History of Rome

​In the same summer in which these decrees were passed at Rome and actions were performed in Africa, the praetor Publius Quinctilius Varus and the proconsul Marcus Cornelius fought a pitched battle in the territory of the Insubrian Gauls with Mago the Carthaginian. The legions of the praetor were in the front line;

​Cornelius kept his own in reserve, himself riding up to the front standards; and in front of the two wings, the praetor and the proconsul exhorted the soldiers with all their might to advance the standards against the enemy.

​When they made no impression, Quinctilius then said to Cornelius: “The battle, as you see, is becoming sluggish, and the fear of the enemy is hardening beyond expectation by their resisting, and there is a danger lest it turn into boldness.

​We must raise a cavalry storm, if we wish to throw them into confusion and move them from their position. Therefore, either do you support the battle at the front standards, and I will introduce the cavalry into the fight; or I will conduct the business here in the front line, and you send the cavalry of the four legions against the enemy.”

​The proconsul accepting whichever part of the duty the praetor wished, the praetor Quinctilius, with his son, an active youth whose praenomen was Marcus, proceeded to the cavalry, and having ordered them to mount their horses, suddenly launched them against the enemy.

​The cavalry confusion was increased by the shout added from the legions. Nor would the enemy’s line have stood, if Mago, at the first movement of the cavalry, had not immediately led the elephants , which had been kept ready, into the battle.

​Frightened by their trumpeting, smell, and sight, the horses rendered the cavalry assistance useless. And while the Roman cavalryman was of greater strength when mixed in the crowd, where he could use his spear and his sword at close quarters, yet with the horses fleeing far away in panic, the Numidians threw their javelins better from a distance.

​At the same time, the twelfth legion of infantry also, cut down in large part, held its place more from shame than from strength;

​nor would it have held it longer, if the thirteenth legion, led from the reserves into the front line, had not taken up the doubtful battle. Mago also opposed the Gauls from his reserves to the fresh legion.

​When these were routed with no great struggle, the hastati of the eleventh legion massed themselves and attacked the elephants, which were now also throwing the infantry line into confusion.

​When they had hurled their javelins into them as they were crowded together, with almost none thrown in vain, they turned them all back into the line of their own men; four, weighed down by their wounds, fell.

​Then for the first time the enemy’s line was shaken, all the cavalry having charged at the same time to increase the panic and confusion as soon as they saw the elephants turned away. But as long as Mago stood before the standards, the ranks, gradually retreating, kept their steps and the course of the battle;

​after they saw him fall, transfixed through the thigh, and carried away from the battle almost lifeless, immediately all turned to flight. Up to five thousand of the enemy were slain on that day, and twenty-two military standards were captured.

​Nor was the victory bloodless for the Romans: two thousand three hundred of the praetor’s army were lost, by far the greatest part from the twelfth legion;

​among them also two military tribunes, Marcus Cosconius and Marcus Maevius; of the thirteenth legion also, which had been present in the latter part of the battle, Gaius Helvius, a military tribune, fell while restoring the fight, and about twenty-two illustrious cavalrymen, trampled by the elephants, perished with several centurions. And the struggle would have been longer, if the victory had not been conceded by the wound of the general.