At last one evening they surprised a body of velites amid some big
rocks at the entrance of a pass between the Silver Mountain and the Lead
Mountain; the entire army was certainly in front of them, for a noise
of footsteps and clarions could be heard; the Carthaginians immediately
fled through the gorge. It descended into a plain, and was shaped like
an iron hatchet with a surrounding of lofty cliffs. The Barbarians
dashed into it in order to overtake the velites; quite at the bottom
other Carthaginians were running tumultuously amid galloping oxen. A man
in a red cloak was to be seen; it was the Suffet; they shouted this to
one another; and they were carried away with increased fury and joy.
Several, from laziness or prudence, had remained on the threshold of the
pass. But some cavalry, debouching from a wood, beat them down upon
the rest with blows of pike and sabre; and soon all the Barbarians were
below in the plain.
Then this great human mass, after swaying to and fro for some time,
stood still; they could discover no outlet.
Those who were nearest to the pass went back again, but the passage had
entirely disappeared. They hailed those in front to make them go on;
they were being crushed against the mountain, and from a distance they
inveighed against their companions, who were unable to find the route
again.
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