Such was the substance of Scipio's harangue. Hannibal placed in front of his whole force his elephants, of which he had over eighty, and behind them the mercenaries numbering about twelve thousand. They were composed of Ligurians, Celts, Balearic Islanders, and Moors.
Behind these he placed the native Libyans and Carthaginians, and last of all the troops he had brought over from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a> at a distance of more than a stade from the front lines.
He secured his wings by cavalry, placing the Numidian allies on the left and the Carthaginian horse on the right.
He ordered each commanding officer of the mercenaries to address his own men, bidding them be sure of victory as they could rely on his own presence and that of the forces that he had brought back with him.
As for the Carthaginians, he ordered their commanders to set before their eyes all the sufferings that would befall their wives and children if the result of the battle were adverse. They did as they were ordered,
and Hannibal himself went the round of his own troops, begging and imploring them to remember their comradeship of seventeen years and the number of the battles they had previously fought against the Romans.
"In all these battles," he said, "you proved so invincible that you have not left the Romans the smallest hope of ever being able to defeat you.
Above all the rest, and apart from your success in innumerable smaller engagements, keep before your eyes the battle of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Trebia&groupId=1044&placeId=1838">Trebia</a> fought against the father of the present Roman general, bear in mind the battle of the Trasimene against Flaminius, and that of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cannae&groupId=430&placeId=797">Cannae</a> against Aemilius,
battles with which the action in which we are about to engage is not worthy of comparison either in respect to the numbers of the forces engaged or the courage of the soldiers."
He bade them, as he spoke thus, to cast their eyes on the ranks of the enemy. Not only were they fewer, but they were scarcely a fraction of the forces that had formerly faced them, and for courage they were not to be compared with those.
For then their adversaries were men whose strength was unbroken and who had never suffered defeat, but those of to‑day were some of them the children of the former nand some the wretched remnant of the legions he had so often vanquished and put to flight in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a>.
Therefore he urged them not to destroy the glorious record of themselves and their general, but, fighting bravely, to confirm their reputation for invincibility.
Such was the substance of the harangues of the two generals.
Walbank Commentary