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HANNIBAL
CROSSES THE ALPS

By CECIL TORR, M.A.

CAMBRIDGE : AT THE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
MCMXXIV

I have heard this question discussed ever since I was a child, but have never yet written anything about it except in my Small Talk at Wreyland. In the First Series, page 75, I was talking about travelling on the Continent, and I said:

“Plenty of people went to Switzerland at the time when I first went—1869—far more than when my father went there thirty years before, but nothing like the crowds that go there now. They kept more to peaks and passes then; and they were always talking of Hannibal’s passage of the Alps. Junius was talked out: Tichborne and Dreyfus were yet to come; and Hannibal filled the gap. I used to hear them at home as well as there; and they all had their pet routes for Hannibal—Col d’Argentière, Mont Genèvre, Mont Cenis, Little Mont Cenis, Little St Bernard and Great St Bernard, and even Simplon and St Gothard. In 1871 I went looking for traces of the vinegar on the Great St Bernard. My father upheld the Cenis routes as the only passes from which you can look down upon the plains of Italy. I doubt if Hannibal did look down. I think he may have shown his men their line of march upon a map, just as Aristagoras used a map to show the Spartans their line of march 282 years earlier.”

vi I wrote Anaxagoras by mistake for Aristagoras, and passed it in the proofs; and it was printed in the first impression of the First Series, though corrected in the second impression. I mentioned my mistake in the Second Series, page 102, and this and other instances led me on to say:

“I fancy that the Greek and Latin authors wrote the wrong word now and then, and never noticed it. That is not the view of textual critics and editors: they ascribe all errors to the men who copied out the manuscripts. But this limits them to errors that might arise in copying, and thus restricts the choice of emendations far too much. Take such an emendation as Isara for Arar in Livy, xxi. 31. This makes Livy say that the river was the Isère, not the Saône; but the context requires him to say it was the Durance, otherwise he would be saying ‘right’ instead of ‘left’ a few lines further on. A copyist might easily write arar for isara, so this emendation is accepted, although it does not suit.

“Such emendations are deceitful things. In this case they make Livy say the Isère, and make Polybios say it also, iii. 49, though he says something else; and then Members of the Alpine Club go saying that the river must have been the Isère, since Livy and Polybios agree in saying that it was. Other folk may say it does not matter what the river was; but that is a reason for leaving the whole thing alone, not for getting it wrong. If you take it up at all, you should not risk the sort of snubbing that Westbury gave the herald after cross-examination—‘Go away, you silly man: you don’t even understand your own silly science.’”

vii That brought me letters from Members of the Alpine Club and from a former President who is a champion of the Isère route. And this is my reply.

Postscript. I fear there is much repetition in the following pages, but I have a reason for it. The same facts recur in different contexts; and I have sometimes thought it better to re-state a fact than merely give cross-references.

Proposed route _{¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯}
Alternatives - - - - - - - -

1. SIMPLON
2. GREAT SAINT BERNARD
3. LITTLE SAINT BERNARD
4. MONT CENIS
5. MONT GENÈVRE
6. COL DE LA TRAVERSETTE
7. COL D’ARGENTIÈRE

1. Polybios, of course, is far the best authority. He was born in Hannibal’s lifetime; and he mentions (iii. 48. 12) that before he wrote his account of Hannibal’s passage of the Alps, he went over the ground himself to make quite sure.

2. As he writes in Greek, he gives the distances in stades—nine stades make an English mile—and (iii. 39. 6–10) he reckons 2600 stades from Cartagena to the Ebro, 1600 from there to Ampurias, at the Mediterranean end of the Pyrenees, 1600 from there to the crossing (diabasis) of the Rhone, 1400 along the river from its crossing to the ascent (anabolê) of the Alps, and 1200 across the Alps into Italy.

3. He says (iii. 39. 8) that he calculated the 1600 from Ampurias to the crossing of the Rhone by the milestones on the Roman road, reckoning eight stades to a Roman mile. Thus, in Roman miles his distances would be 325 to the Ebro, 200 to Ampurias, 200 to the Rhone, 175 along the river, and 150 across the Alps. He also says (iii. 56. 3) that Hannibal took fifteen days in marching the 1200 stades, and (iii. 50. 1) took ten days in marching 800, part of the 1400. Both cases give an average of 80 stades or 102 Roman miles a day; and this looks as if he knew the time employed here but did not know the distance covered, and therefore calculated the distance from the time. He certainly knew the time employed upon the march of fifteen days, as he elsewhere gives the days in detail, iii. 50. 5, 8, 52. 1, 2, 53. 5, 6, 9, 54. 4, 55. 6, 8, 56. 1. But Hannibal would not really have gone at the same pace on the fifteen days when he was fighting his way through the mountains as on the ten days when he was marching up the river unopposed. Polybios must have taken a standard rate, and used it indiscriminately when he had no help from milestones.

4. After giving distances which amount to 8400 stades or 1050 Roman miles in iii. 39. 6–10, he goes on in iii. 39. 11 to give their total as about (peri) 9000 stades or 1125 Roman miles. There must be an error in the total or the items. I fancy the total should be 8000 stades or 1000 Roman miles, as he was more likely to reckon 1050 as ‘about’ 1000 than as ‘about’ 1125. He mentions (iii. 56. 3) that Hannibal took five months on the march; and 150 days for the 1050 miles gives an average of 7 Roman miles a day. Large forces could not move fast. The column would be some miles in length, and the advance-guard might be close to the new camping-ground before the rear-guard left the previous camp; and time would have to be allowed for the rear-guard to come up.

5. Strabo was 150 years junior to Polybios; but the Roman road from Spain would not have moved, and he says (iv. 1. 3) that it crossed the Rhone at Tarascon. He goes on to say that it bifurcated there, one branch going through Aix to Antibes on the3 Mediterranean coast, while the other went through Cavaillon and along the Durance to the beginning of the ascent (anabasis) of the Alps, 63 miles from Tarascon, thence to Embrun, 99 miles further on, and thence through the Briançon district in 71 miles to Césanne, the first town in Italy. (The road must thus have crossed the Alps by the pass of Mont Genèvre.) Strabo here treats the beginning of the ascent of the Alps as a definite point, marked by a milestone, just as Polybios treats the ascent of the Alps and the crossing of the Rhone as definite points from which measurements could be made.

6. Roman roads were not built capriciously; and the road from Spain would not have crossed the Rhone at Tarascon unless there was some substantial reason for crossing it just there rather than a little higher up or a little lower down. This reason must have existed at the time when Hannibal crossed the Rhone a few years before the road was made; and by reckoning Hannibal’s march according to the Roman milestones, Polybios rather implies that Hannibal came that way. In any case Hannibal cannot have deviated greatly from the Roman road, as that ran near the coast, and Polybios says (iii. 41. 7) that Hannibal kept the sea upon his right hand (dexion echôn) as he marched.

