История Рима от основания города

Книга XXII, гл. 17

17. Pri­mis te­neb­ris si­len­tio mo­ta castra; bo­ves ali­quan­to an­te sig­na ac­ti. [2] Ubi ad ra­di­ces mon­tium vias­que an­gus­tas ven­tum est, sig­num ex­templo da­tur ut ac­cen­sis cor­ni­bus ar­men­ta in ad­ver­sos con­ci­ten­tur mon­tes. Et me­tus ip­se re­lu­cen­tis flam­mae ex­templo a ca­pi­te ca­lor­que iam ad vi­vum ad ima­que cor­nua ve­niens ve­lut sti­mu­la­tos fu­ro­re age­bat bo­ves. [3] Quo re­pen­te dis­cur­su haud se­cus quam sil­vis mon­ti­bus­que ac­cen­sis om­nia cir­ca vir­gul­ta ar­de­re vi­sa; ca­pi­tum­que ir­ri­ta quas­sa­tio ex­ci­tans flam­mam ho­mi­num pas­sim dis­cur­ren­tium spe­ciem prae­be­bat. [4] Qui ad tran­si­tum sal­tus in­si­den­dum lo­ca­ti erant, ubi in sum­mis mon­ti­bus ac su­per se quos­dam ig­nes conspe­xe­re, cir­cum­ven­tos se es­se ra­ti prae­si­dio ex­ces­se­re; qua mi­ni­me den­sae mi­ca­bant flam­mae, ve­lut tu­tis­si­mum iter, pe­ten­tes sum­ma mon­tium iuga, ta­men in quos­dam bo­ves pa­la­tos a suis gre­gi­bus in­ci­de­runt. [5] Et pri­mo, cum pro­cul cer­ne­rent ve­lu­ti flam­mas spi­ran­tium, mi­ra­cu­lo at­to­ni­ti consti­te­runt; [6] dein­de ut hu­ma­na ap­pa­ruit fra­us, tum ve­ro in­si­dias ra­ti es­se cum maio­re tu­mul­tu con­ci­tant se in fu­gam. Le­vi quo­que ar­ma­tu­rae hos­tium in­cur­re­re; ce­te­rum nox aequa­to ti­mo­re neut­ros pug­nam in­ci­pien­tes ad lu­cem te­nuit. [7] In­te­rea to­to ag­mi­ne Han­ni­bal transduc­to per sal­tum et qui­bus­dam in ip­so sal­tu hos­tium oppres­sis in ag­ro Al­li­fa­no po­suit castra.