Several had fearlessly refused; and quite resolved neither to support them nor to abandon them to the Great Council, he had sent them away with injunctions to fight no more against Carthage.

As to those who had been rendered docile by the fear of tortures, they had been furnished with the weapons taken from the enemy; and they were now presenting themselves to the vanquished, not so much in order to seduce them as out of an impulse of pride and curiosity.
At first they told of the good treatment which they had received from the Suffet; the Barbarians listened to them with jealousy although they despised them.

Then at the first words of reproach the cowards fell into a passion; they showed them from a distance their own swords and cuirasses and invited them with abuse to come and take them.

The Barbarians picked up flints; all took to flight; and nothing more could be seen on the summit of the mountain except the lance-points projecting above the edge of the palisades.
Then the Barbarians were overwhelmed with a grief that was heavier than the humiliation of the defeat.

They thought of the emptiness of their courage, and they stood with their eyes fixed and grinding their teeth.
The same thought came to them all.