7. After mentioning (iii. 37. 8) that the Rhone entered the sea by several mouths, Polybios says (iii. 42. 1) that Hannibal crossed it where it was a single stream, about four days’ march from the sea. It ceases to be a single stream at Arles, and divides there into branches leading to the mouths; and Arles is eight English4 miles below Tarascon and five-and-twenty from the sea. Four days at ten miles a day—see paragraph 3—would give 40 Roman miles, or 37 English, for the distance from Tarascon to the sea. But as Hannibal was coming from the west, he would have to turn inland at the westernmost mouth of the Rhone, somewhere near Aigues Mortes, whence the distance would be fully forty miles. No doubt, there were many crossing-places on the Rhone, and any of them might be known as a Diabasis—see paragraph 2—as this is merely the Greek for crossing. But there were many crossing-places on the Rhine, yet there was only one Trajectum, and many on the Euphrates, but only one Zeugma; and Polybios always speaks of the Diabasis of the Rhone as if there were no other.

8. According to Polybios (iii. 41. 2, 4–9, 44. 3, 45. 1–6, 47. 1, 49. 1) Scipio was taking a Roman army from Italy to Spain by sea, but stopped at the easternmost mouth of the Rhone and disembarked the army there, on hearing that Hannibal had already reached the crossing of the Rhone. He sent out cavalry to scout, and Hannibal likewise sent out cavalry, having heard of the arrival of the Roman ships. These two forces met: Scipio’s drove Hannibal’s back and pushed on far enough to see his camp, and then returned with information. Scipio forthwith (parautica) re-embarked the baggage and then marched up along the river with his whole force, as he was eager (speudôn) to attack the enemy. But on reaching the crossing, he found that the enemy had left their camp three days before, having started the morning after the encounter of the cavalry.

5 9. If the camp was at Tarascon, Scipio’s cavalry had a ride of sixty or seventy English miles, there and back, besides some fighting on the way; and after their return there was the embarcation of the baggage; so that Scipio could hardly have begun his march till the next morning or next afternoon. He may have been marching on three days, though not a full day’s march on the first day and perhaps not on the third; and he would entrench his camp each night with extra care, as the enemy were not far off. Even so, his progress seems a little slow; but had he gone ten miles further in the time, there would have been a serious check.

10. Ten miles above Tarascon the river Durance flows into the Rhone. Livy (xxi. 31) says that, of all the rivers of Gaul, the Durance was far the most difficult to cross, longe difficillimus transitu; and he mentions that it happened to be swollen by rains (forte imbribus auctus) at the time when Hannibal was there. If Hannibal had crossed the Rhone more than ten miles above Tarascon, he would have had the Durance between Scipio’s forces and his own; and Polybios says nothing to suggest that there was any obstacle between.

11. At this period the Romans had only a militia; and Scipio’s marches must not be calculated on the scale of marches by the regular army that Marius created a century later on. Still less should they be calculated from statements by Vegetius, who lived six centuries later and dealt with marches along Roman roads to established forts and towns. At this period a Roman force entrenched itself each night, and the entrenching took some time.

6 12. According to Polybios (iii. 49. 5–7) Hannibal marched up along the river after leaving his camp at the crossing of the Rhone, and arrived in four days at the Island, a populous and fertile place with the Rhone running along one side of it and the Scôras along the other. It was not strictly an island, but was (Polybios says) of the shape and size of the Delta of the Nile, with river on two sides and a range of mountains instead of the sea for the third side. Livy (xxi. 31) follows Polybios almost word for word in saying that Hannibal marched up along the Rhone to a district called the Island, where another river flowed into the Rhone. But he calls the other river the Arar, which is the Saône, and thus brings Hannibal up to Lyons, 200 miles from the sea. This would mean an average of 25 miles a day, the confluence being four days from the crossing and the crossing being four days from the sea, whereas Polybios gives an average of only 7 miles a day for the whole march and 10 miles a day for 250 miles out of the final 325 after the crossing of the Rhone: see paragraphs 3, 4.

13. As a reason for Hannibal’s going so far inland, Livy says (xxi. 31) that Hannibal did not wish to fight a battle against the Romans till he was actually in Italy, and the further he kept away from the sea, the less was the risk of meeting the enemy. But this is not borne out by what he says just afterwards (xxi. 32) where he is copying from Polybios, iii. 49. 2, 3. He says there that Scipio marched back to his ships on finding that the enemy had quitted their camp at the crossing of the Rhone, re-embarked the army and sent the bulk of it on to Spain, and returned to Italy himself7 to take command there if Hannibal got through the Alps. The march-back and the embarcation must have been as brisk as the march-up, Polybios using the same term for both, speudôn, iii. 45. 4, 49. 4. Hannibal had good information: he soon knew of the arrival of the Roman ships at the mouth of the Rhone—see paragraph 8—and would soon know of their departure; and he would not go 200 miles inland to avoid the enemy if he knew they were not there.

14. In order to reduce the distance, the editors of Livy have tampered with the text, and have printed “Isara” in place of “Arar,” thus changing the Saône into the Isère. They seem to have forgotten Silius Italicus, iii. 442–476. He was almost a contemporary of Livy—born only eight years after Livy’s death—and in his description of Hannibal’s march he not only speaks of the confluence of the Arar and the Rhone, but contrasts the rapidity of the Rhone with the quiet flow of the Arar; and that is just the difference between the Rhone and the Saône at Lyons, a difference remarked by Seneca (LUDUS, 7) and other ancient writers. Silius goes on to speak of the Tricastini and the Vocontii and the river Durance exactly as Livy (xxi. 31) goes on to speak of them, and in almost the same words. It seems clear that Silius had Livy’s words before him when he wrote, and that he found “Arar” there, not “Isara,” and had no doubts about the river being the Saône. That really is decisive for the text of Livy. The only pretext of the editors is that there is a mark like an s between the words ibi and Arar in one of the manuscripts of Livy.

8 15. These editors were very unwise in making Livy say “Isara,” as he would not have mentioned the confluence of the Isère and the Rhone without saying a good deal more. The monuments of the victory of 8 August 121 B.C. were at the confluence of the Isère and the Rhone. Strabo mentions them (iv. 1. 11) and Livy, who was his contemporary, must have known that they were there. (Livy described the victory in one of his lost books, lxi, the contents of which are known from the epitome.) Livy says (xxi. 31) that as soon as Hannibal reached the confluence of the Saône and the Rhone, he secured the support of the Allobriges. If this had happened at the confluence of the Isère and the Rhone, Livy would have made a telling point of the contrast between Hannibal’s securing the support of the Allobriges for his onslaught on Rome, and their subjugation by the Romans at the very same place a century later on.

16. No doubt the Saône rises in the Vosges and not in what we call the Alps; but Strabo (iv. 1. 11) and Ptolemy (ii. 10. 3) describe it as rising in the Alps, and Livy is probably taking the same view in saying that it rose there. It seems unwise to argue that he must have meant the Isère because the Isère rises in the Alps.

17. Ammianus says (xv. 11. 17) that the Arar was also known as the Saucona, Ararim, quem Sauconam appellant. He quotes Timagenes by name in xv. 9. 2, and probably quotes him here, as the pseudo-Plutarch (DE FLUVIIS, 6) quotes him for information about the Arar, which information (it says) he copied from Callisthenes. Timagenes was a contemporary of Livy; and I9 suspect that when Livy was copying Polybios, he took Scôras for Saucona or a variant of that name, but translated it as Arar because this name was better known.

