1Very conveniently for the start of operations, war had broken out between the Taurini, the nearest people, and the Insubres. 1But Hannibal could not arm his troops to help one side, since they felt the hardships they had suffered most of all while recovering: for rest after toil, plenty after want, and care after filth and decay affected in different ways bodies that were squalid and almost brutalised. 3This was the reason for the consul Publius Cornelius, when he had come to Pisa with his ships and had taken over from Manlius and Atilius an army of raw recruits, still nervous from its recent disgraces, to hurry to the Po, in order to join battle with the enemy before he had recovered.
4But by the time the consul came to Placentia, Hannibal had already moved from his standing camp and had taken by storm one city of the Taurini, the capital of that people, because they would not come willingly into friendship with him; 5and he would have won over the Gauls living along the Po, not by fear alone but also by their goodwill, had not the consul, by his sudden arrival, caught them while they were looking about for a moment to revolt. 6Hannibal, too, moved out from the territory of the Taurini, thinking that the Gauls, uncertain which side to follow, would follow the one that was at hand.
7The armies were now almost in sight of each other, and the generals had drawn near each other, who, while not yet well acquainted with each other, were each already filled with a certain admiration for the other. 8For Hannibal's name had been very famous even among the Romans before the destruction of Saguntum, and Hannibal believed Scipio to be an outstanding man from the very fact that he had been chosen above all others as commander against him; 9and they had heightened their opinion of each other, Scipio because, though left behind in Gaul, he had met Hannibal as he crossed into Italy, Hannibal by his attempt, so bold, to cross the Alps and by its success.
10Scipio, however, was first to cross the Po, and having moved his camp to the river Ticinus, before leading his men out into battle line he began a speech of this kind to encourage them: