Kitap 29
1
During this summer an extensive war broke out in Spain at the instigation of Indibilis, whose sole motive was his intense admiration for Scipio which made him think lightly of other commanders. The people looked upon him as the only general the Romans had left to them, all the others having been killed by Hannibal. Indibilis told the Spaniards that it was owing to this there was no one else who could be sent to Spain after the two Scipios were killed, and when the war began to press more heavily on Italy he was recalled home as the only man who could oppose Hannibal. The Roman generals in Spain were nothing but names and the veteran army had been withdrawn; now there was confusion everywhere, and an untrained mob of raw recruits. Never again would Spain have such a chance of recovering its liberty. Up to that time it had been in bondage to either the Romans or the Carthaginians, nor always to one alone, occasionally to both at the same time. The Carthaginians had been expelled by the Romans, the Romans could be expelled by the Spaniards if they were unanimous, and then with their country freed for ever from foreign domination they could return to the traditions and rites of their forefathers. By arguments of this kind he succeeded in rousing his own people and their neighbours, the Ausetani. Other tribes round joined them and in a few days 30,000 infantry and about 4000 cavalry mustered in the Sedetanian territory, the appointed rendezvous.
