_Origin of the second Punic war. Hannibal's character. In violation
of a treaty, he passes the Iberus. Besieges Saguntum, and at length
takes it. The Romans send ambassadors to Carthage; declare war.
Hannibal crosses the Pyrenees: makes his way through Gaul; then
crosses the Alps; defeats the Romans at the Ticinus. The Romans again
defeated at the Trebia. Cneius Cornelius Scipio defeats the
Carthaginians in Spain, and takes Hanno, their general, prisoner._
1. I may be permitted to premise at this division of my work, what
most historians [Footnote: Thucydides seems to be specially referred
to.] have professed at the beginning of their whole undertaking; that
I am about to relate the most memorable of all wars that were ever
waged: the war which the Carthaginians, under the conduct of Hannibal,
maintained with the Roman people. For never did any states and nations
more efficient in their resources engage in contest; nor had they
themselves at any other period so great a degree of power and energy.
They brought into action too no arts of war unknown to each other, but
those which had been tried in the first Punic war; and so various was
the fortune of the conflict, and so doubtful the victory, that they
who conquered were more exposed to danger. The hatred with which they
fought also was almost greater than their resources; the Romans being
indignant that the conquered aggressively took up arms against their
victors; the Carthaginians, because they considered that in their
subjection it had been lorded over them with haughtiness and avarice.
There is besides a story, that Hannibal, when about nine years old,
while he boyishly coaxed his father Hamilcar that he might be taken to
Spain, (at the time when the African war was completed, and he was
employed in sacrificing previously to transporting his army thither,)
was conducted to the altar; and, having laid his hand on the
offerings, was bound by an oath to prove himself, as soon as he could,
an enemy to the Roman people. The loss of Sicily and Sardinia grieved
the high spirit of Hamilcar: for he deemed that Sicily had been given
up through a premature despair of their affairs; and that Sardinia,
during the disturbances in Africa, had been treacherously taken by the
Romans, while, in addition, the payment of a tribute had been imposed.
2. Being disturbed with these anxieties, he so conducted himself for
five years in the African war, which commenced shortly after the peace
with Rome, and then through nine years employed in augmenting the
Carthaginian empire in Spain, that it was obvious that he was
revolving in his mind a greater war than he was then engaged in; and
that if he had lived longer, the Carthaginians under Hamilcar would
have carried the war into Italy, which, under the command of Hannibal,
they afterwards did. The timely death of Hamilcar and the youth of
Hannibal occasioned its delay. Hasdrubal, intervening between the
father and the son, held the command for about eight years. He was
first endeared to Hamilcar, as they say, on account of his youthful
beauty, and then adopted by him, when advanced in age, as his
son-in-law, on account of his eminent abilities; and, because he was
his son-in-law, he obtained the supreme authority, against the wishes
of the nobles, by the influence of the Barcine faction, [Footnote:
The Barcine faction derived its name from Hamilcar, who was surnamed
Barca. Hanno appears to have been at the head of the opposite party.]
which was very powerful with the military and the populace.
Prosecuting his designs rather by stratagem than force, by
entertaining the princes, and by means of the friendship of their
leaders, gaining the favour of unknown nations, he aggrandized the
Carthaginian power, more than by arms and battles. Yet peace proved no
greater security to himself. A barbarian, in resentment of his
master's having been put to death by him, publicly murdered him; and,
having been seized by the bystanders, he exhibited the same
countenance as if he had escaped; nay, even when he was lacerated by
tortures, he preserved such an expression of face, that he presented
the appearance of one who smiled, his joy getting the better of his
pains. With this Hasdrubal, because he possessed such wonderful skill
in gaining over the nations and adding them to his empire, the Roman
people had renewed the treaty, [Footnote: A. U. C. 526, thirteen
years after the conclusion of the first Punic war, being the sixth
treaty between the Carthaginians and Romans. The first was a
commercial agreement made during the first consulate, in the year that
the Tarquins were expelled from Rome; but is not mentioned by Livy.
The second is noted by him, lib. vii. 27, and the third, lib. ix. 43.
The fourth was concluded during the war with Pyrrhus and the
Tarentines, Polyb. V. iii. 25: and the fifth was the memorable treaty
at the close of the first war] on the terms, that the river Iberus
should be the boundary of both empires; and that to the Saguntines,
who lay between the territories of the two states, their liberty
should be preserved.
