They are proved to be wrong by
those who sink shafts for mines, and meet with rivers in the depths of
the earth, which have not collected themselves by degrees, as would be
the case if they derived their origin from the sudden movements of the
earth, but flow with a full stream. Also, when mountains and rocks are
fissured by a blow, there springs out a gush of water, which afterwards
ceases. But enough of this.
XV. Aemilius remained quiet for some days, and it is said two such great
hosts never were so near together and so quiet. After exploring and
trying every place he discovered that there was still one pass
unguarded, that, namely, through Perrhaebae by Pythium and Petra. He
called a council of war to consider this, being himself more hopeful of
success that way, as the place was not watched, than alarmed at the
precipices on account of which the enemy neglected it. First of those
present, Scipio, surnamed Nasica, son-in-law to Scipio Africanus,
afterwards a leading man in the Senate, volunteered to lead the party
which was to make this circuitous attack. And next Fabius Maximus, the
eldest of the sons of Aemilius, though still only a youth, rose and
spiritedly offered his services. Aemilius, delighted, placed under their
command not so many troops as Polybius says in his history, but so many
as Nasica himself tells us that he had, in a letter which he wrote to
one of the princes of that region about this affair.
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