pursuing a circuitous and uncertain course along the turnings and windings of that tortuous river, with the intention of crossing it as soon as the first light should discover a place convenient for the purpose he made but little progress; but wasting the day in a fruitless attempt to discover a ford, for the further he went from the sea the higher he found the banks which kept the river in its course, he gave the enemy time to overtake him.

48.  First Nero arrived with the whole body of his cavalry, then Porcius came up with him, with the light infantry.  And while these were harassing his weary troops on every side, and charging them, and the Carthaginian, stopping his march, which resembled a flight, was desirous of encamping on an eminence, on the bank of the river, Livius came up with all his foot forces, not after the manner of troops on march, but armed and marshalled for immediate action.  When they had united all their forces, and the line was drawn out, Claudius took the direction of the battle in the right wing, Livius in the left; the management of the centre was given to the praetor.  Hasdrubal, when he saw that an engagement was inevitable, giving over the fortification of a camp, placed his elephants in the front line, before the standards; on either side these he placed in the left wing the Gauls to oppose Claudius, not so much from any confidence he reposed in them, as because he believed them to be dreaded by the enemy; the right wing he took to himself against M. Livius, together with the Spaniards, in whom, as being veteran troops, he placed his greatest hopes.  Behind the elephants, in the centre, the Ligurians were posted; but his line was rather long than deep.  The Gauls were covered by a hill, which extended in front.  That part of the line which was occupied by the Spaniards, engaged the left wing of the Romans, the whole of whose right wing, extending beyond the line of battle, was unengaged.  The hill before them prevented their making an attack either in front or flank.  Between Livius and Hasdrubal a furious contest arose, and the slaughter on both sides was dreadful.  Here were both generals, here the major part of the Roman horse and infantry, here the Spaniards, veteran troops, and experienced in the Roman manner of fighting, and the Ligurians, a nation inured to war.  The elephants were also driven to the same place which, on the first onset, disordered the van, and had made even dislodged the standards; but afterwards, the contest growing hotter, and the shout increasing, they became less submissive to their riders, and ranged to and fro between the two lines, as if not knowing to which side they belonged, like ships floating about without rudders.  Claudius, when he had striven in vain to advance up the hill, repeatedly calling out to his soldiers, “To what purpose then have we performed so long a march with such expedition?” when he found it impossible to make his way to the enemy in that quarter, withdrawing