18. The editors of Polybios have also tampered with their text and printed “Isaras” for “Scôras” in iii. 49. 6, as if the river was clearly the Isère. They seem to have forgotten what he says in the next sentence. As already mentioned in paragraph 12, he says that the so-called island between the Scôras and the Rhone was of the same shape as the Delta of the Nile, with these two rivers as the sides and a range of mountains (instead of sea) as the base. But it is a quadrangle, not a triangle, between the Isère and the Rhone: the Isère on the south, the Mont du Chat on the east, and the Rhone on the north as well as on the west, as its course turns round a right-angle at Lyons. When Polybios wanted to say that a place was quadrangular, he said so—he says tetragônos topos in vi. 27. 2—and he would have said so here, if that had been his meaning.

19. Some of the manuscripts have “Scôras” and others have “Scaras”; and this discrepancy is not uncommon in manuscripts of Polybios, as if they all were copied from the writing of a man who made his Alphas and Omegas very much alike. Casaubon altered “Scôras” or “Scaras” into “Araros” to make it agree with Livy. Cluver altered it into “Isaras” to make it agree with the alteration in Livy. Neither of them had any better reason for the change. When editors doubt a reading they ought to query it. These editors should have printed “Arar (? Isara)” and10 “Scôras (? Isaras),” or printed “Arar” in the text and “Isara” in a footnote, as in Drakenborch’s edition of Livy; but they have printed “Isara” and “Isaras” in the text itself, and in many editions they have not even added footnotes. Readers are thereby misled, and think they have the authority of Livy and Polybios for saying that the Island was at the confluence of the Isère and the Rhone, when in reality they have only the authority of editors who knew no more about the matter than they know themselves.

20. After taking Hannibal up to the confluence of the Saône and the Rhone, Livy says (xxi. 31) that instead of making straight for the Alps, Hannibal then turned to the left, ad lævam. Strabo twice says (iv. 6. 7, 11) that there were two roads from Lyons to Italy, one over the Pennine pass, and the second through the territory of the Centrones, meeting the first in the territory of the Salassi. These clearly were the Great and Little St Bernard routes, meeting at Aosta; and if Hannibal was near Lyons and took the Great instead of the Little, he might fairly be described as turning to his left instead of making straight for the Alps. Livy says (xxi. 38) that many people thought that Hannibal crossed the Pennine pass (the Great St Bernard) as they fancied that the name “Pennine” was derived from “Punic.” He also says that Cœlius thought that Hannibal had crossed the “Cremonis jugum,” and he assumes that this must be the Little St Bernard, as he says that both these routes would have brought Hannibal into the territory of the Libici, and Ptolemy (iii. 1. 30, 32) fixes Aosta11 and Ivrea as the cities of the Salassi, and Vercelli and Lomello as the cities of the Libici.

21. Livy (xxi. 38) rejects both the St Bernard routes as bringing Hannibal down into the territory of the Libici, whereas everyone agreed (quum inter omnes constet) that Hannibal came down into the territory of the Taurini. This, however, is not exactly what Polybios says. He remarks in iii. 55. 9 that although the higher parts of the Alps were bare and tree-less and covered with perpetual snow, there were trees and shrubs and habitations half-way up the slopes (hypo mesên tên parôreian) on either side; and he says in iii. 56. 3, 60. 2, 8 that Hannibal came down to the plains of the Po in the territory of the Insubres and pitched camp just below the slopes (hyp’ antên tên parôreian) and that he subsequently (meta de tauta) attacked the Taurini who lived near the slopes (pros têi parôreiai) and were hostile to the Insubres. Ptolemy (iii. 1. 29, 31) fixes Novara, Como, Milan and Pavia as the cities of the Insubres, and Voghera, Tortona, Turin and Bene as the cities of the Taurini. Bene is about 35 miles south of Turin; and if it was a city of the Taurini, Hannibal would have come down into their territory if he crossed the Alps by the Col d’Argentière, or by the Col de la Traversette, just as much as if he crossed by Mont Cenis or Mont Genèvre.

22. Of course the boundaries between the territories of the Taurini and the Insubres may not have been the same in Hannibal’s time as in Ptolemy’s time or Livy’s. He may have come down into territory which then belonged to the Insubres but afterwards12 belonged to the Taurini, and might be described as territory of the Taurini by writers of a later age.

23. Strabo says (iv. 6. 12) that only four passes across the Alps were mentioned by Polybios. The nearest to the Mediterranean went through the territory of the Ligures; the next, “which Hannibal crossed,” through the territory of the Taurini; the next, through the territory of the Salassi; and the fourth, through the territory of the Rhæti. But the important words, “which Hannibal crossed,” are not in all the manuscripts of Strabo, and therefore are suspected as interpolations. Polybios does not mention the Salassi or the Rhæti in the extant portion of his work; but a pass through the territory of the Rhæti might have brought Hannibal into the territory of the Insubres, as Strabo (vii. 1. 5) says that these territories were conterminous, the Rhæti having some territory on the south side of the Alps as well as on the north side. The Rhætian pass might thus have been the Simplon; but it is incredible that Hannibal should have crossed a pass so far eastward as the Simplon or even the Great St Bernard.

24. Varro is quoted by Servius (AD ÆNEIDEM, x. 13) as mentioning five passes across the Alps: one alongside the sea, through the territory of the Ligures; a second, which Hannibal crossed; a third, by which Pompey went to Spain; a fourth, by which Hasdrubal came into Italy; and a fifth in the Graian Alps—presumably the Little St Bernard: see paragraph 58. This agrees with Strabo’s quotation from Polybios in making Hannibal cross the next pass to the coast-road; and if it were Varro’s own statement13 at first hand, it would have high authority. But similar interpolations may be suspected here, as it makes Hannibal and Hasdrubal cross different passes, whereas Livy (xxvii. 39) and Appian (HANNIBAL, 52) agree in saying that Hasdrubal crossed the same pass that Hannibal had crossed twelve years before.

25. Pompey crossed another pass. He wrote a letter to the Senate after he had gone to Spain—the letter has been preserved by Sallust, and is printed in most editions of his works—and in this letter Pompey says that he has made a new road across the Alps, taking another and more convenient route than Hannibal’s, iter aliud atque Hannibal, nobis opportunius. In mentioning the making of this road Appian says (DE BELLIS CIVILIBUS, i. 109) that it passed near the sources of the Rhone and the Po, which were not far apart. Strabo (iv. 6. 5) calls them the sources of two tributaries of the Rhone and the Po, namely, the Durance and the Dora; and this is enough to show that Pompey’s pass was Mont Genèvre.

26. This was in 76 B.C., therefore in Varro’s lifetime, but after Polybios was dead, and a few years before Strabo and Livy were born. As already mentioned in paragraph 5, Strabo says (iv. 1. 3) that the Roman road from Spain crossed the Rhone at Tarascon and bifurcated there, one branch going through Aix to Antibes on the Mediterranean coast, and the other going through Cavaillon and along the Durance to “the beginning of the ascent of the Alps,” 63 Roman miles from Tarascon, thence to Embrun, 99 miles further on, and thence through the Briançon district in14 71 miles to Césanne, the first town in Italy. The road must thus have crossed the Alps by Mont Genèvre, and presumably was Pompey’s.

