Hasdrubal hastened to Carthage, lest the apprehensions occasioned by the recent disaster should lead to any timorous measures.

So great was the consternation created there on the first receipt of the news, that it was fully anticipated that Scipio, suspending his operations against Utica, would immediately lay siege to Carthage.

The suffetes, therefore, who form with them an authority similar to the consular, summoned the senate, when the three following opinions were given.

The first proposed, that a decree should be passed to the effect, that ambassadors should be sent to Scipio to treat of peace; the second, that Hannibal should be recalled to defend his country from a war which threatened its annihilation; the third breathed the spirit of Roman constancy under adversity; it recommended that the losses of the army should be repaired, and that Syphax should be exhorted not to abandon the war.

The latter opinion prevailed, because it was that which Hasdrubal, who was present, and all the members of the Barcine faction, preferred.