“Farewell, Scipio, farewell, for to-morrow be it then; but thou art a headstrong young man, and mayst live to regret it. But I wish thee no ill, thou art a great general for one so young.”
Turning, they left the palm grove upon opposite sides. Hannibal and Elissa, having regained their horses, rode back in silence. For the daughter had not at all been able to understand the father’s line of conduct during the interview, and he did not vouchsafe any information on the subject.
One point, however, she had grasped from his behaviour. It was that, so long as any object affecting the honour or advantage of Carthage was at stake, Hannibal had been perfectly ready to ride rough-shod over not only his own old prejudices against all and everything Roman, but also ready utterly to disregard Maharbal’s happiness and possibly her own also. For that he had not during the late interview considered in the least his life-long friend Maharbal, to whom he yet was absolutely devoted, would have been patent to the simplest mind, among which class that of Elissa could hardly be reckoned.
But Hannibal had only been acting up to his own old theory and practice. The State before everything!
CHAPTER VII.
ZAMA.
The following morning the opposing armies were drawn up in battle array as follows. Scipio placed in front the Hastati, with an interval between their maniples. The Principes came next, but these, contrary to the usual plan, were not placed so as to cover the intervals behind the Hastati. On the contrary, Scipio placed the maniples of the Principes directly behind the maniples of the spearmen in the front line. In the rear of these two lines he placed the Triarii, still leaving intervals. This he did to leave room for the enemy’s elephants to pass between the various ranks. Caius Lælius, who was fighting on land now, commanded the Roman cavalry on the left wing; but on the right was the traitor Massinissa with all his Numidians. As Maharbal viewed, before the beginning of the battle, this noble force of Numidian cavalry massed on the Roman side, some four thousand men in all, he groaned aloud, and cursed his cousin by all the gods of Avernus. And this he did the more heartily, since he saw waving amid their ranks various standards and emblems which he well remembered seeing in his boyhood borne by the troops of his jovial uncle Syphax.
Hannibal arranged his men as follows. He covered the whole of his front with no less than eighty elephants. Behind the elephants came twelve thousand mercenaries of various tribes and nationalities—Celts and Ligurians, Mauretani and Balearic Islanders. Behind these mercenaries came the native Libyans and Carthaginians, while in rear of all he placed the men upon whom he knew he could thoroughly rely. These were the men whom he had brought with him from Italy, whom he held in reserve more than an eighth of a mile in the rear. He placed his Numidian allies under Tychæus upon his left wing, while the Carthaginian cavalry were on the right. And now all was ready for the fray.
Before the battle actually commenced each of the commanders exhorted his men. Scipio bid them remember their former victories, to show themselves men of mettle worthy of their reputation and their country, and to understand that the effect of their victory would be not only to make themselves masters of Libya but to give them and their country the supremacy and undisputed lordship of the world. Thus he urged them to charge the enemy with the steady resolve to conquer or to die, and not to think of disgraceful flight under any circumstances.
Hannibal left the task of exhorting the men of the various forces to their own officers, with the exception of his own army of Italy. To them he addressed himself personally, and seeing what was the final result of the battle his speech was pathetic in the extreme. For he begged this army of Italy “to remember the many years during which they had been brothers in arms, and the number of battles they had fought with the Romans in which they had never been beaten or given the Romans even a hope of victory. Above all, putting all the countless minor successes aside, he charged them to remember the battle of the Trebia against Scipio’s father, the battle in Etruria against Flaminius, and the battle of Cannæ against Æmilius, with none of which was the present struggle to be compared, whether in regard to the number or the excellence of the enemy’s men. Let them only raise their eyes and look at the enemy’s ranks, they would see that they were not merely fewer than those whom they had fought before, but as to their soldierly qualities there was no comparison. The former Roman armies had come to the struggle untainted by memories of past defeats, while these men were the sons or the remnants of those who had been beaten in Italy and fled before him again and again. They ought not, therefore, to undo the glory and fame of their former achievements, but to struggle with a firm and brave resolve to maintain their former reputation of invincibility.”
Meanwhile the Numidians upon each side had become already engaged, and the plain was covered with the wheeling, charging, retiring and advancing bodies of cavalry. For the usual Numidian tactics were being pursued at this opening stage.