" With this determination Paulus began the campaign.
XV. Varro induced his colleague to adopt the system of each consul
holding the chief command on alternate days. He proceeded to encamp near
Hannibal on the banks of the river Aufidus, close to the village of
Cannae. At daybreak he showed the signal of battle (a red tunic
displayed over the General's tent), so that the Carthaginians were at
first disheartened at the daring of the consul and the great number of
his troops, more than twice that of their own army. Hannibal ordered his
soldiers to get under arms, and himself rode with a few others to a
rising ground, from which he viewed the enemy, who were already forming
their ranks. When one Gisco, a man of his own rank, said to him that the
numbers of the enemy were wonderful, Hannibal with a serious air
replied, "Another circumstance much more wonderful than this has escaped
your notice, Gisco." When Gisco asked what it might be, Hannibal
answered, "It is, that among all those men before you there is not one
named Gisco." At this unexpected answer they all began to laugh, and as
they came down the hill they kept telling this joke to all whom they
met, so that the laugh became universal, and Hannibal's staff was quite
overpowered with merriment. The Carthaginian soldiers seeing this took
courage, thinking that their General must be in a position to despise
his enemy if he could thus laugh and jest in the presence of danger.
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