3. There was no doubt that in appointing a successor to Hasdrubal, the
approbation of the commons would follow the military prerogative, by
which the young Hannibal had been immediately carried to the
praetorium, and hailed as general, amid the loud shouts and
acquiescence of all. Hasdrubal had sent for him by letter, when scarce
yet arrived at manhood; and the matter had even been discussed in the
senate, the Barcine faction using all their efforts, that Hannibal
might be trained to military service and succeed to his father's
command. Hanno, the leader of the opposite faction, said, "Hasdrubal
seems indeed to ask what is reasonable, but I, nevertheless, do not
think his request ought to be granted." When he had attracted to
himself the attention of all, through surprise at this ambiguous
opinion, he proceeded: "Hasdrubal thinks that the flower of youth
which he gave to the enjoyment of Hannibal's father, may justly be
expected by himself in return from the son: but it would little become
us to accustom our youth, in place of a military education, to the
lustful ambition of the generals. Are we afraid that the son of
Hamilcar should be too late in seeing the immoderate power and
splendour of his father's sovereignty? or that we shall not soon
enough become slaves to the son of him, to whose son-in-law our armies
were bequeathed as an hereditary right? I am of opinion, that this
youth should be kept at home, and taught, under the restraint of the
laws and the authority of magistrates, to live on an equal footing
with the rest of the citizens, lest at some time or other this small
fire should kindle a vast conflagration."
4. A few, and nearly every one of the highest merit, concurred with
Hanno; but, as usually happens, the more numerous party prevailed over
the better. Hannibal, having been sent into Spain, from his very first
arrival drew the eyes of the whole army upon him. The veteran soldiers
imagined that Hamilcar, in his youth, was restored to them; they
remarked the same vigour in his looks and animation in his eye the
same features and expression of countenance; and then, in a short
time, he took care that his father should be of the least powerful
consideration in conciliating their esteem. There never was a genius
more fitted for the two most opposite duties of obeying and
commanding; so that you could not easily decide whether he were dearer
to the general or the army: and neither did Hasdrubal prefer giving
the command to any other, when any thing was to be done with courage
and activity; nor did the soldiers feel more confidence and boldness
under any other leader. His fearlessness in encountering dangers, and
his prudence when in the midst of them, were extreme. His body could
not be exhausted, nor his mind subdued, by any toil. He could alike
endure either heat or cold. The quantity of his food and drink was
determined by the wants of nature, and not by pleasure. The seasons of
his sleeping and waking were distinguished neither by day nor night.
The time that remained after the transaction of business was given to
repose; but that repose was neither invited by a soft bed nor by
quiet. Many have seen him wrapped in a military cloak, lying on the
ground amid the watches and outposts of the soldiers. His dress was
not at all superior to that of his equals: his arms and his horses
were conspicuous. He was at once by far the first of the cavalry and
infantry; and, foremost to advance to the charge, was last to leave
the engagement. Excessive vices counterbalanced these high virtues of
the hero; inhuman cruelty, more than Punic perfidy, no truth, no
reverence for things sacred, no fear of the gods, no respect for
oaths, no sense of religion. With a character thus made up of virtue
and vices, he served for three years under the command of Hasdrubal,
without neglecting any thing which ought to be done or seen by one who
was to become a great general.
5. But from the day on which he was declared general, as if Italy had
been decreed to him as his province, and the war with Rome committed
to him, thinking there should be no delay, lest, while he
procrastinated, some unexpected accident might defeat him, as had
happened to his father, Hamilcar, and afterwards to Hasdrubal, he
resolved to make war the Saguntines. As there could be no doubt that
by attacking them the Romans would be excited to arms, he first led
his army into the territory of the Olcades, a people beyond the
Iberus, rather within the boundaries than under the dominion of the
Carthaginians, so that he might not seem to have had the Saguntines
for his object, but to have been drawn on to the war by the course of
events; after the adjoining nations had been subdued, and by the
progressive annexation of conquered territory. He storms and plunders
Carteia, a wealthy city, the capital of that nation; at which the
smaller states being dismayed, submitted to his command and to the
imposition of a tribute. His army, triumphant and enriched with booty,
was led into winter-quarters to New Carthage. Having there confirmed
the attachment of all his countrymen and allies by a liberal division
of the plunder, and by faithfully discharging the arrears of pay, the
war was extended, in the beginning of spring, to the Vaccaei. The
cities Hermandica and Arbocala were taken by storm. Arbocala was
defended for a long time by the valour and number of its inhabitants.