27. Strabo here speaks of “the beginning of the ascent of the Alps” as a definite point, and reckons distances from there along the Roman road. Polybios (iii. 39. 9, 10) likewise treats “the ascent of the Alps” as a definite point, and reckons distances from there in both directions along Hannibal’s line of march. Up to that point he reckons the distance along the river, iii. 39. 9; and he says that after marching along the river, Hannibal “began the ascent of the Alps,” iii. 50. 1. As he makes no further mention of the river, the inference is that Hannibal quitted the river at that point; and if Polybios put the point where Strabo puts it, this would mean that Hannibal turned off up the Verdon valley. In that case the actual “ascent” would not be on the Roman road, but on an older track diverging from it at the sixty-third milestone, the point which Strabo calls “the beginning of the ascent.”

28. If Hannibal went up the Verdon valley, he would be heading for a pass between Pompey’s and the coast-road; and this is in conformity with Varro’s statements. I imagine that the route would be from Mirabeau to Castellane and Colmars, thence to Barcelonnette and across the Col d’Argentière to Borgo San Dalmazzo near Cuneo. But the distance would exceed the 150 Roman miles (1200 stades) which Polybios has allotted to the march from the “ascent” to Italy. He computes it as 10 miles a day for 15 days, and there is no doubt about the 15 days, as he15 sets them out in detail: see paragraph 3. But the usual average could hardly be maintained in such wild country amongst hostile tribes, and the distance really covered may have been much less.

29. Polybios (iii. 39. 9, 50. 1) puts the ascent 175 Roman miles (1400 stades) from the crossing of the Rhone, and says that the last 100 of the 175 were marched in 10 days. The first 75 would answer to Strabo’s 63 from the crossing to the point he calls “the beginning of the ascent,” the difference being that Strabo is reckoning along the Roman road whereas Polybios would be reckoning along the river, and the Rhone and Durance make a bend between Tarascon and Cavaillon. The other 100 in Polybios would answer to Strabo’s 99 to Embrun by the road along the Durance from “the beginning of the ascent” near Mirabeau; and Polybios would thus be speaking of some place near Embrun when he says that Hannibal began the ascent after this march of 100 miles along the river.

30. Hannibal might have quitted the Durance at La Bréole, twelve miles below Embrun, gone up the Ubaye valley to Barcelonnette and across the Col d’Argentière to Borgo San Dalmazzo, a distance of about 80 Roman miles; or he might have quitted the Durance at Mont Dauphin, ten miles above Embrun, gone up the Guil valley to Abriès and across the Col de la Traversette to Saluzzo, a distance of about 70 Roman miles. (The Col de la Traversette is known also as the Col de Viso, and the Col d’Argentière as the Col della Maddalena or Col de Larche.) As the Guil is merely a mountain torrent, that route is not open to the16 objection that Hannibal would still be marching “along the river”—an objection that may be urged against the Ubaye and the Verdon routes. Also, by going on past Embrun to Mont Dauphin, Hannibal would be entering the territory of the Tricorii, as Livy says he did: see paragraph 39.

31. Polybios does not give the river’s name when he says that Hannibal marched up along the river as far as the “ascent.” He often mentions the Rhone, but does not give the name of any other river in those parts except the Scôras, a tributary of the Rhone. There is no mention of a river Scôras in any ancient author but Polybios; and the presumption is that although the name was used in his time, it afterwards went out of use. As the Saône had two names, Arar and Saucona, the Durance might also have two names, Druentia and Scôras. This, of course, is merely a conjecture; but it seems to meet the case.

32. Apparently, Livy thought the Scôras was the Saône—see paragraph 17—in which case there is no question of Hannibal’s marching up any other river than the Rhone. Livy, however, contradicts himself. He says (xxi. 31) that instead of going straight from the confluence to the Alps, Hannibal turned to the left (ad lævam) into the territory of the Tricastini, skirted the territory of the Vocontii and entered the territory of the Tricorii. Whatever their exact boundaries may have been—see paragraph 39—these territories were east of the Rhone, north of the Durance and south of the Isère. Consequently, Hannibal could not have17 reached them by turning to the left, unless he was starting from the confluence of the Durance and the Rhone. If he had been as far north as the confluence of the Saône and the Rhone, or even of the Isère and the Rhone, he must have turned to the right. This should have struck the editors who tampered with the text of Livy and changed the Saône to the Isère: they should have changed it to the Durance, or else put “right” for “left.”

33. Livy very often contradicts himself, as he compiled his history out of older histories and did not always take the trouble to reconcile them. Polybios was his usual source for this part of his work, but he quotes Cœlius on one point and Cincius on another, xxi. 38, and when he quotes Polybios, he does not always quote him accurately.

34. Livy says (xxi. 31) that after getting across the Rhone, Hannibal marched up the other bank towards the interior of Gaul, whereas Polybios says (iii. 47. 1) that he marched eastward (hôs epi tên heô) going along the river up-stream. (His phrase for “up-stream” here is “away from the sea, towards the interior of Europe,” and in iii. 39. 9, speaking of the same march, his phrase is “towards the sources.”) Livy has put Gaul for Europe, and omitted “eastward.” But if Hannibal marched eastward here, he must have marched along the Durance, not the Rhone, as the Durance here runs from east to west and the Rhone from north to south. No doubt, Polybios says (iii. 47. 2, 3) that the Rhone had its sources on the north side of the Alps, its sources facing west (pros tên hesperan), and that its course was south-west (pros18 tas cheimerinas dyseis) to the sea. And as a general statement, that is true; but if he had imagined that the Rhone was running south-west at the point where Hannibal crossed it, he surely would have said that Hannibal marched north-east—he would not distinguish west and south-west in one sentence and confound east and north-east in the next.

35. According to Polybios (iii. 49. 5, 8–13) Hannibal marched in four days from the crossing of the Rhone to the so-called Island between the Rhone and the Scôras, found a civil-war in progress there, joined one faction in crushing the other, and obtained supplies from the successful faction as the price of his support. He must have crossed the Scôras and marched into the Island, as Polybios says “joined in attacking and expelling”—synepithemenos kai synekbalôn—which certainly implies that he did something more than make a demonstration from the other bank. And if the crossing over was comprised in the four days, the march may have been less than 40 Roman miles at 10 Roman miles a day: see paragraph 3.

36. Suppose that Hannibal marched up from Tarascon, going first along the Rhone and then along the Durance from the confluence of the two: he would reach a point just opposite Cavaillon in 30 Roman miles. The obvious route from Tarascon to Cavaillon is straight across country, on the line of the Roman road; and in saying so emphatically that Hannibal marched along the river (para ton potamon, iii. 47. 1) or close along the river (par’ auton ton potamon, iii. 39. 9) Polybios may be saying it to negative the19 notion of his marching straight across. Strabo mentions (iv. 1. 3) that Cavaillon was on the Roman road from Tarascon to the Alps; and as it was on the north bank of the Durance, people coming from Tarascon must have crossed. He elsewhere (iv. 1. 11) mentions the ferry (porthmeion) at Cavaillon in speaking of people going from Marseilles to places between the north bank of the Durance and the Rhone. The ferry would not have been established there unless that was the most convenient place for crossing; and when Polybios says that Hannibal reached the Island, he presumably is speaking of the usual point for crossing to it, not the point whence it could first be seen. In fact, whilst Scipio was looking for Hannibal at the crossing of the Rhone, Hannibal had reached the crossing of the Durance and could retire further north if Scipio came on. Scipio, however, went back.

