nemy overhanging them from above, in
possession of their former position, and the others passing along the
road. Both these objects, presented at the same time to the eye and
the mind, made them stand motionless for a little while; but when they
afterward saw the confusion in the pass, and that the marching body
was thrown into disorder by the tumult which itself created,
principally from the horses being terrified, thinking that whatever
terror they added would suffice for the destruction of the enemy, they
scramble along the dangerous rocks, as being accustomed alike to
pathless and circuitous ways. Then indeed the Carthaginians were
opposed at once by the enemy and by the difficulties of the ground;
and each striving to escape first from the danger, there was more
fighting among themselves than with their opponents. The horses, in
particular, created danger in the lines, which being terrified by the
discordant clamors that the groves and reechoing valleys augmented,
fell into confusion; and if by chance struck or wounded, they were so
dismayed that they occasioned a great loss both of men and baggage of
every description; and as the pass on both sides was broken and
precipitous, this tumult threw many down to an immense depth, some
even of the armed men; but the beasts of burden, with their loads,
were rolled down like the fall of some vast fabric.

Tho these disasters were shocking to view, Hannibal, however, held his
place for a little, and kept his men together, lest he might augment
the tumult and disorder: but afterward, when he saw the line broken,
and that there was danger that he should bring over his army preserved
to no purpose if deprived of their baggage, he hastened down from the
higher ground; and tho he had routed the enemy by the first onset
alone, he at the same time increased the disorder in his own army; but
that tumult was composed in a moment, after the roads were cleared by
the flight of the mountaineers, and presently the whole army was
conducted through, not only without being disturbed, but almost in
silence. He then took a fortified place, which was the capital of that
district, and the little villages that lay around it, and fed his army
for three days with the corn and cattle he had taken; and during these
three days, as the soldiers were neither obstructed by the
mountaineers, who had been daunted by the first engagement, nor yet
much by the ground, he made considerable way.

He then ca