1At the beginning of the summer in which these things were happening, war began in Spain too, by land and sea. 2Hasdrubal added ten ships to the number of ships that he had received fitted out and ready from his brother, and handed over a fleet of forty ships to Himilco; and so, setting out from Carthage, he kept his ships close to land while he led the army along the shore, ready to fight with whatever part of his forces the enemy should meet. 4Gnaeus Scipio, after he heard that the enemy had moved out of winter quarters, at first had the same plan; 4then, not daring to engage on land because of the great report of fresh auxiliaries, he put picked soldiers on board and went on to meet the enemy with a fleet of thirty-five ships.
5On the second day from Tarraco he reached an anchorage ten miles from the mouth of the river Ebro. 5From there two Massilian scout ships were sent ahead, and they reported that the Punic fleet lay in the mouth of the river and that a camp had been pitched on the bank. 6So, in order to overwhelm them all together while they were off their guard and unprepared, spreading terror everywhere at once, he weighed anchor and made for the enemy. 6Spain has many towers set on high places, which they use both as lookouts and as strongholds against brigands. 7From these, as soon as the enemy ships were sighted, a signal was given to Hasdrubal, and confusion arose on land and in the camp before it did by the sea and among the ships, since neither the beat of oars and the other sounds of seamen had yet been heard nor had the headlands yet revealed the fleet, when suddenly horseman after horseman, sent by Hasdrubal, ordered those who were wandering on the shore or resting in their tents, expecting nothing less than the enemy or a battle that day, to board the ships in haste and take up arms: the Roman fleet was already not far from the harbour.
8These were the orders given by the horsemen sent out in all directions; 9soon Hasdrubal himself was there with his whole army, and everything was loud with confused uproar, as rowers and soldiers rushed onto the ships together, more like men fleeing from the land than men going into battle. 10Scarcely had all embarked when some cast off their moorings and drift out onto their anchors, others cut the anchor-ropes so that nothing may hold them back; and with everything being done in a rush and too hastily, the seamen's tasks are hindered by the soldiers' gear, and the soldier is prevented by the panic of the sailors from taking up and fitting on his arms.
11And now the Roman was not only approaching but had even drawn up his ships for battle. 11So the Carthaginians, thrown into confusion no more by the enemy and the battle than by their own uproar, having attempted a fight rather than truly joined one, turned their fleet to flight. 12And since the mouth of the river facing them could hardly be entered by a broad line, especially with many coming in at once, they drove their ships ashore all along the coast, and the men, received some by the shallows and some by the dry beach, some armed and some unarmed, fled to the line of their comrades drawn up along the shore; 12two Punic ships, however, had been captured at the first clash, and four sunk.