37. Livy’s version (xxi. 31) is that the civil-war in the Island was between two factions of the Allobriges who lived near there; and that after finishing off their war, Hannibal did not take the direct route to the Alps, but turned to the left into the territory of the Tricastini, skirted the territory of the Vocontii, entered the territory of the Tricorii, and met no check until he reached the Durance, but had serious difficulties there. Polybios, however, says nothing of any difficulties at the Durance, nor does he mention any of these tribes except the Allobriges; and he does not mention this tribe here, but only at a later stage of Hannibal’s march. He says (iii. 49. 13) that the successful faction in the Island sent a force with Hannibal to act as rear-guard and keep off attacks by20 the Allobriges; but if both the factions had been Allobriges, as Livy says, Polybios would have spoken of attacks by the defeated faction only, not attacks by the Allobriges.

38. Strabo says (iv. 1. 11) that in his time, which also was Livy’s time, the Allobriges were merely husbandmen, though in former ages they had armies of tens of thousands in the field. He mentions Vienne, on the Rhone, as their chief town; but Dion Cassius (xlvi. 50) shows clearly that they did not take Vienne till a century and a half after Hannibal’s time—the city of Lyons was founded in 43 B.C. to house the inhabitants of Vienne after the Allobriges had driven them out. And other tribes may likewise have shifted their position between Hannibal’s time and the time of Polybios or Ptolemy or Strabo.

39. In dealing with the part of Provence on the east side of the Rhone, Ptolemy (ii. 10. 7, 8) fixes Vienne as the city of the Allobriges; Valence as the city of the Segallauni; Orange, Avignon and Cavaillon as cities of the Cavari; and Vaison as the city of the Vocontii; and he places the Tricastini east of the Segallauni, north of the Vocontii and south of the Allobriges. He does not mention the Tricorii, but Strabo says (iv. 1. 11, 6. 5) that the Vocontii were “above” the Cavari, and the Tricorii “above” the Vocontii. The Tricorii would thus be east or north-east of Embrun, as he states (iv. 1. 3) that the territory of the Vocontii extended along the Durance up to Embrun.

40. Strabo says here (iv. 1. 3) that the Roman road from Tarascon to the Alps entered the territory of the Vocontii at “the21 beginning of the ascent,” 63 Roman miles from Tarascon and therefore near Mirabeau, and quitted it again at Embrun, 99 miles further on. And as he says here that the road ran along the Durance, and elsewhere (iv. 1. 11, cf. 6. 3, 4) treats the Durance as the frontier of the Salyes, the road might be described as running along the extreme edge of the territory of the Vocontii—per extremam oram Vocontiorum agri—which is the phrase employed by Livy (xxi. 31) for Hannibal’s line of march. The distances, the 63 and 99 miles, agree with what Polybios says of Hannibal’s march—see paragraph 29—and the digression would not be included in the distances he gives as marched “along the river,” iii. 39. 9, 50. 1. It would thus appear that after Hannibal had turned to the left into the territory of the Tricastini, he came back on to the line of what was afterwards the Roman road, and followed it from a point near Mirabeau to some point near Embrun.

41. Hannibal must have reached the Island the day after Scipio reached the crossing of the Rhone, as Polybios says (iii. 49. 1, 5) that Hannibal was four days on the march and had started from the crossing three days before Scipio got there. Polybios also says (iii. 49. 3, 4) that Scipio went back as fast as he came, re-embarked his forces and sailed off. Thus, by about the fifth day after Hannibal reached the Island, there was nothing to prevent his returning to the direct route to the Alps, supposing that he had quitted it in order to avoid a battle with the Romans. But this deviation, into the territory of the Tricastini, may really have been part of Hannibal’s movements in the civil-war in the22 Island, for Polybios says (iii. 49. 10) that Hannibal not only joined one faction in attacking the other, but joined in driving it out. As a matter of fact, Livy (xxi. 31) does not exactly say that Hannibal entered the territory of the Tricastini: he merely says in Tricastinos and afterwards says in Tricorios, whereas in the intervening words, already quoted, he speaks of the “territory” of the Vocontii; and the difference may be more than merely verbal.

42. Supposing that the Vocontii had the same boundaries in Hannibal’s time as in Strabo’s time and Livy’s, Hannibal would thus have quitted their territory at Embrun and therefore crossed the Durance higher up. Livy (xxi. 31) mentions that the Durance happened to be swollen by rains; and when in flood, it may be difficult to cross, even in that early portion of its course. But when he says that “of all the rivers of Gaul” it was far the most difficult to cross, he must be thinking of the river a long way further down, nearer to its confluence with the Rhone.

43. In the next part of his narrative (xxi. 32–35) Livy says exactly what Polybios says (iii. 50–53) though he says it more rhetorically; but where Polybios (iii. 50. 1) merely says “the river,” Livy (xxi. 32) says “the Durance.”

44. On quitting the river and beginning the ascent, Hannibal proceeded very cautiously, as he suspected that the Allobriges and other natives would attack him. On the first day he soon halted, and sent his guides out for intelligence: on the second day he merely moved into position for a night attack, and had no fighting23 till the third day, when he was going through a gorge. He had occupied the summits on the previous night while the natives were off guard; but the natives made their way along the slopes and stampeded the cavalry-horses and the baggage-animals—the natives were too much frightened of the elephants to go anywhere near them. As the track was not only steep and narrow but ran along a cliff, many of the animals were pushed over and fell down the cliff; and the stampede got worse still when Hannibal charged down from the summits to drive the natives off. He killed most of the Allobriges, and then took the town that served them as a base; and he remained there for a day, that is, the fourth day. He made fair progress on the next three days, but on the fourth day (that is the eighth day of the march) he was attacked again while going through a gorge. The natives were on the higher ground, and rolled rocks down or came down the slopes themselves and threw stones by hand, causing a stampede again with heavy loss of animals and men. Hannibal himself got through with the advance-guard, but the remainder of the army spent the whole night in getting through. The next day (the ninth) he reached the summit of the pass.

45. There is next to nothing in all this to indicate the route. As for the Allobriges whom Polybios (iii. 51. 9) mentions in the fight at the first gorge, they certainly were not the population of the district, as he says (iii. 49. 13–50. 3) they had been following Hannibal’s army for a hundred miles or more, not daring to attack it till it was entangled in hill-country where its cavalry could not24 act. Narrow gorges can be found on any Alpine route, and also rocks such as Polybios describes. He says (iii. 53. 5) that Hannibal halted on the eighth night at a defensible white rock, ti leukopetron ochyron. But “white rock” means no more than “bare rock,” for he says elsewhere (x. 30. 5) that the white rocks themselves could be climbed up by active men; and, clearly, the colour of the rock would make no difference in the climb. There is, however, a rock that is not only bare but white, the Roche Blanche, on the Little St Bernard, another (near St Michel) on the Mont Cenis, and others on other passes, all identified as Hannibal’s; but Polybios (iii. 53. 4, 5) places the rock at the far end of a gorge into which Hannibal was led by the treachery of his guides. Thus, unless the rock was at the point where he regained the proper route, it will not be found on the main road of any pass at all; nor will the gorge be found on the main road of any pass, as it was on a deviation. Yet people have been identifying gorges on the main roads of the different passes as the very gorge that Hannibal passed through by deviating from the proper route.

