12.2
he smote his thigh, and with a deep groan said to the bystanders: Hercules! how much sooner than I expected, but later than his own rash eagerness demanded, has Minucius destroyed himself! Then ordering the standards to be swiftly advanced and the army to follow, he called out with a loud voice: Now, my soldiers, let every man be mindful of Marcus Minucius and press on to his aid; for he is a brilliant man, and a lover of his country. And if his ardent desire to drive away the enemy has led him into any error, we will charge him with it later.
12.3
Well then, as soon as he appeared upon the scene, he routed and dispersed the Numidians who were galloping about in the plain. Then he made against those who were attacking the rear of the Romans under Minucius, and slew those whom he encountered. But the rest of them, ere they were cut off and surrounded in their own turn, as the Romans had been by them, gave way and fled.
12.4
Then Hannibal, seeing the turn affairs had taken, and Fabius, with a vigour beyond his years, ploughing his way through the combatants up to Minucius on the hill, put an end to the battle, signalled a retreat, and led his Carthaginians back to their camp, the Romans also being glad of a respite. It is said that as Hannibal withdrew, he addressed to his friends some such pleasantry as this about Fabius: Verily, did I not often prophesy to you that the cloud which we saw hovering above the heights would one day burst upon us in a drenching and furious storm?
13.1
XIII After the battle, Fabius despoiled all of the enemy whom he had slain, and withdrew to his camp, without indulging in a single haughty or invidious word about his colleague. And Minucius, assembling his own army, said to them: Fellow-soldiers, to avoid all mistakes in the conduct of great enterprises is beyond man’s powers; but when a mistake has once been made, to use his reverses as lessons for the future is the part of a brave and sensible man.
