1Between the armies was a stream, enclosed on both sides by very high banks and overgrown round about with marsh plants and with the brushwood and brambles that usually clothe uncultivated ground. 1When he had ridden round it himself and surveyed with his own eyes a place with cover enough to hide even cavalry, he said to his brother Mago, 'This will be the place for you to hold. 2Choose a hundred men apiece from all the infantry and cavalry, and come to me with them at the first watch; 3now it is time to look after your bodies.' 3So the council was dismissed. 3Soon Mago was there with his chosen men.
3'I see the pick of the men,' said Hannibal; 3'but so that you may be strong in numbers too, not only in spirit, let each of you choose nine men like yourselves from the squadrons and maniples. 3Mago will show you the place where you are to lie in wait: you have an enemy who is blind to these arts of war.' 3So, having sent off a thousand horse and a thousand foot, Hannibal at first light orders the Numidian cavalry to cross the river Trebia, ride up to the enemy's gates, and by hurling javelins at the outposts draw the enemy out to battle; then, once the fight was joined, by giving ground to draw them gradually across to this side of the river.
5These were the orders given to the Numidians; 5the other commanders of infantry and cavalry were instructed to order all their men to take their morning meal and then, armed and with their horses saddled, to await the signal. 6Sempronius, at the uproar of the Numidians, led out first all his cavalry, being confident in that part of his forces, then six thousand infantry, and finally all his forces, eager for battle in keeping with a plan already formed beforehand. 7It happened to be the season of the winter solstice and a snowy day in the region lying between the Alps and the Apennines, which was bitterly cold, too, from the nearness of rivers and marshes.
8Besides, since men and horses had been led out in haste, without first taking food and without any means applied to keep off the cold, there was no warmth in them, and the nearer they came to the breeze off the river, the keener the force of the cold that blew upon them. 9But when, pursuing the Numidians as they fell back, they entered the water, which had risen breast-high with the night's rain, then indeed, when they came out, everyone's bodies were so stiff that they hardly had the strength to hold their weapons, and at the same time they began to fail from weariness and, as the day wore on, from hunger too.