destroyed all, friend or foe, who came in their way'. The infantry on the wings was broken. The centre was of no use because they could not leave their line to help the wings because of the advance of the native auxiliaries of the Romans. At the same time, they could not operate effectively in their position because the enemy in front of them would not engage. The wings kept up the fight for some time because the outcome of the battle depended on the fight on these two sides. As the day got hotter the Carthaginians grew faint as they had not been able to prepare themselves properly, while, at the same time, the best troops of the Romans were engaging the weaker troops of the enemy. The Carthaginians at first withdrew step by step, but then gave way in a body and withdrew to the foot of the hill and when the Romans renewed their pressure, they fled in rout to their camp. Then it started raining so heavily that the Romans had to make way to their camp with difficulty. Only four fragments of Polybius' account of this battle have survived and the information we have from him ends here. Livy also wrote that the battle was not evenly matched due to the Hispanic auxiliaries of the Carthaginians having to fight against the Romans and the Latin allies. He added that as the day wore on, the strength of the Carthaginians began to fail because they had not had a chance to have breakfast. Scipio had delayed the beginning of the battle proper for this reason. His charge started only after noon. The battle reached the centre considerably later, so that the noon heat, the strain of standing under arms, hunger and thirst weakened the Carthaginians and Africans before they started fighting. By then, the elephants had been put into a panic and the action of the light infantry had shifted from the wings to the centre. The weakened centre retreated, keeping their ranks. On seeing this, the Romans charged even harder on all sides. Hasdrubal tried to hold the line, but in the end his men fled up the hill behind them and then to their camp. The camp would have been taken had it not been for an extraordinary downpour. During the night, the Carthaginians raised their earthwork with the local stones. However, their allies