46. Polybios (iii. 53. 5, 6) remarks, as something quite unusual, that Hannibal was separated from a large part of his force on the eighth night of the march. If the whole force was brought together on the other nights, the rate of marching would be very slow. Polybios (iii. 56. 4) says that, in spite of heavy losses in the Alps, Hannibal arrived in Italy with 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry; and such a force, with elephants and baggage-train, would form a column of enormous length when marching along a narrow25 track. The head could not advance beyond a point which the rear could reach on the same day; and the distance would be much less than the average march—see paragraph 3—which Polybios reckons as 10 Roman miles a day.

47. It is about forty Roman miles from the Durance at Mont Dauphin to the summit of the Col de la Traversette, and also about forty from the Durance at La Bréole to the summit of the Col d’Argentière. Hannibal, however, deviated from whatever route he meant to take. Polybios says (iii. 52. 3–8) that Hannibal was led into a dangerous gorge by the treachery of some guides he had engaged two days before, their object being to draw him into a position where he could be attacked on every side from higher ground. (Polybios has not made it clear why these guides were engaged: he states in iii. 44. 5, 7, 48. 11 that guides had come over from Italy to meet Hannibal at the crossing of the Rhone—perhaps they were all killed at the first gorge.) Livy (xxi. 35) suggests that instead of following the guides, Hannibal took a line of his own as soon as he lost confidence in them, and thus went astray into impassable places, per invia pleraque et errores. His actual march must have been a good deal longer than his intended route.

48. According to Polybios (iii. 54. 1–3) Hannibal made a speech at the summit of the pass, telling the soldiers that the worst part of their march was done; and he not only pointed to the plain of the Po spread out before them, but indicated the position (topos)26 of Rome itself. As he was a good 300 miles from Rome, he could not have managed this unless he used a map. Herodotos says (v. 49. 1, 5) that Aristagoras used a map to show the route, when he was trying to induce the Spartans to march through Asia Minor in 500 B.C.; and Hannibal may likewise have used a map in 218 B.C., when maps were commoner. No doubt, a map could not be seen except by men who were close by, but a speech could not be heard by men who were far off; and I conceive that when Hannibal (or any other general) addressed an army of 20,000 or 30,000 men, he relied on those who heard him to convey the substance of his speech to those who could not hear. The more important officers would be standing near the general, and they would see the map and tell the others about it.

49. He must at any rate have had a good view of the plain from the summit of the pass he crossed—else his speech would be absurd—and there are (I believe) only two passes with summits commanding such a view. In the old ALPINE GUIDE, pt. 1, p. 25, ed. 1863, Ball describes the Col de la Traversette. “To those who approach from the side of France, the view suddenly unfolded at the summit, extending (in clear weather) across the entire plain of Piedmont as far as Milan, is extremely striking.” On p. 55 he endorses Bonney’s description of the Cenis passes. “Between the plateau of the Little Mont Cenis and La Grande Croix [on the Great Mont Cenis] a ridge can be gained by a few minutes’ walk, whence is seen the country to the east of the Po, and the south of the Tanaro, as far as the Apennines.” He says nothing (p. 57) of27 any view from the Col du Clapier, just south of the Cenis passes though north of the Cenis tunnel; but a similar view can be obtained in a few minutes’ walk from there.—Polybios (iii. 54. 3, 4) says that Hannibal made his speech about the view while the army was encamped upon the summit of the pass, but Livy (xxi. 35) puts the speech the following day, immediately on starting on the downward march; and he says that Hannibal halted the men at an eminence (in promontorio quodam) commanding that great view, and made his speech there. The word promontorium suggests a point of view a little way off the road.

50. Several of the passes have a plateau at the top; and Hannibal may have gone over one of these, as Polybios (iii. 53. 9) and Livy (xxi. 35) say that he encamped at the top, and the plateau would be a suitable place for camping. But they say nothing about a plateau, only saying that he encamped to rest the men who had arrived, and wait for the arrival of the others. And as that is all they say, a plateau is not really so essential as a view for determining which pass he crossed. In fact, if a plateau was essential for his camping, he must have found a plateau every night all through his march.

51. On the first day of his march down from the summit, he came to a bad place where a landslip had destroyed the track for a distance of about 300 yards, and he had to encamp there, as the baggage-animals and elephants could not get past. One day’s repairs made the track passable for the baggage-animals, and these and the cavalry-horses were sent on ahead and turned out28 to graze on the pastures down below. But three days’ repairs were needed to make the track passable for the elephants, who meanwhile nearly died for want of food.—That is the substance of what Polybios says, iii. 54. 4–7, 55. 6–8, and Livy follows him.

52. The complete skeleton of an elephant was found on the Little St Bernard two centuries ago. It is mentioned by Saint-Simon in the preface to his HISTOIRE DE LA GUERRE DES ALPES. (This was the campaign of 1744, in which he himself took part, and his book came out in 1770.) He says, “On s’est encore plus attaché de nos jours à soutenir qu’Annibal a dû passer par le Petit St Bernard depuis qu’on assure qu’on a trouvé dans cette montagne tous les ossemens d’un éléphant ... dans un pays qu’on appelle dans plusieurs cartes La Grande Route des Romains.” But Hannibal was not the only person who used elephants. For instance, Suetonius mentions (NERO, 2) that Nero’s great-great-great-grandfather went riding about Provence on an elephant when he was there in 121 B.C.

53. The landslip that stopped the animals, did not stop the men: the infantry went on and reached the plain in three days’ march from there. Polybios reckons (iii. 53. 9, 54. 4, 55. 6, 56. 1) that Hannibal reached the summit on the ninth day, camped there for two days, that is, the tenth and eleventh, came to the landslip the next day, that is the twelfth, and reached the plain on the third day from there, that is, the fifteenth day: which agrees with his statement (iii. 56. 3) that Hannibal took fifteen days to cross the Alps. The cavalry were left behind to repair the29 track for the elephants, Polybios saying (iii. 55. 8) that it was repaired by the Numidians, which is his usual name for Carthaginian cavalry.

54. A landslip might occur on any pass, and almost every pass has places where the track is steep and narrow and running along a cliff, just as Polybios (iii. 54. 5–7) describes the track here. But there are exceptionally bad places just below the summits of the Col du Clapier and of the Col de la Traversette—the Clapier is also known as l’Escalier, the descent being as steep as a staircase for the first 4000 feet, and the Traversette takes its name from a tunnel built in 1480 to avoid a precipitous bit near the top. And both these summits command a wide view of the plain. From each of these two summits the distance to the plain is about 30 English (or 33 Roman) miles—measuring to Avigliana in the one case and to Saluzzo in the other—and this would fully occupy four days, as there was a landslip to be passed and in the earlier part of the descent there was the snow. Polybios says (iii. 54. 5, 55. 1–5) that the new autumn snow was lying loose on the old winter snow which now was frozen hard; and men and animals slipped and fell, when they trod through the new snow on to the icy surface of the old.

