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Finding that his men were becoming exhausted, the consul rekindled their courage by bringing up the reserves from the second line. [2] The front was re-formed, and these fresh troops attacking the wearied enemy with fresh weapons made a fierce charge in a dense body and broke their lines, and once broken they soon scattered in flight and rushed through the fields in the direction of their camp. [3] When Cato saw the whole battleground filled with fugitives he galloped back to the second legion which was stationed in reserve, ordered the standards to be borne before him and the whole legion to follow him at the double to attack the hostile camp. [4] When a man in his eagerness ran out of his rank the consul rode up and struck him with his sparus and ordered the military tribunes and centurions to chastise him. [5] The attack on the camp had already begun, but the Romans were unable to reach the stockade, as they were held up by stones and stakes and every description of missile. The appearance of the fresh legion put heart into the assailants and made the enemy fight still more desperately in front of their breastwork. [6] The consul surveyed the whole position that he might find out where there was the weakest resistance and therefore the best chance of breaking through. He saw that the defenders were in least force at the left-hand gate of their camp, and to this point he directed the hastati and principes of the second legion. [7] The defenders who were holding the gate could not withstand their charge, and when the others saw the enemy within their lines they abandoned all further attempts to retain their camp and flung away their arms and standards. [8] Many were killed at the gates, jammed together by the crowding in the narrow space, and whilst the soldiers of the second legion were cutting the enemy from behind, the rest plundered the camp. [9] Valerius Antias says that more than 40,000 of the enemy were killed that day. Cato, who certainly does not depreciate his own merits, says that many were killed, but does not give the actual numbers.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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