§25.36.1ceterum nunc agendo, nunc sustinendo agmen cum aliquamdiu haud multum procederetur et nox iam instaret, §25.36.2revocat a proelio suos Scipio et conlectos in tumulum quendam nona quidem satis tutum, praesertim agmini perculso, editiorem tamen, quam cetera circa erant, subducit.
But as they made little progress for some time, now by pushing forward, now by holding back the column, and as night was already pressing, Scipio recalled his men from the battle and withdrew them, gathered together, onto a certain hill, which was indeed not safe enough, especially for a demoralized army, but yet higher than the other areas around it.
§25.36.3ibi primo impedimentis et equitatu in medium receptis circumdati pedites haud difficulter impetus incursantium Numidarum arcebant; §25.36.4dein, postquam toto agmine tres imperatores cum tribus iustis exercitibus aderant: apparebatque parum armis ad tuendum locum sine munimento valituros esse, §25.36.5circumspectare atque agitare dux coepit, si quo modo posset vallum circumicere.
There, at first, having received the baggage and the cavalry into the center, the infantry surrounding them warded off the attacks of the charging Numidians without difficulty; then, after three commanders with three regular armies arrived with their entire column, and it became apparent that they would have too little strength to defend the place by arms alone without a fortification, the commander began to look around and ponder if in any way he could throw up a rampart around them.
sed erat adeo nudus tumulus et asperi soli, ut nec virgulta vallo caedendo nec terra caespiti faciendo aut ducendae fossae aliive ulli operi apta inveniri posset; §25.36.6nec natura quicquam satis arduum aut abscitum erat, quod hosti aditum ascensumve difficilem praeberet; §25.36.7omnia fastigio leni subvexa.
But the hill was so bare and of such rough ground, that neither brushwood for cutting a rampart, nor earth suitable for making turf, or for digging a ditch, or for any other work, could be found; nor was there by nature anything sufficiently steep or abrupt to present a difficult approach or ascent to the enemy; all sides rose with a gentle slope.
ut tamen aliquam imaginem valli obicerent, clitellas inligatas oneribus velut struentes ad altitudinem solitam circumdabant cumulo sarcinarum omnis generis obiecto, ubi ad moliendum clitellae defuerant.
Nevertheless, so that they might present some appearance of a rampart, they placed packsaddles, bound to their loads, around them as if building to the usual height, throwing up a heap of baggage of every kind where packsaddles had been lacking for the construction.
§25.36.8Punici exercitus postquam advenere, in tumulum quidem perfacile agmen erexere; munitionis facies nova primo eos velut miraculo quodam tenuit, §25.36.9cum duces undique vociferarentur, quid starent et non ludibrium illud vix feminis puerisve morandis satis validum distraherent diriperentque? captum hostem teneri latentem post sarcinas.
After the Carthaginian armies arrived, they marched their column up the hill very easily; at first, the strange appearance of the fortification held them in a kind of wonder, while the leaders shouted from all sides: why did they stand still and not tear down and plunder that mockery, which was scarcely strong enough to delay women or children? The captured enemy was held hiding behind the baggage.
haec contemptim duces increpabant; §25.36.10ceterum neque transilire nec moliri onera obiecta nec caedere stipatas clitellas ipsisque obrutas sarcinis facile erat.
The leaders cast these reproaches in contempt; But it was not easy to leap over, nor to move the obstructing loads, nor to cut through the tightly packed packsaddles, which were buried under the baggage itself.
§25.36.11trudentes sudibus cum amoliti obiecta onera armatis dedissent viam, pluribusque idem partibus fieret, capta iam undique castra erant.
When, pushing with stakes, they had cleared away the obstructing baggage and made a way for the armed men, and as the same was happening in several quarters, the camp was already captured on all sides.
§25.36.12pauci a multis perculsique a victoribus passim caedebantur; magna pars tamen militum cum in propinquas refugisset silvas, in castra P. Scipionis, quibus Ti. Fonteius legatus praeerat, perfugerunt.
A few were slaughtered on all sides by the many, and the demoralized by the victors; yet when a large part of the soldiers had fled into the nearby woods, they escaped into the camp of Publius Scipio, which the legate Tiberius Fonteius commanded.
§25.36.13Cn. Scipionem alii in tumulo primo impetu hostium caesum tradunt, alii cum paucis in propinquam castris turrim perfugisse; hanc igni circumdatam atque ita exustis foribus, quas nulla moliri potuerant vi, captam omnisque intus cum ipso imperatore occisos.
Some relate that Gnaeus Scipio was slain on the hill at the first onset of the enemy; others, that he fled with a few to a tower near the camp; and that this, surrounded with fire, and its doors thus burned out, which they had been unable to force open by any strength, was captured, and all within, together with the commander himself, were slain.
— §25.36.14anno octavo, postquam in Hispaniam venerat, Cn. Scipio undetricesimo die post fratris mortem est interfectus.
In the eighth year after he had come to Spain, Gnaeus Scipio was killed, on the twenty-ninth day after his brother's death.
luctus ex morte eorum non Romae maior quam per totam Hispaniam fuit; §25.36.15quin apud civis partem doloris et exercitus amissi et alienata provincia et publica trahebat clades; §25.36.16Hispaniae ipsos lugebant desiderabantque duces, Gnaeum magis, quod diutius praefuerat iis priorque et favorem occupaverat et specimen iustitiae temperantiaeque Romanae primus dederat.
The grief for their death was not greater at Rome than throughout the whole of Spain; indeed, among the citizens, the lost army, the alienated province, and the public disaster drew with them a share of the grief; the Spanish peoples themselves mourned and missed the leaders, Gnaeus more so, because he had commanded them longer, and had been the first both to win their favor and first to show an example of Roman justice and moderation.