1When everyone else was crowding round the victorious Hannibal, congratulating him and urging that, having finished so great a war, he should both take rest himself for what remained of the day and the following night and give it to his weary soldiers, Maharbal, the cavalry commander, thinking there should be no delay at all, said: 'No: so that you may know what has been achieved by this battle, on the fifth day you will feast as victor on the Capitol. 2Follow; 2I will go ahead with the cavalry, so that they will know I have come before they know I am coming.' 2The thing seemed to Hannibal too joyful and too great for him to grasp it in his mind at once.
3So he says that he praises Maharbal's goodwill; 3but that time was needed to weigh the plan. 4Then Maharbal said: 'The gods, it seems, have not given everything to the same man: you know how to win, Hannibal; you do not know how to use victory.' 4That day's delay is widely believed to have been the salvation of the city and the empire. 5On the next day, as soon as it was light, they set about collecting the spoils and viewing the carnage, a horrible sight even for enemies. 6There lay so many thousands of Romans, infantry and cavalry everywhere, as chance had joined each man to another, in the battle or in flight.
6Some, rising all bloody from the midst of the slaughter, roused by their wounds, which had stiffened in the morning cold, were cut down by the enemy; 7some they found lying still alive with thighs and hamstrings cut, baring their necks and throats and bidding them drain the blood that remained; 8some were found with their heads buried in holes dug in the earth; it was clear that they had made the pits for themselves and, heaping soil over their faces, had shut off their breath. 9What especially drew everyone's attention was a Numidian dragged out alive from under a dead Roman lying on top of him, with nose and ears torn, since the Roman, his hands useless for grasping a weapon, his anger turned to madness, had died tearing his enemy with his teeth.