Those who escaped from Hermandica joining themselves to the exiles of
the Olcades, a nation subdued the preceding summer, excite the
Carpetani to arms; and having attacked Hannibal near the river Tagus,
on his return from the Vaccaei, they threw into disorder his army
encumbered with spoil. Hannibal avoided an engagement, and having
pitched his camp on the bank, as soon as quiet and silence prevailed
among the enemy, forded the river; and having removed his rampart so
far that the enemy might have room to pass over, resolved to attack
them in their passage. He commanded the cavalry to charge as soon as
they should see them advanced into the water. He drew up the line of
his infantry on the bank with forty elephants in front. The Carpetani,
with the addition of the Olcades and Vaccaei amounted to a hundred
thousand, an invincible army, were the fight to take place in the open
plain. Being therefore both naturally ferocious and confiding in their
numbers; and since they believed that the enemy had retired through
fear thinking that victory was only delayed by the intervention of the
river, they raise a shout, and in every direction, without the command
of any one, dash into the stream, each where it nearest to him. At the
same time, a heavy force of cavalry poured into the river from its
opposite bank, and the engagement commenced in the middle of the
channel on very unequal terms; for there the foot-soldier, having no
secure footing, and scarcely trusting to the ford, could be borne down
even by an unarmed horseman, by the mere shock of his horse urged at
random; while the horseman, with the command of his body and his
weapons, his horse moving steadily even through the middle of the
eddies, could maintain the fight either at close quarters or at a
distance. A great number were swallowed up by the current; some being
carried by the whirlpools of the stream to the side of the enemy, were
trodden down by the elephants; and whilst the last, for whom it was
more safe to retreat to their own bank, were collecting together after
their various alarms, Hannibal, before they could regain courage after
such excessive consternation, having entered the river with his army
in a close square, forced them to fly from the bank. Having then laid
waste their territory, he received the submission of the Carpetani
also within a few days. And now all the country beyond the Iberus,
excepting that of the Saguntines, was under the power of the
Carthaginians.
6. As yet there was no war with the Saguntines, but already, in order
to a war, the seeds of dissension were sown between them and their
neighbours, particularly the Turetani, with whom when the same person
sided who had originated the quarrel, and it was evident, not that a
trial of the question of right, but violence, was his object,
ambassadors were sent by the Saguntines to Rome to implore assistance
in the war which now evidently threatened them. The consuls then at
Rome were Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus,
who, after the ambassadors were introduced into the senate, having
made a motion on the state of public affairs, it was resolved that
envoys should be sent into Spain to inspect the circumstances of the
allies; and if they saw good reason, both to warn Hannibal that he
should refrain from the Saguntines, the allies of the Roman people,
and to pass over into Africa to Carthage, and report the complaints of
the allies of the Roman people. This embassy having been decreed but
not yet despatched, the news arrived, more quickly than any one
expected, that Saguntum was besieged. The business was then referred
anew to the senate. And some, decreeing Spain and Africa as provinces
for the consuls, thought the war should be maintained both by sea and
land, while others wished to direct the whole hostilities against
Spain and Hannibal. There were others again who thought that an affair
of such importance should not be entered on rashly; and that the
return of the ambassadors from Spain ought to be awaited. This
opinion, which seemed the safest, prevailed; and Publius Valerius
Flaccus, and Quintus Baebius Tamphilus, were, on that account, the
more quickly despatched as ambassadors to Hannibal at Saguntum, and
from thence to Carthage, if he did not desist from the war, to demand
the general himself in atonement for the violation of the treaty.
7. While the Romans thus prepare and deliberate, Saguntum was already
besieged with the utmost vigour. That city, situated about a mile from
the sea, was by far the most opulent beyond the Iberus. Its
inhabitants are said to have been sprung from the island Zacynthus,
and some of the Rutulian race from Ardea to have been also mixed with
them; but they had risen in a short time to great wealth, either by
their gains from the sea or the land, or by the increase of their
numbers, or the integrity of their principles, by which they
maintained their faith with their allies, even to their own
destruction. Hannibal having entered their territory with a hostile
army, and laid waste the country in every direction, attacks the city
in three different quarters. There was an angle of the wall sloping
down into a more level and open valley than the other space around;
against this he resolved to move the vineae, by means of which the
battering-ram might be brought up to the wall. But though the ground
at a distance from the wall was sufficiently level for working the
vineae, yet their undertakings by no means favourably succeeded, when
they came to effect their object. Both a huge tower overlooked it, and
the wall, as in a suspected place, was raised higher than in any other
part; and a chosen band of youths presented a more vigorous
resistance, where the greatest danger and labour were indicated. At
first they repelled the enemy with missile weapons, and suffered no
place to be sufficiently secure for those engaged in the works;
afterwards, not only did they brandish their weapons in defence of the
walls and tower, but they had courage to make sallies on the posts and
works of the enemy; in which tumultuary engagements, scarcely more
Saguntines than Carthaginians were slain. But when Hannibal himself,
while he too incautiously approached the wall, fell severely wounded
in the thigh by a javelin, such flight and dismay spread around, that
the works and vineae had nearly been abandoned.
