[XXI (95)]
The Celtiberians have a peculiar manœuvre in war. When they see their infantry hard pressed, they dismount and leave their horses standing in their places. They have small pegs attached to their leading reins, and having fixed them carefully into the ground, they train their horses to keep their places obediently in line until they come back and pull up the pegs.
[XXII (96)]
The Celtiberians excel the rest of the world in the construction of their swords; for their point is strong and serviceable, and they can deliver a cut with both edges. Wherefore the Romans abandoned their ancestral swords after the Hannibalian war and adopted those of the Iberians. They adopted, I say, the construction of the swords, but they can by no means imitate the excellence of the steel or the other points in which they are so elaborately finished.[280]
[XXIII (102)]
The Roman praetor Marcus[281] wished to get rid of the war against the Lusitani, and laying aside war altogether, to shirk—as the saying is—“the men’s hall for the women’s bower,” because of the recent defeat of the praetor by the Lusitani.
(103)
But those of the Ligurians who fought against Mago were unable to do anything important or great.
[XXIV (113)]
A mora consisted of nine hundred men.[282]