1The following night a massacre was carried out in the Roman camp by the Gallic auxiliaries, greater, however, in the uproar it caused than in its effect. 2About two thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry kill the sentries at the gates and desert to Hannibal; 2the Carthaginian addressed them kindly and, having fired them with the hope of huge gifts, sent them off each to his own state to win over the minds of their countrymen. 3Scipio, thinking that this massacre was a signal of revolt by all the Gauls, and that, infected by this crime, they would rush to arms as though seized by madness, although still suffering badly from his wound, nevertheless set out silently in the fourth watch of the following night and moves his camp to the river Trebia, to higher ground and hills more difficult for cavalry.
5He escaped notice less than at the Ticinus; 5and Hannibal, sending first the Numidians and then all his cavalry, would certainly have thrown at least the rear of the column into confusion, had not the Numidians, from greed for plunder, turned aside into the empty Roman camp. 6While they waste time there searching every part of the camp for no reward worth the delay, the enemy slipped out of their hands; 6and when they caught sight of the Romans already across the Trebia and marking out their camp, they cut off and killed a few stragglers on this side of the river. 7Scipio, unable to bear any longer the pain of his wound as it was jolted on the road, and thinking that he should wait for his colleague — for he had already heard that he had been recalled from Sicily — chose and fortified the place by the river that seemed safest for a standing camp.
8Hannibal, having encamped not far from there, as elated by his cavalry victory as he was anxious about the shortage of supplies, which grew greater every day as he marched through enemy territory with no provisions prepared anywhere, sends to the village of Clastidium, where the Romans had collected a great quantity of grain. 9There, as they were preparing to use force, hope of betrayal was offered; 9and for no great price, four hundred gold pieces, Dasius of Brundisium, the commander of the garrison, was bribed, and Clastidium is handed over to Hannibal. 10This served as a granary for the Carthaginians while they lay at the Trebia. 10No cruelty was shown to the prisoners from the surrendered garrison, so that a reputation for clemency might be won at the outset of the campaign.