The disaster
(1) We fought for about three hours, and everywhere with fury; Yet it was around the consul that the struggle was the liveliest and fiercest. (2) He was the one followed by the elite of the soldiers, and he himself, wherever he saw that his people were in a hurry and in trouble, he actively helped them; (3) his armor making him noticeable, the enemies were more violent in attacking him, and his fellow citizens in defending him, until an Insubrian horseman - his name was Ducarius - recognized the consul by his features too:"Here," he said to his compatriots, "is the man who cut our legions to pieces and ravaged our fields and our city. "; then, spurring his horse through the tightest crowd of enemies, he rushed forward, and, after having decapitated the squire who had thrown himself before his menacing march, he pierced the consul with his spear; as he wanted to strip him, the triaires, by opposing their shields to him, pushed him back.
(5) A large number of Romans, after this, began to flee; and soon neither lake nor mountains were an obstacle to fear; through defiles, escarpments of all kinds, blindly, they escape; fully armed, the men rush on each other. (6) Many, where there is no place to flee, stepping into the water at the shallow edge of the swamp, sink into it until only their heads and shoulders protrude. There were some that an unthinking fear impelled to take flight even by swimming; (7) when they saw that this way of fleeing was endless and hopeless, or, failing their courage, they were swallowed up by an abyss, or, after having tired themselves in vain, they regained the heights with great difficulty funds, or the enemy horsemen, entering the water, massacred them here and there.
(8) About six thousand men from the head of the column, piercing energetically through the enemy opposed to them, knowing nothing of what was passing behind them, escaped from the defile, and, having halted on a height, from where they heard only shouts and the sound of weapons, could neither know what was the fate of the fight, nor see it, because of the darkness. (9) Finally, the affair once decided, as the fog, dissipated by the heat of the sun, had let appear the day, with its clear light, the mountains and the plain showed them the disaster, and the Roman lines unworthily beaten down . (10) So, fearing that, on seeing them in the distance, the cavalry would be sent against them, quickly tearing their ensigns from the ground, they slipped away as quickly as possible. (12) The next day, as, among other difficulties, extreme hunger pressed them, Maharbal, who, with all the troops of cavalry, had joined them during the night, giving them his word that, if they surrendered their arms, he would let them go with the garment they were wearing, they surrendered; (13) but this promise, Hannibal observed it with the Punic faith, and all were thrown in irons.