The Histories

​For some time he remained in Carthago, training the naval forces continuously and prescribing to the military tribunes the following method for the exercise of the land forces.

​On the first day, he ordered them to run thirty stades in full armour; on the second, all of them to rub down, clean, and publicly inspect their panoplies; on the next day, to rest and take leisure; ​on the day after that, some to practice sword-fighting with wooden, leather-covered swords with buttons on the points, and others to throw javelins fitted with buttons; and on the fifth day, to return again to the same running exercises and repeat the routine from the beginning.

​In order that there should be no lack of arms either for practice or for real service, he directed his utmost attention towards the artisans.

​He had, indeed, appointed diligent men to oversee this work in each department, as I said before; but he himself went round every day, and personally provided the supplies for each of them.

​Consequently, while the land forces were performing their exercises and training in the spaces outside the city, the naval forces were carrying out maneuvers and rowing practices at sea, and those in the city were sharpening, forging, and carpentering, and everyone in general was busily occupied with the manufacture of arms, ​no one who beheld that city at the time could have failed to say, in the words of Xenophon, that it was a workshop of war.

​And when it seemed to him that everything necessary for their service had been thoroughly and properly prepared, he secured the safety of the city with guards and by repairing the walls, and then set out with both his land and sea forces, directing his march towards Tarraco, keeping the hostages also with him.