Laelius and Scipio Proceed to New Carthage
But although historians agree in attributing these calculations to him; yet, when they come to narrate their issue,
they somehow or another attribute the success obtained not
to the man and his foresight, but to the gods and to Fortune,
and that, in spite of all probability, and the evidence of those
who lived with him; and in spite of the fact that Publius
himself in a letter addressed to Philip has distinctly set forth
that it was upon the deliberate calculations, which I have just
set forth, that he undertook the Iberian campaign generally,
and the assault upon New Carthage in particular.
However that may be, at the time specified he gave secret
Gaius Laelius proceeds to New Carthage with the fleet, |
instructions to Gaius Laelius, who was in command of the fleet, and who, as I have said, was
the only man in the secret, to sail to this town;
while he himself marched his army at a rapid
pace in the same direction.
Scipio by land. B.C. 209. |
His force consisted of twenty-five thousand infantry and
two thousand five hundred cavalry; and arriving at New
Carthage on the seventh day he pitched his camp on the
north of the town;
1 defended its rear by a double trench
and rampart stretching from sea to sea,
2 while on the side
facing the town he made absolutely no defences, for the nature
of the ground made him sufficiently secure.
But as I am now about to describe the assault and capture
of the town, I think I must explain to my readers the lie of
the surrounding country, and the position of the town itself.