55. From the summits of the other passes the distance to the plain is about 40 English miles for the Argentière, measuring to Borgo San Dalmazzo; about 45 for the Genèvre, to Avigliana; about 55 for the Simplon, to Arona; about 60 for the Great St30 Bernard, to Ivrea; and about 75 for the Little St Bernard, also to Ivrea. These 75 miles (more than 80 Roman miles) would not be marched in the four days; and even if the 55 or 60 could be marched in that time, there would be a difficulty about the total distance marched. Polybios makes it 2600 stades from the crossing of the Rhone to Italy, and he reckons 8 stades to the mile, thus arriving at a total of 325 Roman miles, or 300 English: see paragraphs 2, 3. Subtracting the 55 or 60, this leaves only 240 or 245 English miles from the crossing of the Rhone to the summits of the Great St Bernard and the Simplon, or roughly 100 and 150 miles too little. And to reach either of those passes, Hannibal would have to march along the lake of Geneva from one end to the other, a distance of 45 miles. Polybios says repeatedly (iii. 39. 9, 47. 1, 50. 1) that Hannibal marched along a river, but says nothing of his marching along a lake.

56. According to Livy, xxi. 38, most people thought (vulgo credere) that Hannibal had crossed the Great St Bernard. But this was not unreasonable if they thought that he was coming from Lyons, as Livy and Silius say: see paragraph 14. And if Polybios had not specified the distances, it might be argued that the tributary which he calls the Scôras really was the Saucona, or Saône; and that when he speaks of Hannibal’s marching along a river, he means the Rhone all through. But if Hannibal had got as far as that, he surely would have crossed the Simplon rather than the Great St Bernard, as the Simplon would bring him down into the territory of the Insubres, his allies against Rome.

31 57. Livy rejects the Little St Bernard as well as the Great on the ground that it would likewise bring Hannibal down into the territory of the Libici; and it cannot be the pass of which Polybios speaks, as the summit has no view towards the plain, and is too far away for Hannibal to reach the plain in four days’ march from there. But Livy (xxi. 38) quotes Cœlius as saying that Hannibal went that way. Cœlius was a contemporary of Polybios, though perhaps a younger man; and Cicero remarks (DE DIVINATIONE, i. 24) that Cœlius copied from the writings of Silenos, a Greek who was with Hannibal. That being so, Cœlius should be as trustworthy as Polybios himself, yet contradicts him here. Livy, however, may be quoting Cœlius quite correctly as saying that Hannibal crossed the Alps per Cremonis jugum—an expression that does not occur elsewhere—but may be wrong in thinking that Cœlius thereby meant the Little St Bernard. He may be making a mistake that Strabo made. There were two rivers called Duria in that part of Italy—Pliny, iii. 16 (20), 118, Durias duas—now distinguished as the Dora Riparia, which rises on the Mont Genèvre pass and joins the Po near Turin, and the Dora Baltea, which rises on the Little St Bernard pass, and joins the Po five-and-twenty miles below Turin. Strabo (iv. 6. 5) makes these two rivers into one, with the source of the Dora Riparia and the course of the Dora Baltea. Livy may have made the same mistake and fancied that Hannibal would go down the Dora Baltea into the territory of the Libici, when Cœlius really meant the pass at the source of the Dora Riparia.

32 58. There is also an ambiguity in the statement of Nepos (HANNIBAL, 3) that Hannibal crossed the Graian Alps. This normally would mean crossing by the Little St Bernard; but it might also mean crossing by the Mont Genèvre, as Ptolemy (iii. i. 35, 36) makes the Graian Alps include Briançon and Embrun. Tacitus (HISTORIÆ, ii. 66) speaks of a legion marching from Turin across the Graian Alps, clearly meaning the Genèvre or Cenis passes, as the Little St Bernard is not accessible from Turin.

59. Servius quotes Varro as mentioning five passes through the Alps, the coast-road, Hannibal’s road, Pompey’s road, Hasdrubal’s road, and the road through the Graian Alps; thus making Hasdrubal and Hannibal cross different passes, though other writers make them cross the same pass: see paragraph 62. Thus, if Servius quotes correctly, Varro seems to have assigned the Cenis route to Hasdrubal. This route, or the St Bernard routes, would suit an army coming from Lyons; and Hasdrubal most probably came from that direction. According to Appian (HISPANIA, 28) Hasdrubal came round the north-west corner of the Pyrenees—Hannibal came round the south-east corner and marched along the coast: see Polybios, iii. 39. 7, 8, 41. 7—and Hasdrubal must have kept a long way from the coast, as Livy (xxvii. 39) speaks of his meeting the Arverni, whose territory answered roughly to Auvergne.

60. Possibly, and I think probably, some of the ancients confused the routes of these two Carthaginian armies, and thus made Hannibal go to Lyons when in reality it was only Hasdrubal who33 went there. And such confusion might easily arise, as Hannibal’s march was celebrated, whilst Hasdrubal’s was forgotten or ignored: which is not surprising, as his march had no results. It was Trasimene and Cannæ and their other disasters that made the Romans remember Hannibal’s march so well, whereas they might nearly have forgotten it, if he had been defeated and killed at the Trebia, as Hasdrubal was at the Metaurus, immediately on entering Italy.

61. In speaking of Hasdrubal’s march, Livy merely says (xxvii. 39) that after meeting the Arverni, he met other Gallic tribes and Alpine tribes, and crossed the pass that Hannibal had opened up. If he met the Arverni in Auvergne, he might take some such route as Livy (xxi. 31) has assigned to Hannibal, first meeting the Allobriges, then the Tricastini, the Vocontii and the Tricorii, and then crossing the Durance on his way to the pass; and Livy may have had this route in mind when he was writing of Hannibal, though he excludes it by his statement that Hannibal turned to the left to reach the territory of the Tricastini.

62. Livy says most distinctly that Hasdrubal used the pass which Hannibal had opened up, xxvii. 39, per munita pleraque transitu fratris, quæ antea invia fuerant. Appian (HANNIBAL, 52) says the same thing in Greek, hôdopoiêmena proteron hypo Annibou. Thus, if Hasdrubal went over the Little St Bernard or Mont Cenis, Hannibal must have gone that way, and Livy must be wrong in saying that he crossed the Durance in the territory of the Tricorii, that is, above Embrun—he would not cross it there, except in34 going to passes further south than Mont Genèvre, as the river rises on that pass. On the other hand, if Hannibal crossed it there, and Hasdrubal went over the Little St Bernard or Mont Cenis, Livy (and Appian also) must be wrong in saying that they both used the same pass; and there is Varro’s statement (though only at second hand) that they used different passes: see paragraph 24.

63. The northern passes would best suit Hasdrubal, coming from the Bay of Biscay and Auvergne, whereas the southern passes would be better for Hannibal, coming from the Mediterranean coast. Hasdrubal might gain by going to a southern pass that Hannibal had opened up, but Hannibal would gain nothing by going to a northern pass. And if he went up the Rhone to Lyons, as Livy and Silius say, there is no sense in what Polybios says about the distance marched. To reach Lyons he would have to average 25 Roman miles a day instead of his usual 10 miles—see paragraph 12—and he would then have to march 100 Roman miles along the Rhone to the ascent of the Alps—see paragraph 29—and this 100 miles would bring him to Geneva, whereas the distance is only 50 Roman miles to Yenne, where he presumably would quit the Rhone if he were making for the Little St Bernard or Mont Cenis.

