as those usually provided for a consul.  These the praetor was directed to send for the king.  The ambassadors were severally presented with not less than five thousand asses, their attendants with one thousand.  Two suits of apparel were presented to each of the ambassadors, and one to each of their attendants and to the Numidians, who were discharged from custody and given back to the king.  In addition to these, dwellings, reserved by the state for such purposes, grounds, and entertainment, were assigned to the ambassadors.

18.  The same summer during which these decrees were passed at Rome, and these transactions took place in Africa, Publius Quinctilius Varus, the praetor, and Marcus Cornelius, the proconsul, fought a pitched battle with Mago the Carthaginian in the territories of the Insubrian Gauls.  The legions of the praetor were in the first line; Cornelius kept his in reserve, riding forward into the front himself, and the praetor and proconsul, leading on the two wings, exhorted the soldiers to attack the enemy with the utmost vigour.  Finding they produced no impression upon the enemy, Quinctilius said to Cornelius:  “The battle, as you perceive, does not proceed with spirit, the enemy, having succeeded in their resistance beyond expectation, have become callous to fear, and there is danger lest it should be converted into boldness.  We must stir up a tempest of cavalry if we wish to disorder and drive them from their ground; therefore, either do you sustain the fight in front, and I will lead the cavalry into the action; or else, I will act in the front line and you send out the cavalry of the four legions against the enemy.”  The proconsul offering to take whichever part of the service the praetor pleased, Quinctilius the praetor, with his son, surnamed Marcus, a spirited youth, went off to the cavalry, and desiring them to mount, instantly led them to the charge.  The confusion on occasioned by these was increased by a shout raised by the legions; nor would the line of the enemy have stood unbroken, had not Mago, as soon as he saw the cavalry in motion, immediately brought into the action his elephants, which he kept in readiness.  The horses were so terrified at the snorting, the smell, and appearance of these animals, that the aid of the cavalry was rendered ineffectual.  As the Roman horseman had the advantage in point of efficiency in a close fight, when he could use his javelin and sword hand to hand, so the Numidians had the advantage when throwing their darts from a distance upon enemies borne away from them by their terrified horses.  At the same time the twelfth legion, though a great number of them were slain, maintained their ground through shame rather than a reliance on their strength; but they would not have continued to do so longer, had not the thirteenth legion, brought up into the front line from the reserve, taken up the doubtful conflict.  Mago, also, bringing up the Gauls from his reserve, opposed them to the