8. For a few days after, while the general's wound was being cured,
there was rather a blockade than a siege: during which time, though
there was a respite from fighting, yet there was no intermission in
the preparation of works and fortifications. Hostilities, therefore,
broke out afresh with greater fury, and in more places, in some even
where the ground scarcely admitted of the works, the vineae began to
be moved forward, and the battering-ram to be advanced to the walls.
The Carthaginian abounded in the numbers of his troops; for there is
sufficient reason to believe that he had as many as a hundred and
fifty thousand in arms. The townsmen began to be embarrassed, by
having their attention multifariously divided, in order to maintain
their several defences, and look to every thing; nor were they equal
to the task, for the walls were now battered by the rams, and many
parts of them were shattered. One part by continuous ruins left the
city exposed; three successive towers and all the wall between them
had fallen down with an immense crash, and the Carthaginians believed
the town taken by that breach; through which, as if the wall had alike
protected both, there was a rush from each side to the battle. There
was nothing resembling the disorderly fighting which, in the storming
of towns, is wont to be engaged in, on the opportunities of either
party; but regular lines, as in an open plain, stood arrayed between
the ruins of the walls and the buildings of the city, which lay but a
slight distance from the walls. On the one side hope, on the other
despair, inflamed their courage; the Carthaginian believing that, if a
little additional effort were used, the city was his; the Saguntines
opposing their bodies in defence of their native city deprived of its
walls, and not a man retiring a step, lest he might admit the enemy
into the place he deserted. The more keenly and closely, therefore,
they fought on both sides, the more, on that account, were wounded, no
weapon falling without effect amidst their arms and persons. There was
used by the Saguntines a missile weapon, called falarica, with the
shaft of fir, and round in other parts except towards the point,
whence the iron projected: this part, which was square, as in the
pilum, they bound around with tow, and besmeared with pitch. It had an
iron head three feet in length, so that it could pierce through the
body with the armour. But what caused the greatest fear was, that this
weapon, even though it stuck in the shield and did not penetrate into
the body, when it was discharged with the middle part on fire, and
bore along a much greater flame, produced by the mere motion, obliged
the armour to be thrown down, and exposed the soldier to succeeding
blows.
9. When the contest had for a long time continued doubtful, and the
courage of the Saguntines had increased, because they had succeeded in
their resistance beyond their hopes, while the Carthaginian, because
he had not conquered, felt as vanquished, the townsmen suddenly set up
a shout, and drive their enemies to the ruins of the wall; thence they
force them, while embarrassed and disordered; and lastly, drove them
back, routed and put to flight, to their camp. In the mean time it was
announced that ambassadors had arrived from Rome; to meet whom
messengers were sent to the sea-side by Hannibal, to tell them that
they could not safely come to him through so many armed bands of
savage tribes, and that Hannibal at such an important conjuncture had
not leisure to listen to embassies. It was obvious that, if not
admitted, they would immediately repair to Carthage: he therefore
sends letters and messengers beforehand to the leaders of the Barcine
faction, to prepare the minds of their partisans, so that the other
party might not be able in any thing to give an advantage to the
Romans.
10. That embassy, therefore, excepting that the ambassadors were
admitted and heard, proved likewise vain and fruitless. Hanno alone,
in opposition to the rest of the senate, pleaded the cause of the
treaty, amidst deep silence on account of his authority, and not from
the approbation of the audience. He said: that he had admonished and
forewarned them by the gods, the arbiters and witnesses of treaties,
that they should not send the son of Hamilcar to the army; that the
manes, that the offspring of that man could not rest in peace, nor
ever, while any one of the Barcine name and blood survived, would the
Roman treaties continue undisturbed. "You, supplying as it were fuel
to the flame, have sent to your armies a youth burning with the desire
of sovereign power, and seeing but one road to his object, if by
exciting war after war, he may live surrounded by arms and legions.
