Particularly those who remained of the soldiers who had fought at Cannae felt convinced that under Scipio, and no other general, they would be enabled, by exerting themselves in the cause of the state, to put an end to their ignominious service.

Scipio was very far from feeling contempt for that description of soldiers, inasmuch as he knew that the defeat sustained at Cannae was not attributable to their cowardice, and that there were no soldiers in the Roman army who had served so long, or were so experienced not only in the various kinds of battles, but in assaulting towns also.

The legions which had fought at Cannae were the fifth and sixth.

After declaring that he would take these with him into Africa, he inspected them man by man; and leaving those whom he considered unfit for service, he substituted for them those whom he had brought from Sicily, filling up those legions so that each might contain six thousand two hundred infantry and three hundred horse.

The horse and foot of the allies, of the Latin confederacy, he also chose out of the army of Cannae.
25.