Accordingly, he had sent thither, by night, several troops of Numidians, concealing them in the midst of the wood.

Not one of them stirred from his position by day, lest their arms or themselves should be observed from a distance.
There was a general murmur in the Roman camp, that this eminence ought to be occupied and secured by a fort, lest if it should be seized by Hannibal they should have the enemy, as it were, immediately over their heads.

Marcellus was moved by this consideration, and observed to his colleague, "Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen and reconnoitre?
The matter being examined with our own eyes, will make our measures more certain." Crispinus consenting, they set out with two hundred and twenty horsemen, of which forty were Fregellans, the rest Tuscans.

Marcus Marcellus, the consul's son, and Aulus Manlius, military tribunes, together with two prefects of the allies, Lucius Arennius and Manius Aulius, accompanied them.

Some historians have recorded, that Marcellus had offered sacrifices on that day, and that in the first victim slain, the liver was found without its head; in the second, that all the usual parts were present, and that there was also an excrescence in the head.