He led them to the spot where the elephants, collected in a body, were creating the greatest confusion, and ordered them to discharge their javelins at them.

As there was no difficulty in hitting such bulky bodies at a short distance, and where so many were crowded together, all their javelins stuck in them.

But they were not all wounded, so those in whose hides the javelins stuck, as that race of animals is not to be depended on, by taking themselves to flight, drove away those also which were untouched.

At that moment not only one maniple, but all the soldiers who could but overtake the body of retreating elephants, threw their javelins at them, each man exerting himself to his utmost.

With so much greater impetuosity did the animals rush upon their own men, and so much greater carnage did they make amongst them than they had made amongst their enemies, in proportion as the violence with which they are impelled, and the consternation produced by them when under the influence of fear, is greater than when they are ruled by their masters seated on their backs.