the centre, armed themselves, and moved forward in regular order. At the distance of a mile they were perceived by the enemy, among whom their appearance immediately created much hurry and confusion. On the first shout, Mago rode up in full speed from his camp. Now there were, in the Celtiberian army, four thousand targeteers, and two hundred horsemen ; this regular legion (and it was almost the whole of their strength) he placed in the first line; the rest, who were lightly armed, he posted in reserve. While he was leading them out of the camp in this order, and when they had scarcely got clear of the rampart, the Romans discharged their javelins at them; these the Spaniards stooped to avoid, and then the enemy rose to discharge their own; which, when the Romans, in close array, had received on their conjoined shields, in their accustomed manner, they immediately closed foot to foot, and had recourse to their swords to determine the contest. But the unevenness of the ground, at the same time that it rendered their agility useless to the Celtiberians, who practice a desultory method of fighting, was no disadvantage to the Romans, accustomed to a steady fight, except that the narrow passes, and the bushes interspersed, disordered their ranks, and obliged them to engage one against one, or two against two, as if they had been matched for the combat. The same circumstance which prevented the enemy from flying, delivered them up, as if in fetters, to slaughter. The targeteers of the Celtiberians being thus almost entirely cut off, the light troops and the Carthaginians, who had come from the other camp to support them, were quickly routed and put to the sword. About two thousand foot, and all the cavalry filed with Mago at the very onset. Hanno, the other general, and those who came up last, after the battle was decided, were taken alive. Almost the whole of the cavalry, and what veteran infantry they had, following Mago in his flight, came

on the tenth day to Hasdrubal in the province of Gades: the Celtiberian soldiers, being newly levied, dispersed into the neighbouring woods, and thence escaped to their respec-. tive homes. By this seasonable victory, was suppressed a war, which was not of so much importance on account of its present magnitude, as of its being a foundation from which one much more considerable might have arisen, had the enemy been allowed, after having roused the Celtiberians to arms, to persuade the other states to join in the same cause. Scipio, therefore, having bestowed liberal commendations on Silanus, and seeing reason to hope that he might be able to finish the dispute at once, by exerting himself with proper activity, advanced into Farther Spain against Hasdrubal. The Carthaginian, (who happened at that time to have his army in Bætica, for the purpose of securing the fidelity of his allies in that country,) decamping hastily, led it away, in a manner much more resembling a flight than a march, quite to the ocean and Gades. He was fearful, however, that as long as he kept his forces together, he should be considered as the primary object of the enemy's operations. Before he passed over the streight to Gades, he therefore dispersed them into the different cities; in the view, likewise, that they might provide for their own safety by help of walls, and for that of the towns by their arms.

III. When Scipio found that the enemy's troops were thus widely scattered, and that the carrying about his own to each of the several cities would be a very tedious if not difficult work, he marched back his army. Unwilling, however, to leave the possession of all that country to the Carthaginians, he sent his brother, Lucius Scipio, with ten thousand foot and one thousand horse, to lay siege to the most considerable city in those parts, called by the barbarians Orinx, situate on the borders of the Milesians, a Spanish nation so called-a desirable spot, the adjacent parts affording mines of silver,

and the soil being fruitful. This place served Hasdrubal as a fortress, whence he used to make incursions on the states around. Scipio encamped near to it. Before raising his works of circumvallation, however, he sent some persons to the gates to try the disposition of the inhabitants in a conference, and to recommend to them rather to make trial of the friendship than the power of the Romans. As their answers showed no inclination to peace, he surrounded the city with a trench and a double rampart; breaking his army into three parts, in order that one division might always carry on the attack while the other two rested. When the first of these began the assault, the contest was furious and desperate: it was with the greatest difficulty that they could approach, or bring up the ladders to the walls, on account of the showers of weapons which fell upon them; and even of those who had raised them, some were tumbled down with forks made for the purpose, others found themselves in danger of being caught by iron grapples, and of being dragged up on the wall. When Scipio saw that his men were too few to make an impression, and that the enemy, from the advantage of their works, had even the better of the dispute, he called off the first division, and attacked with the two others at once. This struck such terror into the besieged, already fatigued, that not only the townsmen quickly forsook the walls, but the Carthaginian garrison, fearing that the town had been betrayed, likewise left their posts and collected themselves into a body. The inhabitants, upon this, were seized with apprehensions lest the enemy, if they broke into the town, should put to the sword every one they met without distinction, whether Carthaginian or Spaniard. They instantly, therefore, threw open one of the gates, and rushed out of the town in crowds, holding their shields before them, lest any weapons should be cast at them, and stretching out their right hands expanded, to show that they had thrown away their swords. Whether

