§28.12.1cum Hannibale nihil eo anno rei gestum est.
No military action was taken with Hannibal in that year.
nam neque ipse se obtulit in tam recenti volnere publico privatoque neque lacessierunt quietum Romani: tantam inesse vim, etsi omnia alia circa eum ruerent, in uno illo duce censebant.
For neither did he offer himself for battle in the face of so recent a blow, both public and private, nor did the Romans provoke him while he remained quiet: they believed that so great a force existed in that single leader, even though all other things around him were collapsing.
§28.12.2ac nescio an mirabilior adversis quam secundis rebus fuerit, §28.12.3quippe qui, cum in hostium terra per annos tredecim tam procul ab domo varia fortuna bellum gereret exercitu non suo civili, sed mixto ex conluuione omnium gentium, quibus non lex, non mos, non lingua communis, alius habitus, alia vestis, alia arma, alii ritus, alia sacra, §28.12.4alii prope dei essent, ita quodam uno vinculo copulaverit eos, ut nulla nec inter ipsos nec adversus ducem seditio extiterit, §28.12.5cum et pecunia saepe in stipendium et commeatus in hostium agro deessent, quorum inopia priore Punico bello multa infanda inter duces militesque commissa fuerant.
And indeed, I am inclined to think that he was even more remarkable in adversity than in prosperity, seeing that, although he was waging war in the enemy's country for thirteen years, so far from home, with varying fortune, and with an army not of his own fellow citizens but mixed from the dregs of all nations, who had no law, no custom, no language in common, and had different character, different clothing, different weapons, different rites, and different religious ceremonies, and almost different gods, he nevertheless bound them together by some single bond in such a way that no mutiny arose either among themselves or against their leader, even though both money for pay and provisions in the enemy's land were often lacking, through the scarcity of which, in the First Punic War, many unspeakable atrocities had been committed between leaders and soldiers.
§28.12.6post Hasdrubalis vero exercitum cum duce, in quibus spes omnis reposita victoriae fuerat, deletum cedendoque in angulum Bruttium cetera Italia concessum, cui non videatur mirabile nullum motum in castris factum?
Indeed, after the army of Hasdrubal along with its leader, in whom all hope of victory had been placed, was destroyed, and after they had retreated into a corner of Bruttium, abandoning the rest of Italy, to whom would it not seem wonderful that no disturbance occurred in the camp?
§28.12.7nam ad cetera id quoque accesserat, ut ne alendi quidem exercitus nisi ex Bruttio agro spes esset, qui, ut omnis coleretur, exiguus tamen tanto alendo exercitui erat; §28.12.8tum magnam partem iuventutis abstractam a cultu agrorum bellum occupaverat et mos vitio etiam insitus genti per latrocinia militiam exercendi.
For, in addition to other things, this also was added: that there was no hope of even feeding the army except from the Bruttian land, which, even if it were all cultivated, was nevertheless too small to feed so great an army; moreover, the war had occupied a great part of the youth, drawn away from the cultivation of the fields, and there was also the habit, ingrained in the race even to the point of a vice, of practicing military service through brigandage.
§28.12.9nec ab domo quicquam mittebatur de Hispania retinenda sollicitis, tamquam omnia prospera in Italia essent.
Nor was anything sent from home, since they were anxious about retaining Spain, as if everything were prosperous in Italy.
§28.12.10in Hispania res quadam ex parte eandem fortunam, quadam longe disparem habebant: eandem, quod proelio victi Carthaginienses duce amisso in ultimam Hispaniae oram usque ad Oceanum compulsi erant, disparem autem, §28.12.11quod Hispania non quam Italia modo, sed quam ulla pars terrarum bello reparando aptior erat locorum hominumque ingeniis.
In Spain, matters had in one part the same fortune, in another a far different one: the same, because the Carthaginians, defeated in battle and having lost their leader, had been driven to the furthest coast of Spain, as far as the Ocean; but different, because Spain was more fit for renewing war than not only Italy, but any other part of the world, by the character of its places and people.
§28.12.12itaque ergo prima Romanis inita provinciarum, quae quidem continentis sint, postrema omnium, nostra demum aetate, ductu auspicioque Augusti Caesaris perdomita est.
And so therefore, being the first of the provinces—at least of those on the continent—to be entered by the Romans, it was the last of all to be thoroughly subdued, only in our own age, under the leadership and auspices of Augustus Caesar.
§28.12.13ibi tum Hasdrubal Gisgonis, maximus clarissimusque eo bello secundum Barcinos dux, regressus ab Gadibus rebellandi ape, adiuvante Magone Hamilcaris filio, dilectibus per ulteriorem Hispaniam habitis ad quinquaginta milia peditum, quattuor milia et quingentos equites armavit.
There at that time, Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, the greatest and most famous leader in that war after the Barcines, having returned from Gades with the hope of renewing the war, with the assistance of Mago, son of Hamilcar, armed up to fifty thousand infantry and four thousand five hundred cavalry after holding levies throughout Farther Spain.
§28.12.14de equestribus copiis ferme inter auctores convenit; peditum septuaginta milia quidam adducta ad Silpiam urbem scribunt.
Concerning the cavalry forces, there is general agreement among authors; some write that seventy thousand infantry were brought to the city of Silpia.
§28.12.15ibi super campos patentes duo duces Poeni ea mente, ne detrectarent certamen, considerunt.
There, upon the open plains, the two Carthaginian leaders encamped with the intention of not declining a battle.