Book 2
40
Juba, having been informed by Saburra of the night battle, sends to his relief two thousand Spanish and Gallic cavalry which he had been wont to keep round his person as a bodyguard, and that part of the infantry on which he most relied, and himself follows more slowly with the rest of his forces and sixty elephants. Saburra, suspecting that after sending forward the cavalry Curio would himself approach, draws up his forces, horse and foot, and orders them to feign fear and to give ground gradually and retire, saying that he himself would give the signal of battle when necessary and issue such orders as he might judge the situation to require. Curio, having the general opinion of the moment to confirm his former hopes, and thinking that the enemy was in flight, leads down his forces from the higher ground towards the plain.
