1This was the first battle with Hannibal; 1and from it it became plain that the Carthaginian was superior in cavalry, and that for that reason open plains, such as lie between the Po and the Alps, were not suited to the Romans for waging war. 2So the next night the soldiers were ordered to pack their gear in silence, the camp was moved from the Ticinus, and they hurried to the Po, so that he might take his forces across by the rafts with which he had bridged the river, before they were unfastened, without confusion or pursuit by the enemy. 3They reached Placentia before Hannibal knew for certain that they had left the Ticinus; 3even so he captured about six hundred stragglers on the near bank of the Po, who were slow in unfastening the raft.
3He could not cross by the bridge, since its ends had been unfastened and the whole raft was drifting downstream. 3Coelius states that Mago with the cavalry and the Spanish infantry swam the river at once, and that Hannibal himself led the army across by fords higher up the Po, with the elephants set in line to break the force of the current. 4Those who know that river would scarcely believe this; 5for it is unlikely that the cavalry overcame so strong a current with their arms and horses safe, even granting that inflated skins carried all the Spaniards across, and it would have taken a detour of many days to reach fords of the Po where an army heavy with baggage could be led across.
6I find more credible the authorities who report that it took two days to find a place to bridge the river with a raft; 6and that by this the cavalry and the light-armed Spaniards were sent ahead with Mago. 7While Hannibal, having delayed by the river to hear embassies from the Gauls, brings across the heavier column of infantry, Mago and the cavalry meanwhile push on a day's march from the crossing of the river towards the enemy at Placentia. 8A few days later Hannibal fortified a camp six miles from Placentia, and the next day drew up his line in sight of the enemy and offered battle.