Syphax and Hasdrubal Are Deluded
Syphax's annoyance at this message was great, in proportion to the hopes he had previously entertained of making
the peace. He had an interview with Hasdrubal, and told
him of the message he had received from the Romans; but
though they deliberated long and earnestly as to what they
ought to do, they neither had any idea or conjecture as to
what was really going to happen. For they had no anticipation whatever as to the need of taking precautions, or of any
danger threatening them, but were all eagerness and excitement to strike some blow, and thus provoke the enemy to
descend into the level ground.
Scipio discloses his project. |
Meanwhile Scipio allowed his
army generally, by the preparations he was making
and the orders he was issuing, to imagine that
his aim was the capture of Utica; but summoning the most able and trusty Tribunes at noon, he imparted
to them his design, and ordered them to cause their
men to get their supper early, and then to lead the legions
outside the camp as soon as the buglers gave the usual signal
by a simultaneous blast of their bugles. For it is a custom in
the Roman army for the trumpeters and buglers to sound a
call near the commander's tent at supper time, that the night
pickets may then take up their proper positions. Scipio next
summoned the spies whom he had sent at different times to
reconnoitre the enemy's quarters, and carefully compared and
studied the accounts they gave about the roads leading to the
hostile camps and the entrances to them, employing Massanissa
to criticise their words and assist him with his advice, because
he was acquainted with the locality.