You have therefore fostered this fire, in which you now burn. Your
armies invest Saguntum, whence they are forbidden by the treaty: ere
long the Roman legions will invest Carthage, under the guidance of
those gods through whose aid they revenged in the former war the
infraction of the treaty. Are you unacquainted with the enemy, or with
yourselves, or with the fortune of either nation? Your good general
refused to admit into his camp ambassadors coming from allies and in
behalf of allies, and set at nought the law of nations. They, however,
after being there repulsed, where not even the ambassadors of enemies
are prohibited admittance, come to you: they require restitution
according to the treaty: let not guilt attach to the state, they
demand to have delivered up to them the author of the transgression,
the person who is chargeable with this offence. The more gently they
proceed,--the slower they are to begin, the more unrelentingly, I
fear, when they have once commenced, will they indulge resentment. Set
before your eyes the islands Aegates and Eryx, all that for
twenty-four years ye have suffered by land and sea. Nor was this boy
the leader, but his father Hamilcar himself, a second Mars, as these
people would have it: but we had not refrained from Tarentum, that is,
from Italy, according to the treaty; as now we do not refrain from
Saguntum. The gods and men have, therefore, prevailed over us; and as
to that about which there was a dispute in words, whether of the two
nations had infringed the treaty, the issue of the war, like an
equitable judge, hath awarded the victory to the party on whose side
justice stood. It is against Carthage that Hannibal is now moving his
vineae and towers: it is the wall of Carthage that he is shaking with
his battering-ram. The ruins of Saguntum (oh that I may prove a false
prophet!) will fall on our heads; and the war commenced against the
Saguntines must be continued against the Romans. Shall we, therefore,
some one will say, deliver up Hannibal? In what relates to him I am
aware that my authority is of little weight, on account of my enmity
with his father. But I both rejoice that Hamilcar perished, for this
reason, that, had he lived we should have now been engaged in a war
with the Romans; and this youth, as the fury and firebrand of this
war, I hate and detest. Nor ought he only to be given up in atonement
for the violated treaty; but even though no one demanded him, he ought
to be transported to the extremest shores of earth or sea, and
banished to a distance, whence neither his name nor any tidings of him
can reach us, and he be unable to disturb the peace of a tranquil
state. I therefore give my opinion, that ambassadors be sent
immediately to Rome to satisfy the senate; others to tell Hannibal to
lead away his army from Saguntum, and to deliver up Hannibal himself,
according to the treaty to the Romans; and I propose a third embassy
to make restitution to the Saguntines."
11. When Hanno had concluded, there was no occasion for any one to
contend with him in debate, to such a decree were almost all the
senators devoted to Hannibal; and they accused Hanno of having spoken
with more malignity than Flaccus Valerius, the Roman ambassador. It
was then said in answer to the Roman ambassadors, "that the war had
been commenced by the Saguntines, not by Hannibal; and that the Roman
people acted unjustly if they preferred the Saguntines to the most
ancient [Footnote: Alluding to the first treaty made in the year
that the kings were expelled from Rome.] alliance of the
Carthaginians." Whilst the Romans waste time in sending embassies,
Hannibal, because his soldiers were fatigued with the battles and the
works, allowed them rest for a few days, parties being stationed to
guard the vineae and other works. In the mean time he inflames their
minds, now by inciting their anger against the enemy, now with the
hope of reward. But when he declared before the assembled army, that
the plunder of the captured city should be given to the soldiers, to
such a degree were they all excited, that if the signal had been
immediately given, it appeared that they could not have been resisted
by any force. The Saguntines, as they had a respite from fighting,
neither for some days attacking nor attacked, so they had not, by
night or day, ever ceased from toiling, that they might repair anew
the wall in the quarter where the town had been exposed by the breach.
