Both armies being drawn up as we have described them, the light troops on either side raising, as usual, a great shout, began the battle. Soon afterwards, Hanni bal ordered his Spanish and Gaulish horse, the best in his army, and stationed as already mentioned on his left .wing, to attack the Roman knights. This terrible con * Ilia, as Livy observes, was not in the usual style of equestrian engagements ; for confined on one side by the river, and on the other by the infantry, the horsemen were compelled to rush straight forward against each other, and to fight man to man ; and when the horses were so crowded and intermixed that they could scarcely move, the soldiers pulled each other from their seats, and continued the action on foot. The veteran horsemen of Hannibal at last prevailed. Most of the knights were slain upon the spot, and the remainder pursued and dis sipated by Basdrubal. This general immediately wheel ed round to the right wing, routed in a short time the cavalry of the Roman allies, and dispatched the Numi dian horse in pursuit.
While this awful prelude was going on, the regular infantry on both sides drew near to try their strength. The Romans seem to have received the onset, and to have continued with one straight front till actually en gaged. But Hannibal ordering his heavy-armed Afri cans, who composed the extremities of his infantry, to stand still, moved forward in person at the head of the main body, composed of the Gaulish and Spanish infantry. The centre of this body was considerably advanced be yond its flanks, which however still rested, like the ex tremities of a great arch, on the heavy-armed Africans. The great superiority of the Romans, who were nearly double his numbers, had obliged Hannibal to extend, and consequently to weaken his infantry. This weakening, however, of his line, we have reason to believe, was confined exclusively to the prominent part of it in the centre, the Africans being firm and compact in their ar ray. It was the singular glory of Hannibal on this occa sion, to have converted his deficiency of strength into the cause of victory. Well aware that his barbarous auxiliaries, arranged in a thin line, could not long with stand a regular shock of heavy-armed infantry, his inten tion was most clearly, from the beginning, to encourage the Romans to break through his centre, and thus ex pose themselves on their flanks. Accordingly, after the advanced Gauls and Spaniards had fought most despe rately for some time, they began at last to give way ; and this body, which originally presented a convex line to the enemy, was now bent in the contrary direction, and embraced the advancing Romans in the form of a half moon. These, thinking to overwhelm Hannibal at once, pushed on with irresistible fury, and drove him before them with shouts of victory'. Varro and /Emilius appear to have been carried along with the soldiery by the blind est presumption ; for instead of securing their flanks, and overturning the Africans in their course, they seem to have concentrated their troops, for the purpose of en tirely breaking through the enemy, and attacking him in the rear. This movement proved fatal to the Romans.
The Africans, who had hitherto stood still, were now closing on the Roman flank, while II asdrubal and his victorious cavalry was ready to fall upon their rear. Vigorously attacked on both sides, the consuls made their men face different ways ; but the contest was no Ion ger equal, the Africans were quite fresh and in order,— the Romans, already exhausted with fatigue, were also in the utmost confusion. The return of Hannibal with his Gauls and Spaniards, whom lie had soon rallied, made it no longer a battle, but a carnage. Fighting hitherto with the greatest bravery, and performing all that could be expected from high spirited men, the Romans were now at length utterly broken and routed. The Cartha ginian cavalry, in which arm Hannibal was stronger, acting on a plain, and in the midst of a disorderly crowd of flying enemies, allowed few to escape ; while the in fantry, in like manner, exasperated by their fatigues and their habitual enmity, revelled with savage eagerness in the work of destruction. Hannibal himself was at last so much touched with compassion at the fate of the Ro mans, that he cried out several times during the slaugh ter, " Hold, soldiers ! spare the vanquished !" The fate of the consul, Paulus E. milius, as described by the ancient writers, is truly affecting. This brave captain had been severely wounded early in the day ; but his zeal would not suffer him to quit the field till most of his troops were cut to pieces. At this last extremity, in the hopes of retarding the pursuit, he ordered the few cavalry who still kept by him to dismount, and engage the enemy on foot. This slender band, however, was soon overwhelmed by the impetuous enemy, and every man who was able mounted his horse and fled. During this melancholy exigency, Cneus Lentulus, a legionary tribune, happening to ride that way in his retreat, espied the consul sitting on a stone, and covered all over with wounds and blood. The generous tribune immediately offered him his horse, observing that he could help him to mount, and protect him. But Emilius, with an air of grandeur, declining hie offer, advised him to make use of his small time for escaping, expressing, for his own part, his fixed resolution to expire on those heaps of his dead soldiers, by whom he was surrounded. He, at the same time, enjoined the tribune to advise the senate to fortify Rome with all speed, and to assure Fabius that he had lived, and was now dying, impressed with the wisdom of his counsels. Before Lentulus had gone far, he observed, with the keenest anguish, the noble consul surrounded, and still feebly fighting in the midst of the enemy, who were not then aware of his quality. The other consul, Varro, escaped to Venusia, attended only by seventy horse.