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Metellus, who was still ignorant of the enemy's position, was now seenWas seen] Conspicitur. This is the reading adopted by Cortius, Müller and Allen as being that of all the manuscripts. Havercamp, Kritzius, and Dietsch admitted into their texts, on the sole authority of Donatus ad Ter. Eun. ii. 3, conspicatur, i.e. (Metellus) catches sight of the enemy. The latter reading, perhaps, makes a better connection. descending the mountain with his army. He was at first doubtful what the strange appearance before him indicated; for the Numidians, both cavalry and infantry, had taken post among the wood, not entirely concealing themselves, by reason of the lowness of the trees, yet rendering it uncertainRendering it uncertain] Incerti. Presenting such an appearance that a spectator could not be certain what they were. what they were, as both themselves and their standards were screened as well by the nature of the ground as by artifice; but soon perceiving that there were men in ambush, he halted awhile, and, having altered the arrangement of his troops, he drew up those in the right wing, which was nearest to the enemy, in three lines ;He drew up these in the right wing—in three lines] In dextero latere-triplicibus subsidiis aciem instruxit. In the other passages in which Sallust has the word subsidia (Cat. c. 59) he uses it for the lines behind the front. Thus he says of Catiline, Octo cohortes in fronte constituit; reliqua signa in subsidiis arctiùs collocat; and of Petreius, Cohortes veteranas—in fronte; post eas reliquum exercitum in subsidiis locat. But whether he uses the word in the same sense here: whether we might, as Cortius thinks (whom Gerlach and Dietsch follow), call the division of Metellus's troops quadruple instead of triple, or whether he arranged them, as De Brosses and others suppose, in the usual disposition of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, who shall place beyond dispute? The probability, however, if Sallust is consistent with himself in his use of the word, lies with Cortius. Gerlach refers to Cæsar, De Bell, Civ., iii. 89: " Celeriter ex tertiâ acie singulas cohortes detraxit, atque ex his quartam instituit; but this does not illustrate Sallust's use of the word subsidia: Cæsar forms a fourth acies; Metellus draws up one acies "triplicibus subsidia." he distributed the slingers and archers among the infantry, posted all the cavalry on the flanks, and having made a brief address, such as time permitted, to his men, he led them down, with the front changed into a flank,With the front changed into a flank] Transversis principiis. He made the whole army wheel to the left, so that what was their front line, or principia, as they faced the enemy on the hill, became their flank as they marched from the mountain toward the river. toward the plain.