A still more desperate storming than the former then assailed them;
nor whilst all quarters resounded with various clamours, could they
satisfactorily know where first or principally they should lend
assistance. Hannibal, as an encouragement, was present in person,
where a movable tower, exceeding in height all the fortifications of
the city, was urged forward. When being brought up it had cleared the
walls of their defenders by means of the catapultae and ballistae
ranged through all its stories, then Hannibal, thinking it a
favourable opportunity, sends about five hundred Africans with
pickaxes to undermine the wall: nor was the work difficult, since the
unhewn stones were not fastened with lime, but filled in their
interstices with clay, after the manner of ancient building. It fell,
therefore, more extensively than it was struck, and through the open
spaces of the ruins troops of armed men rushed into the city. They
also obtain possession of a rising ground; and having collected
thither catapultae and ballistae, so that they might have a fort in
the city itself, commanding it like a citadel, they surround it with a
wall: and the Saguntines raise an inner wall before the part of the
city which was not yet taken. On both sides they exert the utmost
vigour in fortifying and fighting: but the Saguntines, by erecting
these inner defences, diminish daily the size of their city. At the
same time, the want of all supplies increased through the length of
the siege, and the expectation of foreign aid diminished, since the
Romans, their only hope, were at such a distance, and all the country
round was in the power of the enemy. The sudden departure of Hannibal
against the Oretani and Carpetani [Footnote: The Carpetani have
already been mentioned, chap. v. The Oretani, then neighbours,
occupied the country lying between the sources of the Baetis and the
Anas, or what are now called the Guadalquiver and Guadiana. In a part
of Orospeda they deduced their name from a city called Oretum, the
site of which has been brought to light in a paltry village to which
the name of Oreto still remains.--_D'Anville_.] revived for a
little their drooping spirits; which two nations, though, exasperated
by the severity of the levy, they had occasioned, by detaining the
commissaries, the fear of a revolt, having been suddenly checked by
the quickness of Hannibal, laid down the arms they had taken up.
12. Nor was the siege of Saguntum, in the mean time, less vigorously
maintained; Maharbal, the son of Himilco, whom Hannibal had set over
the army, carrying on operations so actively that neither the townsmen
nor their enemies perceived that the general was away. He both engaged
in several successful battles, and with three battering-rams overthrew
a portion of the wall; and showed to Hannibal, on his arrival the
ground all covered with fresh ruins. The army was therefore
immediately led against the citadel itself, and a desperate combat was
commenced with much slaughter on both sides, and part of the citadel
was taken. The slight chance of a peace was then tried by two persons;
Alcon a Saguntine, and Alorcus a Spaniard. Alcon, thinking he could
effect something by entreaties, having passed over, without the
knowledge of the Saguntines, to Hannibal by night, when his tears
produced no effect, and harsh conditions were offered as from an
exasperated conqueror, becoming a deserter instead of an advocate,
remained with the enemy; affirming that the man would be put to death
who should treat for peace on such terms. For it was required that
they should make restitution to the Turdetani; and after delivering up
all their gold and silver, departing from the city each with a single
garment, should take up their dwelling where the Carthaginian should
direct. Alcon having denied that the Saguntines would accept such
terms of peace, Alorcus, asserting that when all else is subdued, the
mind becomes subdued, offers himself as the proposer of that peace.
Now at that time he was a soldier of Hannibal's, but publicly the
friend and host of the Saguntines. Having openly delivered his weapon
to the guards of the enemy and passed the fortifications, he was
conducted, as he had himself requested, to the Saguntine praetor;
whither when there was immediately a general rush of every description
of people, the rest of the multitude being removed, an audience of the
senate is given to Alorcus; whose speech was to the following effect:
13. "If your citizen Alcon, as he came to implore a peace from
Hannibal, had in like manner brought back to you the terms of peace
proposed by Hannibal, this journey of mine would have been
unnecessary; by which circumstance I should not have had to come to
you as the legate of Hannibal, nor as a deserter. Since he has
remained with your enemies, either through your fault or his own,
(through his own, if he counterfeited fear; through yours, if among
you there be danger to those who tell the truth,) that you may not be
ignorant that there are some terms of safety and peace for you, I have
come to you in consideration of the ancient ties of hospitality which
subsist between us. But that I speak what I address to you for your
sake and that of no other, let even this be the proof: that neither
while you resisted with your own strength, nor while you expected
assistance from the Romans, did I ever make any mention of peace to
you. But now, after you have neither any hope from the Romans, nor
your own arms nor walls sufficiently defend you, I bring to you a
peace rather necessary than just: of effecting which there is thus
some hope, if, as Hannibal offers it in the spirit of a conqueror, you
listen to it as vanquished; if you will consider not what is taken
from you as loss, (since all belongs to the conqueror,) but whatever
is left as a gift. He takes away from you your city, which, already
for the greater part in ruins, he has almost wholly in his possession;
he leaves you your territory, intending to mark out a place in which
you may build a new town; he commands that all the gold and silver,
both public and private, shall be brought to him; he preserves
inviolate your persons and those of your wives and children, provided
you are willing to depart from Saguntum, unarmed, each with two
garments. These terms a victorious enemy dictates. These, though harsh
and grievous, your condition commends to you. Indeed I do not despair,
when the power of every thing is given him, that he will remit
something from these terms. But even these I think you ought rather to
endure, than suffer, by the rights of war, yourselves to be
slaughtered, your wives and children to be ravished and dragged into
captivity before your faces."