this latter circumstance was unobserved on account of the distance, or whether some stratagem was suspected, is uncertain; but the deserters were attacked as enemies, and put to death. Through this gate the troops marched into the city in hostile array. The other gates were broke open with axes and sledges, and as soon as the horsemen entered, they galloped forward to secure the Forum, for such were the orders; the veterans also were joined to the horse to support them. The legionary soldiers spread themselves all over the city, but, neither slew nor plundered any, except those who stood on their defence. All the Carthaginians were put into confinement, with above three hundred of the inhabitants who had shut the gates; the rest had the town delivered up to them, and their effects restored. There fell in the assault, of the enemy, about two thousand; of the Romans, not more than ninety.

IV. As the capture of this city afforded matter of much exultation to those engaged in it, so it rendered their approach to the camp a magnificent spectacle to the general and the rest of the army, on account of the immense crowd of prisoners which they drove before them. Scipio, having declared his approbation of his brother's conduct, and in the highest strains extolled his taking of Orinx as equal to his own taking of Carthage, led back his forces into Hither Spain. The approach of winter put it out of his power either to make an attempt on Gades, or to pursue the army of Hasdrubal, now dispersed in all parts of the province. Dismissing, therefore, the legions to their winter quarters, and sending his brother, Lucius Scipio, with Hanno, the enemy's general, and other prisoners of distinction, to Rome, he himself retired to Tarraco. During the same year, the Roman fleet, under Marcus Valerius Lævinus, proconsul, sailing over from Sicily to Africa, made extensive devastations in the territories of Utica and Carthage, carrying off

plunder from the remotest bounds of the Carthaginian territory, even from under the very walls of Utica. On their return to Sicily, they were met by a Carthaginian fleet, consisting of seventy ships of war; seventeen of these they took, and sunk four; the rest were beaten and dispersed. The Romans, victorious by land and sea, returned to Lilybæum, with immense booty of every kind. The sea being thus cleared of the enemy, abundance of provision was brought to Rome.

V. In the beginning of the summer, during which these transactions passed, Publius Sulpicius, pro-consul, and King Attalus, after having wintered at Ægina as mentioned above, united their fleets, consisting of twenty-three Roman fivebanked gallies, and thirty-five belonging to the King, and sailed from thence to Lemnos. Philip also, that he might be prepared for every sort of exertion, whether he should have occasion to oppose the enemy on land or sea, came down to the coast of Demetrias, and appointed a day for his army to assemble at Larissa. On the news of the King's arrival, embassies from his allies came to Demetrias from all sides: for the Etolians, elated both by their alliance with the Romans, and by the approach of Attalus, were ravaging the neighbouring states. Not only the Acarnanians, Bootians, and Eubeans, were under violent apprehensions, but the Achæans also were kept in terror, as well by the hostilities of the Etolians, as by Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedæ mon, who had pitched his camp at a small distance from the borders of the Argives. All these, representing the dangers both on land and sea, with which their several possessions were threatened, implored the King's assistance. Philip, even from his own kingdom, received accounts that affairs there were not in a state of tranquillity; that both Scerdilædus and Pleuratus were in motion; and that some of the Thracians, particularly the Mædians, would certainly make