I would be really pissed that I lost a veteran army too normally, but, the turn after I was defeated, the Polybian reforms came through and it seemed a waste to retrain anyway, because I was going to have build new armies in the first place. The army was really good, but I needed to get rid of them somehow and at least they died fighting.

Update on campaign: The Luso's besieged Emporion, assaulted in one turn and I just barely beat them off by the skin of my teeth, totally eradicating their army to the last man as the AI is stupid. I alos bribed a large army of Samnite rebels, combined them with other Samnites that I had bribed earlier, shipped them to Iberia and they're now swatting the Luso's like flies. Back in Italy, a new manipular army is being trained and will be ready in about five turns. I also beat back assaults on the two northern Iberian towns I took.