HKB
2 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: battle and tactics · strategy and the aims of war · military discipline and training · infantry wedge formation · conquest, plunder, and captives · close-quarters fighting · close-quarters combat · barbarian gate attack · ambush tactics · africans reserved troops
Usually: narrative (2) · the stranger's arrival (1)
The battle begins with light troops and cavalry clashes that become close combat, then the Roman infantry breaks a projecting wedge of Gauls and Spaniards and drives toward Hannibal’s African troops.
Africans, not only disadvantageous, because being hemmed in they had to fight against troops who surrounded them, but also because, fatigued, they fought with those who were fresh and vigorous. 48. Now also in the left wing of the Romans, in which the allied cavalry were opposed to the Numidians, the battle was joined, which was at first languid, commencing with a stratagem on the part of the Carthaginians. About fi…
At first light Porcius attacks, uses feigned retreat to draw barbarians from their gate, and turns cavalry panic into a close-quarters fight where the battle shifts anew.
battle, in a manner, began anew. They were no longer wounded by random blows from a distance, but, closing foot to foot, placed all their hope in courage and strength. 15. When the consul's men were now spent with fatigue, he reanimated their courage by bringing up into the fight some subsidiary cohorts from the second line. These formed a new front, and being fresh themselves, and with fresh weapons attacking the w…