With the rebels some away, Hamilcar ordered the heavy infantry to wheel about again in battle formation. As the cavalry and then the elephants came closer to the infantry Hamilcar ordered each in turn to also wheel about to face the rebels. The modern historian Dexter Hoyos stresses that "uch manoeuvres were about the simplest that any army could learn, once it mastered the absolute basics of marching in formation". The leading rebel formation suddenly found itself not pursuing a shaken foe, but faced at close range by formed bodies of elephants and cavalry with more than 7,000 heavy infantry advancing behind them. By this point the rebels had completely lost formation, and even unit cohesion. The rebels in their leading force panicked and routed. At least part of this body was obstructed by the other rebel formation which was still charging towards the Carthaginians and they even came to blows as the men of the second group attempted to prevent the those of the first from fleeing. Into this confusion charged the Carthaginian elephants and cavalry; in the words of Polybius "many were trampled when the cavalry and elephants attacked them at close quarters."