When all was ready for battle on both sides, the Numidian horse having been skirmishing with each other for some time, Hannibal ordered the drivers of the elephants to charge the enemy.
When the trumpets and bugles sounded shrilly from all sides, some of the animals took fright and at once turned tail and rushed back upon the Numidians who had come up to help the Carthaginians, and Massanissa attacking simultaneously, the Carthaginian left wing was soon left exposed.
The rest of the elephants falling on the Roman velites in the space between the two main armies,
both inflicted and suffered much loss, until finally in their terror some of them escaped through the gaps in the Roman line with Scipio's foresight had provided, so that the Romans suffered no injury, while others fled towards the right and, received by the cavalry with showers of javelins, at length escaped out of the field.
It was at this moment that Laelius, availing himself of the disturbance created by the elephants, charged the Carthaginian cavalry
and forced them to headlong flight. He pressed the pursuit closely, as likewise did Massanissa.
In the meanwhile both phalanxes slowly and in imposing array advanced on each other, except the troops which Hannibal had brought back from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a>, who remained in their original position.
When the phalanxes were close to each other, Romans fell upon their foes, raising their war-cry and clashing their shields with their spears as is their practice,
while there was a strange confusion of shouts raised by the Carthaginian mercenaries, for, as Homer says, their voice was not one, but<quote><l>Mixed was the murmur, and confused the sound,</l><l>Their names all various,</l></quote>as appears from the list of them I gave above.
Walbank Commentary