Consul Ti's impatience. Sempronius Longus
However, more than any other, the consul had found great and deserved success. He was transported with joy, to have been victorious in a kind of fight where his colleague had been defeated. He had just revived, revived the courage of the soldiers; all, except Cornelius, immediately demanded battle. Even more affected morally than physically, the other consul, remembering his wound, dreaded the melee and the enemy's javelins; but was it necessary to let this ardor grow old, close to a sick person? why delay and waste time? Are we expecting a third consul, a third army? The Carthaginians are encamped within Italy, almost within sight of Rome. It is no longer Sicily, Sardinia, taken from the vanquished, that come to attack their arms; it is no longer Spain, on this side of the Hebre, that they are trying to invade:it is from the paternal soil, from the land of the fatherland, that they want to drive out the Romans. "How would our fathers, accustomed to carrying war near the walls of Carthage, groan if they saw us, their children, if they saw two consuls, two consular armies, in the middle of Italy, stopped by fear in their entrenchments:while the African has submitted to his domination the whole country between the Alps and the Apennines! Such were the speeches he made by the bedside of his sick colleague, which he repeated almost publicly in his tent. He was spurred on both by the idea of the approach of the comitia, which could hand over the care of the war to other consuls, and by the opportunity to reflect on him alone all the glory of a success, during the colleague's illness. Also, despite the representations of Cornelius, he orders the soldiers to be ready to give battle as soon as possible. Hannibal, who saw that prudence was the safest course for the enemy, little suspected that the consuls would act lightly and imprudently. But, convinced first by fame, then by his observations, of the ardor and anger of one of the consuls, whose impetuosity must have been further increased by a success over his foragers, he no longer despaired of fortune. soon gives him the opportunity to strike a blow. In order not to let her escape, he redoubled his vigilance and activity, while the Roman soldier was little seasoned, while the best of the two generals was, by his wound, unable to fight, and while nothing there had not cooled the enthusiasm of the Gauls, of whom he knew that the great number would follow him with more reluctance, in proportion as they were carried farther from their fatherland. These motives, and still others, made him hope for a battle soon. served in both armies, reported to him that the Romans were preparing for battle; he then began to search the surroundings for a suitable place for an ambush.