14. When an assembly of the people, by the gradual crowding round of
the multitude, had mingled with the senate to hear these proposals,
the chief men suddenly withdrawing before an answer was returned, and
throwing all the gold and silver collected, both from public and
private stores, into a fire hastily kindled for that purpose, the
greater part flung themselves also into it. When the dismay and
agitation produced by this deed had pervaded the whole city, another
noise was heard in addition from the citadel. A tower, long battered,
had fallen down; and when a Carthaginian cohort, rushing through the
breach, had made a signal to the general that the city was destitute
of the usual outposts and guards, Hannibal, thinking that there ought
to be no delay at such an opportunity, having attacked the city with
his whole forces, took it in a moment, command being given that all
the adults should be put to death; which command, though cruel, was
proved in the issue to have been almost necessary. For to whom of
those men could mercy have been shown, who, either shut up with their
wives and children, burned their houses over their own heads, or
abroad in arms made no end of fighting, except in death.
15. The town was taken, with immense spoil. Though the greater part of
the goods had been purposely damaged by their owners, and resentment
had made scarce any distinction of age in the massacre, and the
captives were the booty of the soldiers; still it appears that some
money was raised from the price of the effects that were sold, and
that much costly furniture and garments were sent to Carthage. Some
have written that Saguntum was taken in the eighth month after it
began to be besieged; that Hannibal then retired to New Carthage, into
winter quarters; and that in the fifth month after he had set out from
Carthage he arrived in Italy. If this be so, it was impossible that
Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius could have been consuls, to
whom both at the beginning of the siege the Saguntine ambassadors were
despatched, and who, during their office, fought with Hannibal; the
one at the river Ticinus, and both some time after at the Trebia.
Either all these events took place in a somewhat shorter period, or
Saguntum was not begun to be besieged, but taken at the beginning of
the year in which Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius were
consuls. For the battle at Trebia could not have been so late as the
year of Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius, since Flaminius entered
on the office at Ariminum, having been created by the consul Tiberius
Sempronius; who, having repaired to Rome after the battle at Trebia
for the purpose of creating consuls, returned when the election was
finished to the army into winter quarters.
16. Nearly about the same time, both the ambassadors who had returned
from Carthage brought intelligence to Rome that all appearances were
hostile, and the destruction of Saguntum was announced. Then such
grief, and pity for allies so undeservingly destroyed, and shame that
aid was withheld, and rage against the Carthaginians, and fear for the
issue of events, as if the enemy were already at the gates, took at
once possession of the senators, that their minds, disturbed by so
many simultaneous emotions, trembled with fear rather than
deliberated. For they considered that neither had a more spirited or
warlike enemy ever encountered them nor had the Roman state been ever
so sunk in sloth, and unfit for war: that the Sardinians, the
Corsicans, the Istrians, and the Illyrians, had rather kept in a state
of excitement than exercised the Roman arms; and with the Gauls it had
been more properly a tumult than a war. That the Carthaginian, a
veteran enemy, ever victorious during the hardest service for
twenty-three years among the tribes of Spain, first trained to war
under Hamilcar, then Hasdrubal, now Hannibal, a most active leader,
and fresh from the destruction of a most opulent city, was passing the
Iberus; that along with them he was bringing the numerous tribes of
Spain, already aroused, and was about to excite the nations of Gaul,
ever desirous of war; and that a war against the world was to be
maintained in Italy and before the walls of Rome.
17. The provinces had already been previously named for the consuls;
and having been now ordered to cast lots for them, Spain fell to
Cornelius, and Africa with Sicily to Sempronius. Six legions were
decreed for that year, and as many of the allies as should seem good
to the consuls, and as great a fleet as could be equipped. Twenty-four
thousand Roman infantry were levied, and one thousand eight hundred
horse: forty thousand infantry of the allies, and four thousand four
hundred horse: two hundred and twenty ships of three banks of oars,
and twenty light galleys, were launched. It was then proposed to the
people, "whether they willed and commanded that war should be declared
against the people of Carthage;" and for the sake of that war a
supplication was made through the city, and the gods were implored
that the war which the Roman people had decreed might have a
prosperous and fortunate issue. The forces were thus divided between
the consuls. To Sempronius two legions were given, (each of these
consisted of four thousand infantry and three hundred horse,) and
sixteen thousand of the infantry of the allies, and one thousand eight
hundred horse: one hundred and sixty ships of war, and twelve light
galleys. With these land and sea forces Tiberius Sempronius was
despatched to Sicily, in order to transport his army to Africa if the
other consul should be able to prevent the Carthaginian from invading
Italy. Fewer troops were given to Cornelius, because Lucius Manlius,
the praetor, also had been sent with no weak force into Gaul. The
number of ships in particular was reduced to Cornelius. Sixty of five
banks of oars were assigned to him, (for they did not believe that the
enemy would come by sea, or would fight after that mode of warfare,)
and two Roman legions with their regular cavalry, and fourteen
thousand of the infantry of the allies, with one thousand six hundred
horse. The province of Gaul being not as yet exposed to the
Carthaginian invasion, had, in the same year, two Roman legions, ten
thousand allied infantry, one thousand allied cavalry, and six hundred
Roman.
