At this juncture a portion of his army encountered the French and Sardinians at Montebello, where the extreme right wing of the allies was posted.

For this service Titus Manlius Torquatus was sent; he had been twice consul and censor, and had subdued the Sardinians during his consulate.

The expedition of Tiberius Gracchus against the Sardinians in 577 was specially held in remembrance, not so much because it gave "peace" to the province, as because he asserted that he had slain or captured as many as 80,000 of the islanders, and dragged slaves thence in such multitudes to Rome that "cheap as a Sardinian" became a proverb.