner,
while the water was temporarily dammed and torn piecemeal by the
animals' bulk, he effected a crossing more easily below them. Scipio
overtaken stood his ground and would have offered battle but for the
fact that by night the Gauls in his army deserted. Embarrassed by this
occurrence and still suffering from his wound he once more broke up at
night and located his entrenchments on high ground. He was not
pursued, but subsequently the Carthaginians came up and encamped, with
the river between the two forces.

Scipio on account of his wound and because of what had taken place was
inclined to wait and send for reinforcements; and Hannibal after many
attempts to provoke him to battle, finding that he could not do this
and that he was short of food, attacked a fort where a large supply
for the Romans was stored. As he made no headway he employed money to
bribe the commander of the garrison, which thus came into his
possession by betrayal. He hoped also to attain his other objects,
partly by arms and partly by gold. Meanwhile Longus had entrusted
Sicily to his lieutenant and had come in response to Scipio's call.
Not much later influenced by ambition on the one hand and also by the