§21.56.1trepidantisque et prope iam in suos consternatos e media acie in extremam ad sinistrum cornu adversus Gallos auxiliares agi iussit Hannibal.
And Hannibal ordered them, as they were terrified and now almost driving in panic against their own men, to be driven from the center of the line to the extremity on the left wing against the Gallic auxiliaries.
ibi extemplo haud dubiam fecere fugam, eoque novus terror additus Romanis, ut fusa auxilia sua viderunt. §21.56.2itaque cum iam in orbem pugnarent decem milia ferme hominum, cum alia evadere nequissent, media Afrorum 4. acie, qua Gallicis auxiliis firmata erat, cum ingenti caede hostium perrupere et, §21.56.3cum neque in castra reditus esset flumine interclusis neque prae imbri satis decernere possent, qua suis opem ferrent, Placentiam recto itinere perrexere. §21.56.4plures deinde in omnes partes eruptiones factae; et qui flumen petiere, aut gurgitibus absumpti sunt aut inter cunctationem ingrediendi ab hostibus oppressi; §21.56.5qui passim per agros fuga sparsi erant, alii vestigia cedentis sequentes agminis Placentiam contendere, aliis timor hostium audaciam ingrediendi flumen fecit, transgressique in castra pervenerunt. §21.56.6imber nive mixtus et intoleranda vis frigoris et homines multos et iumenta et elephantos prope omnis absumpsit. §21.56.7finis insequendi hostis Poenis flumen Trebia fuit, et ita torpentes gelu in castra rediere, ut vix laetitiam victoriae sentirent. §21.56.8itaque nocte insequenti, cum praesidium castrorum et quod reliquum exfuga semermium ex magna parte militum erat ratibus Trebiam traicerent, aut nihil sensere obstrepente pluvia aut, §21.56.9quia iam moveri nequibant prae lassitudine ac vulneribus, sentire sese dissimularunt, quietisque Poenis tacito agmine ab Scipione consule exercitus Placentiam est perductus, inde Pado traiecto Cremonam, ne duorum exercituum hibernis una colonia premeretur.
There they immediately caused an absolute flight, and a new terror was thereby added to the Romans, when they saw their own auxiliaries routed. Therefore, when about ten thousand men were now fighting in a circle, since they could not escape in any other direction, they broke through the middle of the African line, where it had been reinforced by the Gallic auxiliaries, with great slaughter of the enemy, and, since, being cut off by the river, there was no return to their camp, and because of the heavy rain they could not sufficiently discern in what direction they might bring help to their own men, they proceeded by a direct route to Placentia. Then, more breakouts were made in all directions; and those who sought the river were either swallowed up in its eddies or overwhelmed by the enemy while hesitating to enter. Of those who had been scattered in flight here and there through the fields, some, following the tracks of the retreating column, made their way to Placentia; to others, fear of the enemy gave the courage to enter the river, and having crossed over, they reached the camp. The rain mixed with snow and the unbearable severity of the cold destroyed many men, beasts of burden, and almost all the elephants. The river Trebia was the limit of the pursuit of the enemy for the Carthaginians, and they returned to their camp so numbed with cold that they scarcely felt the joy of victory. Therefore, on the following night, when the garrison of the camp and the remnants of the soldiers who had escaped the flight, mostly half-armed, crossed the Trebia on rafts, the Carthaginians either perceived nothing because of the noise of the rain, or, because they were now unable to move due to fatigue and wounds, pretended they did not perceive them; and while the Carthaginians remained quiet, the army was led in a silent column by the consul Scipio to Placentia, and from there, having crossed the Po, to Cremona, lest a single colony should be burdened by the winter quarters of two armies.