Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 27
Cyrus Evans, Ed.

17. In the beginning of the summer during which these events occurred, after Publius Scipio had employed the whole of the winter in Spain in regaining the affections of the barbarians, partly by presents, and partly by sending home their hostages and prisoners, Edesco, a man distinguished among the Spanish commanders, came to him. [2] His wife land children were in the hands of the Romans; but besides this motive, he was influenced by that apparently fortuitous turn in the state of feeling which had converted the whole of Spain from the Carthaginian to the Roman cause. [3] The same motive induced Indibilis and Mandonius, who were undoubtedly the principal men in all Spain, to desert Hasdrubal and withdraw with the whole body of their countrymen to the eminences which overhung his camp, from which they had a safe retreat along a chain of hills to the Romans. [4] Hasdrubal, perceiving that the strength of the enemy was increasing by such large accessions, while his own was diminishing, and that events would continue to flow in the same course they had taken, unless by a bold effort he effected some alteration, resolved to come to an engagement as soon as possible. [5] Scipio was still more eager for a battle, as well from hope which the success attending his operations had increased, as because he preferred, before the junction of the enemy's forces, to fight with one general and one army, rather than with their united troops. [6] However, in case he should be obliged to fight with more armies than one at the same time, he had with some ingenuity augmented his forces; for seeing that there was no necessity for ships, as the whole coast of Spain was clear of Carthaginian fleets, he hauled his ships on shore at Tarraco and added his mariners to his land forces. [7] He had plenty of arms for them, both those which had been captured at Carthage, and those which he had caused to be made after its capture, so large a number of workmen having been employed. [8] With these forces, setting out from Tarraco at the commencement of the spring, for Laelius had now returned from Rome, without whom he wished nothing of very great importance to be attempted, Scipio marched against the enemy. [9] Indibilis and Mandonius, with their forces, met him while on his march; passing through every place without molestation, his allies receiving him courteously, and [p. 1116]escorting him as he passed the boundaries of each district. [10] Indibilis, who spoke for both, addressed him by no means stupidly and imprudently like a barbarian, but with a modest gravity, rather excusing the change as necessary, than glorying that the present opportunity had been eagerly seized as the first which had occurred. [11] “For he well knew,” he said, “that the name of a deserter was an object of execration to former allies, and of suspicion to new ones; nor did he blame the conduct of mankind in this respect, provided, however, that the cause, and not the name, occasioned the twofold hatred.” [12] He then recounted the services they had rendered the Carthaginian generals, and on the other hand their rapacity and insolence, together with the injuries of every kind committed against themselves and their countrymen. “On this account,” he said, “his person only up to that time had been with them, his heart had long since been on that side where he believed that right and justice were respected. [13] That people sought for refuge, as suppliants, even with the gods when they could not endure the oppression and injustice of men. [14] What he had to entreat of Scipio was, that their passing over to him might neither be the occasion of a charge of fraud nor a ground for respect, but that he would estimate their services according to what sort of men he should find them to be from experience from that day.” [15] The Roman replied, that “he would do so in every particular; nor would he consider those men as deserters who did not look upon an alliance as binding where no law, divine or human, was unviolated.” Their wives and children were then brought before them and restored to them; on which occasion they wept for joy. [16] On that day they were conducted to a lodging; on the following they were received as allies, by a treaty, after which they were sent to bring up their forces. [17] From that time they had their tents in the same camp with the Romans, until under their guidance they had reached the enemy.