1Hannibal, at first light, having sent ahead the Balearics and the other light-armed troops, crossed the river and placed each body in the line as he brought it across, the Gallic and Spanish cavalry near the bank on the left wing, facing the Roman horse; 3the right wing was given to the Numidian cavalry, while the centre was strengthened with infantry, so arranged that the Africans held both its ends, and between them in the middle were placed the Gauls and Spaniards. 4You would have taken the Africans for a Roman line: so armed were they with weapons captured at the Trebia and, for the most part, at Trasimene. 5The Gauls and Spaniards had shields of nearly the same shape, but unequal and unlike swords, the Gauls very long ones without points, the Spaniard, who was used to attacking the enemy with the thrust rather than the cut, handy short ones with points.
5Above the others the look of these nations was terrifying, both for the size of their bodies and for their appearance: the Gauls were naked above the navel; 6the Spaniards had taken their stand in linen tunics bordered with purple, gleaming with a wonderful whiteness. 6The number of all the infantry who then stood in the line was forty thousand, of the cavalry ten thousand. 7The commanders on the wings were Hasdrubal on the left, Maharbal on the right; 7the centre Hannibal himself held with his brother Mago. 8The sun, whether they had been placed so on purpose or because they happened to stand so, fell very conveniently aslant on both sides, the Romans facing south, the Carthaginians north; 9a wind (the inhabitants of the region call it the Volturnus) rising against the Romans, by rolling much dust into their very faces, took away their view.