64. There is no difficulty about the distance if the river was the Durance, as Livy states explicitly in xxi. 32 and certainly implies in xxi. 31. Excepting his mention of the Saône in xxi. 31, his statements are consistent with the statements of Polybios as to35 Hannibal’s route—he only supplements Polybios by quoting some one else about the Vocontii and other tribes and the crossing of the Durance. No doubt, Polybios says nothing of Hannibal’s crossing any river but the Rhone; but he implies that Hannibal crossed a tributary of it—see paragraph 35. If the tributary was the Durance, he must have crossed it a second time a good deal further up, if Livy’s statement is correct. Polybios might ignore a second crossing just as he ignores the first, but Livy represents this second crossing as an operation of great difficulty, the river being then swollen by rain. His description, however, seems inapplicable to the Durance so far up—see paragraph 42—and I suspect that he was copying a description of the Durance much further down its course.

65. To recapitulate all this. The main difficulty is that Polybios speaks of a tributary of the Rhone as the Scôras, and no other ancient author speaks of any river of that name. The river Saône had two names, Saucona and Arar—see paragraph 17—and I conjecture that the river Durance also had two names, Druentia and Scôras, and that the name of Scôras was current when Polybios wrote, but obsolete when Livy wrote. My reasons are:—

While Polybios (iii. 50. 1) merely says “the river,” Livy (xxi. 32) says “the Durance”; and in this part of his narrative he is copying Polybios almost word for word.

Polybios gives distances for Hannibal’s march along the river which are curiously like the distances that Strabo gives for the36 Roman road along the Durance from Tarascon to the Alps: see paragraph 29.

Polybios says that Hannibal marched eastward from the crossing of the Rhone, following the river up-stream. As the crossing was at Tarascon (or close by) an eastward march would carry him along the Durance, which here runs from east to west: see paragraph 34.

Livy says that on leaving the so-called Island at the confluence of the tributary and the Rhone, Hannibal turned to the left into the territory of the Tricastini instead of going straight on to the Alps; and Hannibal could not have done this unless he was on the route along the Durance to the Alps. He would turn to the right to reach their territory if he were going along the Isère or any other river further north; see paragraph 32.

66. On the other hand, there is Livy’s statement that the tributary river was the Saône, contradicting his own statement about Hannibal’s turning to the left, and also contradicting the statements of Polybios about the length of Hannibal’s march. But why should Livy contradict himself and also contradict Polybios, whom he usually follows word for word? My suggestion is that he took “Scôras” in Polybios for Saucona or a variant of that name, and called the tributary the Saône without considering what that implied. The error would not be striking, if Hasdrubal went that way, as people would confuse his route with Hannibal’s.

67. There is really nothing in the argument that Hannibal37 would not venture to march along the Durance as the Romans might attack him on the flank. In the first place, there were no Romans there. As soon as Scipio found he was too late to defend the crossing of the Rhone, he went straight back to the coast, re-embarked his army, and sailed off: he was not ashore for more than about a week—see paragraph 41. In the second place, Hannibal had no reason to fear the Romans. He was in superior force, and could have crushed Scipio then as easily as he crushed him at the Trebia two months later on, but he did not want to fight just then, as he saw that victories in Provence would not produce the same effect at Rome as victories in Italy itself: see paragraph 13.

68. Supposing that Hannibal followed the Durance to some point near Embrun, one wonders why he did not follow it to its source at Mont Genèvre and cross that easy pass. But the summit of the pass is less than ten miles from the river, and Polybios says that Hannibal took nine days in going from the river to the summit—Livy says nine days from the Durance. Nine days, I think, are not inconsistent with the distance from the Durance at Mont Dauphin to the Col de la Traversette, or from the Durance at La Bréole to the Col d’Argentière; see paragraphs 46, 47. I think Mont Dauphin the more likely point, partly because Hannibal would have to go through the territory of the Tricorii (as Livy says he did) in order to reach it, but not to reach La Bréole; and partly because there is only a mountain torrent (the Guil) coming down the valley there, but a river (the Ubaye) coming down the38 valley at La Bréole, and Polybios might regard a march along the Ubaye as a march along “the river.”

69. Whatever pass it was that Hannibal crossed, the summit must have commanded a wide view of the plain of the Po, else he would not have made his speech there. There is such a view from the Col de la Traversette, but not from the summit of the Mont Genèvre pass or from the Col d’Argentière; or in fact from any other pass southward of the Little Mont Cenis and the adjacent Col du Clapier. And those two passes are unlikely, as Hannibal had no motive for going so far north.

70. The points that I have mentioned hitherto are only details of the route, and are subordinate to one main point affecting the entire route. The autumn was advancing; and it was a matter of life or death for Hannibal to complete his march before the snows had made the Alps impassable. He would therefore take the very shortest route with no more digression than was really needed for getting supplies or avoiding Scipio’s army during the week it was ashore. And the shortest routes are by the Col de la Traversette and the Col d’Argentière.

71. On questions of this sort no certainty can be attained, but I think the balance of probability inclines to some such route as I suggest for Hannibal. The earliest Roman road from Spain to Italy crossed the Rhone at Tarascon and crossed the Durance at (or near) Cavaillon, and then followed the Durance to its source on the pass of Mont Genèvre. I think that Hannibal took this39 route from Spain as far as Tarascon, but instead of going straight across country (as the road did) from Tarascon to Cavaillon, he followed the Rhone to its confluence with the Durance and then followed the Durance to Cavaillon or somewhere near there. Then he went out of his way, going a little to the north, either to avoid Scipio or obtain supplies; but he returned to the Durance somewhere near Mirabeau and followed it as far as Mont Dauphin—but not as far as Mont Genèvre, for that was Pompey’s pass, and Pompey’s was a different pass from Hannibal’s. Leaving the Durance at Mont Dauphin, he went up the valley of the Guil, seized the gorge below the Château de Queyras on the second night and camped near Ville Vieille on the third and fourth nights; camped near Aiguilles on the fifth night, near La Monta on the sixth and somewhere above Les Chalps on the seventh; went astray into a gorge next day, but reached the summit the day after, and camped there on the ninth, tenth and eleventh nights. On beginning the descent he was stopped by a landslip, and camped there on the twelfth night; camped near Crissolo on the thirteenth night, near Paesana on the fourteenth and near Saluzzo on the fifteenth, but without his elephants, as the landslip stopped them for three days.

72. In speaking of the battle of Raphia, the year after Hannibal’s passage of the Alps, Polybios says (v. 84. 5, 6) that Antiochos had Indian elephants and Ptolemy had African elephants, and that the African gave way before the Indian, being no match for it in size or strength. African elephants might be expected in an army40 coming from Africa, yet Polybios speaks of the mahouts as Indians (i. 40. 15, iii. 46. 7, xi. 1. 12) not only in Hannibal’s army but in other armies coming from there. The elephants, however, are clearly African (as shown by their large ears) on the coins the Carthaginians struck at Cartagena while they were in possession of Spain. The elephant here, and the other at the beginning, are taken from two of these coins which are nearly contemporary with Hannibal.

Transcriber’s Note

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected.

Extra blank lines between some sections are indicated by rows of five spaced asterisks.

The first uncaptioned illustration is the Publisher’s logo; the two other uncaptioned illustrations are elephants.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hannibal Crosses the Alps, by Cecil Torr

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HANNIBAL
CROSSES THE ALPS

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hannibal Crosses the Alps, by Cecil Torr

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HANNIBAL CROSSES THE ALPS

PREFACE

Transcriber’s Note

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HANNIBAL
CROSSES THE ALPS

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