§21.47.1hoc primum cum Hannibale proelium fuit; quo facile apparuit equitatu meliorem Poenum esse et ob id campos patentis, quales sunt inter Padum Alpesque, bello gerendo Romanis aptos non esse.
This was the first battle with Hannibal; by which it easily appeared that the Carthaginian was superior in cavalry, and that for this reason the open plains, such as those between the Po and the Alps, were not suited to the Romans for waging war.
§21.47.2itaque proxima nocte iussis militibus vasa silentio colligere castra ab Ticino mota festinatumque ad Padum est, ut ratibus, quibus iunxerat flumen, nondum resolutis sine tumultu atque insectatione hostis copias traiceret.
Therefore, on the following night, the soldiers having been ordered to pack their baggage in silence, the camp was moved from the Ticinus and they hastened to the Po, so that he might transport his forces across while the raft-bridge with which he had joined the river was not yet dismantled, without confusion and pursuit by the enemy.
§21.47.3prius Placentiam pervenere, quam satis sciret Hannibal ab Ticino profectos; tamen ad sescentos moratorum in citeriore ripa Padi segniter ratem solventes cepit.
They reached Placentia before Hannibal was sufficiently aware that they had set out from the Ticinus; nevertheless, he captured about six hundred of the stragglers on the hither bank of the Po who were sluggishly dismantling the raft.
transire pontem non potuit, ut extrema resoluta erant, tota rate in secundam aquam labente.
He could not cross the bridge, as its ends had been dismantled, and the whole raft was drifting down the stream.
Coelius auctor est Magonem cum equitatu §21.47.4et Hispanis peditibus flumen extemplo tranasse, ipsum Hannibalem per superiora Padi vada exercitum traduxisse elephantis in ordinem ad sustinendum impetum fluminis oppositis.
Coelius is the authority that Mago with the cavalry and Spanish infantry immediately swam across the river, and that Hannibal himself led the army across through the upper fords of the Po, with elephants opposed in a line to sustain the force of the river.
ea peritis amnis eius vix fidem fecerint; §21.47.5nam neque equites armis equisque salvis tantam vim fluminis superasse veri simile est, ut iam Hispanos omnis inflati travexerint utres, et multorum dierum circuitu Padi vada petenda fuerunt, qua exercitus gravis impedimentis traduci posset.
These things will hardly find credit with those who are acquainted with that river; for it is not likely that the cavalry, with their arms and horses safe, could have overcome so great a force of the river, even though inflated skins had already carried all the Spaniards across, and the fords of the Po, where an army heavy with baggage could be led across, had to be sought by a circuit of many days.
§21.47.6potiores apud me auctores sunt, qui biduo vix locum rate iungendo flumini inventum tradunt; ea cum Magone equites et Hispanorum expeditos praemissos.
More trustworthy in my view are those authors who relate that a place for joining the river with a raft was with difficulty found in two days; and that by this way the cavalry and the light-armed Spaniards were sent ahead with Mago.
§21.47.7dum Hannibal, circa flumen legationibus Gallorum audiendis moratus, traicit gravius peditum agmen, interim Mago equitesque ab transitu fluminis diei unius itinere Placentiam ad hostes contendunt.
While Hannibal, delayed near the river by hearing the embassies of the Gauls, was crossing the heavier body of infantry, in the meantime Mago and the cavalry, by a march of one day from the crossing of the river, hastened to Placentia to the enemy.
§21.47.8Hannibal paucis post diebus sex milia a Placentia castra communivit et postero die in conspectu hostium acie derecta potestatem pugnae fecit.
Hannibal, a few days after, fortified his camp six miles from Placentia, and on the following day, having drawn up his line in sight of the enemy, offered them the opportunity of battle.