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Salammbo-Part15_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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lost it, it will do nothing for them."

Afterwards a scruple troubled him. He was afraid of offending Moloch



by worshipping Aptouknos, the god of the Libyans, and he timidly asked

Spendius to which of the gods it would be advisable to sacrifice a



man.

"Keep on sacrificing!" laughed Spendius.



Matho, who could not understand such indifference, suspected the Greek

of having a genius of whom he did not speak.



All modes of worship, as well as all races, were to be met with in

these armies of Barbarians, and consideration was had to the gods of



others, for they too, inspired fear. Many mingled foreign practices

with their native religion. It was to no purpose that they did not



adore the stars; if a constellation were fatal or helpful, sacrifices

were offered to it; an unknown amulet found by chance at a moment of



peril became a divinity; or it might be a name and nothing more, which

would be repeated without any attempt to understand its meaning. But



after pillaging temples, and seeing numbers of nations and slaughters,

many ultimately ceased to believe in anything but destiny and death;--



and every evening these would fall asleep with the placidity of wild

beasts. Spendius had spit upon the images of Jupiter Olympius;



nevertheless he dreaded to speak aloud in the dark, nor did he fail

every day to put on his right boot first.



He reared a long quadrangular terrace in front of Utica, but in

proportion as it ascended the rampart was also heightened, and what



was thrown down by the one side was almost immediately raised again by

the other. Spendius took care of his men; he dreamed of plans and



strove to recall the stratagems which he had heard described in his

travels. But why did Narr' Havas not return? There was nothing but



anxiety.

Hanno had at last concluded his preparations. One night when there was



no moon he transported his elephants and soldiers on rafts across the

Gulf of Carthage. Then they wheeled round the mountain of the Hot



Springs so as to avoid Autaritus, and continued their march so slowly

that instead of surprising the Barbarians in the morning, as the



Suffet had calculated, they did not reach them until it was broad

daylight on the third day.



Utica had on the east a plain which extended to the large lagoon of

Carthage; behind it a valley ran at right angles between two low and



abruptly terminated mountains; the Barbarians were encamped further to

the left in such a way as to blockade the harbour; and they were



sleeping in their tents (for on that day both sides were too weary to

fight and were resting) when the Carthaginian army appeared at the



turning of the hills.

Some camp followers furnished with slings were stationed at intervals



on the wings. The first line was formed of the guards of the Legion in

golden scale-armour, mounted on their big horses, which were without



mane, hair, or ears, and had silver horns in the middle of their

foreheads to make them look like rhinoceroses. Between their squadrons



were youths wearing small helmets and swinging an ashen javelin in

each hand. The long files of the heavy infantry marched behind. All



these traders had piled as many weapons upon their bodies as possible.

Some might be seen carrying an axe, a lance, a club, and two swords



all at once; others bristled with darts like porcupines, and their

arms stood out from their cuirasses in sheets of horn or iron plates.



At last the scaffoldings of the lofty engines appeared: carrobalistas,

onagers, catapults and scorpions, rocking on chariots drawn by mules



and quadrigas of oxen; and in proportion as the army drew out, the

captains ran panting right and left to deliver commands, close up the



files, and preserve the intervals. Such of the Ancients as held

commands had come in purple cassocks, the magnificent fringes of which



tangled in the white straps of their cothurni. Their faces, which were

smeared all over with vermilion, shone beneath enormous helmets



surmounted with images of the gods; and, as they had shields with

ivory borders covered with precious stones, they might have been taken



for suns passing over walls of brass.

But the Carthaginians manoeuvred so clumsily that the soldiers in



derision urged them to sit down. They called out that they were just

going to empty their big stomachs, to dust the gilding of their skin,



and to give them iron to drink.

A strip of green cloth appeared at the top of the pole planted before



Spendius's tent: it was the signal. The Carthaginian army replied to

it with a great noise of trumpets, cymbals, flutes of asses' bones,



and tympanums. The Barbarians had already leaped outside the

palisades, and were facing their enemies within a javelin's throw of






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