The Romans Celebrate a Victory
Having won the victory, the Romans began pillaging the
enemy's camp; and killed a number of the Celts, as they lay
stupefied with drunkenness in their beds, like unresisting
victims. Then they collected the rest of the booty, from
which more than three hundred talents were paid into the
treasury. Taking Carthaginians and Celts together, not less
than ten thousand were killed, and about two thousand
Romans. Some of the principal Carthaginians were taken
prisoners, but the rest were put to the sword. When the
report reached Rome, people at first could not believe it, from
the intensity of their wish that it might be true; but when still
more men arrived, not only stating the fact, but giving full
details, then indeed the city was filled with overpowering joy;
every temple-court was decked, and every shrine full of
sacrificial cakes and victims: and, in a word, they were raised
to such a pitch of hopefulness and confidence, that every one
felt sure that Hannibal, formerly the object of their chief
terror, could not after that stay even in Italy. . . .
