§23.26.1dum haec in Italia geruntur apparanturque, nihilo segnius in Hispania bellum erat, sed ad eam diem magis prosperum Romanis. §23.26.2P. et Cn. Scipionibus inter se partitis copias, ut Gnaeus terra, Publius navibus rem gereret, Hasdrubal Poenorum imperator, neutri parti virium satis fidens, procul ab hoste intervallo ac locis tutus tenebat se, quoad multum ac diu obtestanti quattuor milia peditum, mille equites in supplementum missi ex Africa sunt. §23.26.3tum refecta tandem spe castra propius hostem movit, classemque et ipse instrui pararique iubet ad insulas maritumamque oram tutandam. §23.26.4in ipso impetu movendarum de integro rerum perculit eum praefectorum navium transitio, qui post classem ad Hiberum per pavorem desertam graviter increpiti numquam deinde satis fidi aut duci aut Carthaginiensium rebus fuerant. §23.26.5fecerant hi transfugae motum in Tartesiorum gente, desciverantque iis auctoribus urbes aliquot, una etiam ab ipsis vi capta fuerat. §23.26.6in eam gentem versum ab Romanis bellum est infestoque exercitu Hasdrubal ingressus agrum hostium pro captae ante dies paucos urbis moenibus Chalbum, nobilem Tartesiorum ducem, cum valido exercitu castris se tenentem adgredi statuit. §23.26.7praemissa igitur levi armatura, quae eliceret hostis ad certamen, equitum partem ad populandum per agros passim dimisit, et ut palantis exciperent. §23.26.8simul et ad castra tumultus erat et per agros fugaque et caedes; deinde undique diversis itineribus cum in castra se recepissent, adeo repente decessit animis pavor, ut non ad munimenta modo defendenda satis animorum esset, sed etiam ad lacessendum proelio hostem. §23.26.9erumpunt igitur agmine e castris tripudiantes more suo, repentinaque eorum audacia terrorem hosti paulo ante ultro lacessenti incussit. §23.26.10itaque et ipse Hasdrubal in collem satis arduum, flumine etiam obiecto tutum, copias subducit et praemissam levem armaturam equitesque palatos eodem recipit, nec aut colli aut flumini satis fidens castra vallo permunit. §23.26.11in hoc alterno pavore certamina aliquot sunt contracta; nec Numida Hispano eques par fuit nec iaculator Maurus caetrato, velocitate pari, robore animi viriumque aliquantum praestanti.
While these things were being done and prepared in Italy, the war in Spain was by no means less active, but up to that day more favorable for the Romans. Since Publius and Gnaeus Scipio had divided the forces between themselves, so that Gnaeus should conduct the campaign on land, and Publius with the ships, Hasdrubal, the general of the Carthaginians, trusting sufficiently in neither part of his forces, kept himself safe far from the enemy by a long distance and in secure places, until, upon his long and earnest entreaty, four thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry were sent from Africa as a reinforcement. Then, his hope being at last restored, he moved his camp closer to the enemy, and he himself ordered the fleet to be equipped and prepared to protect the islands and the maritime coast. In the very momentum of renewing the entire operations, the defection of the ship captains struck him; these men, having been severely reprimanded after the fleet was abandoned through fear at the Hiberus, had never after that been sufficiently faithful either to the general or to the Carthaginian cause. These deserters had caused an uprising among the Tartessian people, and at their instigation several cities had revolted, and one had even been captured by them by force. The war was turned by the Romans from themselves to this nation, and Hasdrubal, having entered the enemy's territory with a hostile army, decided to attack Chalbus, a noble leader of the Tartessians, who was keeping himself in his camp with a strong army before the walls of the city captured a few days earlier. Having therefore sent ahead the light-armed troops, who were to entice the enemy to battle, he sent out part of the cavalry here and there to plunder through the fields, and also to intercept those who were wandering. At the same time there was confusion near the camp, and flight and slaughter through the fields; then, when they had retreated into the camp from all sides by different routes, fear departed from their minds so suddenly that they had sufficient courage not only to defend their fortifications but even to provoke the enemy in battle. They therefore burst forth in a column from the camp, dancing according to their custom, and their sudden boldness struck terror into the enemy who a little before had been voluntarily provoking them. Accordingly, Hasdrubal himself withdrew his forces to a sufficiently steep hill, made secure also by a river lying in front, and received the light-armed troops sent ahead and the scattered cavalry in the same place; and, trusting sufficiently neither to the hill nor to the river, he fortified his camp with a rampart. In this alternating panic several skirmishes were engaged in; neither was the Numidian horseman a match for the Spanish, nor the Moorish javelin-thrower for the shield-bearer, who, though equal in speed, was somewhat superior in strength of mind and body.