|
|
|
583.No sooner had Xanthippus ordered the elephant drivers to advance and break the enemy's line and the cavalry on each wing to execute a turning movement and charge, than the Roman army, clashing their shields and spears together, as is their custom and uttering their battle-cry, advanced against the foe.
Polybius, The Histories, trans. W.R. Paton, Vol. I, Harvard 1967, p. 95.
PLACE: Libya (Carthage)
TIME: ca. 255 B.C.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The lst Punic War - battle between the Romans and the Carthaginians
The Romans, however, were on the one hand encouraged by having caught the enemy between their two armies, but on the other they were terrified by the fine order of the Celtic host and the dreadful din, for there were innumerable horn-blowers and trumpeters, and, as the whole army were shouting their war-cries at the same time, there was such a tumult of sound that it seemed that not only the trumpets and the soldiers but all the country round had got a voice and caught up tne cry.
Polybius, The Histories, trans. W.R. Paton, Vol. I, Harvard 1967, p. 313.
PLACE: Italy (Telamon, Etruria)
TIME: 225 B.C.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Battle between the Romans and the Celts.
home
