30.
The army of the Boi had not long before this crossed the Po and had effected a
[2]
junction with the Insubres and the Cenomani, because they had heard that the consuls were to carry on the war with their legions united, that they too might consolidate their strength by combining their armies.
[3]
But when the news got around that one consul was burning the farms of the Boi, dissension at once arose;
[4]
the Boi demanded that all should go to the relief of their harassed countrymen; the Insubres asserted that they would not desert their own possessions.
[5]
So the army was divided, the Boi going home to defend their land, the Insubres with the Cenomani encamping along the river Mincius.
[6]
Two miles farther down stream, the consul Cornelius was also encamped along the same river. Thence, sending messengers to the villages of the Cenomani and to Brescia, which was the capital of the tribe, when he was assured that the young men were in arms without the approval of the
[7]
elders, and that the Cenomani had joined the revolt of the Insubres without a decision of the state to that effect, he summoned the chiefs to his presence and began to contrive and plan
[8]
that the Cenomani should desert the Insubres and, taking up their standards, either go home or join [p. 247]the Romans. And this, indeed, he could not accomplish;1 but a pledge was given the consul to this effect, that in the battle they would either remain quiet or, if occasion offered, even aid the Romans.
[9]
The Insubres knew nothing of these negotiations; yet they somehow suspected that the fidelity of their allies was weakening. So when they formed the battle-line they did not dare to entrust either flank to them, lest, if they treacherously gave way, they might cause a complete defeat, but placed them behind the standards in support.
[10]
The consul at the beginning of the battle vowed a temple to Juno Sospita2 if the enemy should be routed and put to flight that day;
[11]
the soldiers shouted out that they would bring about the fulfilment of the consul's vow and the attack on the enemy began. The Insubres broke at the first assault.
[12]
Some say that when the Cenomani also, in the midst of the fighting, assailed them in the rear, there was a double turmoil, that between the two lines thirty-five thousand of the enemy were slain and five thousand two hundred
[13]
taken alive, among them Hamilcar,3
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