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Having made these preparations, he called a council and after ordering the spies to give an account of the discoveries they had made, and requesting Masinissa, who was acquainted with every circumstance relating to the enemy, to state what he knew, lastly, he himself laid before the council the plan proposed for the following night. He gave directions to the tribunes, that when, after the breaking up of the council, the trumpets had sounded, they should immediately march the legions out of the camp. Agreeably to his commands, the standards began to be carried out about sun-set. About the first watch they formed the troops in marching order. At midnight, for it was seven miles' march, they came up at a moderate pace to the camp of the enemy. Here Scipio assigned a part of his forces, together with Masinissa and the Numidians, to Laelius, ordering them to fall upon the camp of Syphax, and throw fire upon it. Then taking each of the commanders, Masinissa and Laelius, aside, he implored them separately to make up by diligence and care for the absence of that foresight which the night rendered it impossible to exercise. He said, that he should himself attack Hasdrubal and the Carthaginian camp; but that he should not begin till he saw the fire in that of the king. Nor did this delay him long; for when the fire thrown upon the nearest huts had taken effect, immediately communicating with all those which were within the shortest distance, and those connected with them in regular succession, it spread itself throughout the whole camp. The confusion and alarm which took place, in consequence of so widely extended a fire breaking out during the night, were as great as might naturally be expected; but as they concluded that it was the effect of chance, and not produced by the enemy, or connected with the war, they rushed out in a disorderly manner, without their arms, to extinguish the flames, and fell in with armed enemies, particularly the Numidians, who on account of their knowledge of the king's camp were placed by Masinissa in convenient places at the openings of the passes. Many perished in the flames in their beds while half asleep; and many, tumbling over one another in their haste to escape, were trampled to death in the narrow passages of the gates.
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When first the Carthaginian sentinels, and afterwards the rest, roused by the terrifying effects of a tumult by night, beheld the light emitted from the flames, they also, labouring under the same delusion, imagined that the fire had originated from accidental causes; while the shout raised amidst the slaughter and wounds, being of a confused kind, prevented their distinguishing whether it was occasioned by the trepidation of an alarm by night. Accordingly, rushing out one and all at every gate, each man taking the nearest road, without their arms, as not suspecting any hostile attack, and carrying with them only such things as might be useful in extinguishing the flames, they fell upon the Roman troops. After all these had been slain, not only with the animosity of enemies, but also that no one might escape as a messenger, Scipio immediately attacked the gates, which were unguarded in consequence of the confusion; and, having thrown fire upon the nearest huts, at first the flames blazed forth with great fury, in several places at once, in consequence of the fire having been applied to different parts, but afterwards extending themselves along the contiguous huts, they suddenly enveloped the whole camp in one general conflagration. Men and cattle scorched with the flames blocked up the passages of the gates, first in a terrible rush to escape, and afterwards with their prostrate bodies. Those who got out of the way of the fire were cut off by the sword, and the two camps were involved in one common destruction. The two generals, however, and out of so many thousand troops only two thousand foot and five hundred horsemen, escaped, half armed, a great many of them being wounded and scorched. Forty thousand men were either slain or destroyed by the flames, and above five thousand captured. Among the captured were many Carthaginian nobles, eleven senators, with a hundred and seventy-four military standards, above two thousand seven hundred Numidian horses, and six elephants. Eight elephants were destroyed either by fire or sword, and a great quantity of arms taken. All the latter the general dedicated to Vulcan and burnt.
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Hasdrubal, in his flight, had made for the nearest city of the Africans, accompanied by a few attendants; and hither all those who survived, following the footsteps of their general had betaken themselves. But afterwards, fearing lest he should be given up to Scipio, he quitted that city. Soon after the Romans were received there with open gates; nor was any act of hostility committed, because the inhabitants had surrendered voluntarily. Shortly after, two other cities were captured and plundered. The booty found there, together with what had been rescued from the camps when burning, and from the flames, was given up to the soldiers. Syphax took up a position in a fortified place about eight miles off. Hasdrubal hastened to Carthage, lest the apprehensions occasioned by the recent disaster should lead to any timorous measures. So great was the consternation created there on the first receipt of the news, that it was fully anticipated that Scipio, suspending his operations against Utica, would immediately lay siege to Carthage. The suffetes, therefore, who form with them an authority similar to the consular, summoned the senate, when the three following opinions were given. The first proposed, that a decree should be passed to the effect, that ambassadors should be sent to Scipio to treat of peace; the second, that Hannibal should be recalled to defend his country from a war which threatened its annihilation; the third breathed the spirit of Roman constancy under adversity; it recommended that the losses of the army should be repaired, and that Syphax should be exhorted not to abandon the war. The latter opinion prevailed, because it was that which Hasdrubal, who was present, and all the members of the Barcine faction, preferred. After this, the levy commenced in the city and country, and ambassadors were despatched to Syphax, who was himself employing every effort to restore the war; for his wife had prevailed upon him, not, as heretofore, by caresses, powerful as they are in influencing the mind of a lover, but by prayers and appeals to his compassion, imploring him, with streaming eyes, not to betray her father and her country, nor suffer Carthage to be consumed by the same flames which had reduced the camps to ashes. In addition to this, the ambassadors informed him of a circumstance which had occurred very seasonably to raise their hopes; that they had met with four thousand Celtiberians in the neighbourhood of a city named Abba, a fine body of young men who had been enlisted by their recruiting officers in Spain; and that Hasdrubal would very soon arrive with a body of troops by no means contemptible. Accordingly, he not only returned a kind answer to the ambassadors, but also showed them a multitude of Numidian rustics, whom he had lately furnished with arms and horses; and at the same time assured them that he would call out all the youth in his kingdom. He said, he well knew that the loss sustained had been occasioned by fire, and not by battle, and that he was inferior to his adversary in war who was overcome by force of arms. Such was the answer given to the ambassadors; and, after a few days, Hasdrubal and Syphax again united their forces. This army consisted of about thirty-five thousand fighting men.
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