18. These preparations having been thus made, in order that every
thing that was proper might be done before they commenced war, they
send Quintus Fabius, Marcus Livius, Lucius Aemilius, Caius Licinius,
and Quintus Baebius, men of advanced years, as ambassadors into
Africa, to inquire of the Carthaginians if Hannibal had laid siege to
Saguntum by public authority; and if they should confess it, as it
seemed probable they would, and defend it as done by public authority,
to declare war against the people of Carthage. After the Romans
arrived at Carthage, when an audience of the senate was given them,
and Quintus Fabius had addressed no further inquiry than the one with
which they had been charged, then one of the Carthaginians replied:
"Even your former embassy, O Romans, was precipitate, when you
demanded Hannibal to be given up, as attacking Saguntum on his own
authority: but your present embassy, though so far milder in words, is
in fact more severe. For then Hannibal was both accused, and required
to be delivered up: now both a confession of wrong is exacted from us,
and, as though we had confessed, restitution is immediately demanded.
But I think that the question is not, whether Saguntum was attacked by
private or public authority, but whether it was with right or wrong.
For in the case of our citizen, the right of inquiry, whether he has
acted by his own pleasure or ours, and the punishment also, belongs to
us. The only dispute with you is, whether it was allowed to be done by
the treaty. Since, therefore, it pleases you that a distinction should
be made between what commanders do by public authority, and what on
their own suggestion, there was a treaty between us made by the consul
Lutatius; in which, though provision was made for the allies of both,
there is no provision made for the Saguntines, for they were not as
yet your allies. But in that treaty which was made with Hasdrubal, the
Saguntines are excepted; against which I am going to say nothing but
what I have learned from you. For you denied that you were bound by
the treaty which Caius Lutatius the consul first made with us, because
that it had neither been made by the authority of the senate nor the
command of the people; and another treaty was therefore concluded anew
by public authority. If your treaties do not bind you unless they are
made by your authority and your commands, neither can the treaty of
Hasdrubal, which he made without our knowledge, be binding on us.
Cease, therefore, to make mention of Saguntum and the Iberus, and let
your mind at length bring forth that with which it has long been in
labour." Then the Roman, having formed a fold in his robe, said, "Here
we bring to you peace and war; take which you please." On this speech
they exclaimed no less fiercely in reply: "he might give which he
chose;" and when he again, unfolding his robe, said "he gave war,"
they all answered that "they accepted it, and would maintain it with
the same spirit with which they accepted it."
19. This direct inquiry and denunciation of war seemed more consistent
with the dignity of the Roman people, both before and now, especially
when Saguntum was destroyed, than to cavil in words about the
obligation of treaties. For if it was a subject for a controversy of
words, in what was the treaty of Hasdrubal to be compared with the
former treaty of Lutatius, which was altered? Since in the treaty of
Lutatius, was expressly added, "that it should only be held good if
the people sanctioned it;" but in the treaty of Hasdrubal, neither was
there any such exception; and that treaty during its life had been so
established by the silence of so many years, that not even after the
death of its author was any change made in it. Although even were they
to abide by the former treaty, there had been sufficient provision
made for the Saguntines by excepting the allies of both states; for
neither was it added, "those who then were," nor "those who should
afterwards be admitted." and since it is allowable to admit new
allies, who could think it proper, either that no people should be
received for any services into friendship? or that, being received
under protection, they should not be defended? It was only stipulated,
that the allies of the Carthaginians should not be excited to revolt,
nor, revolting of their own accord, be received. The Roman
ambassadors, according as they had been commanded at Rome, passed over
from Carthage into Spain, in order to visit the nations, and either to
allure them into an alliance, or dissuade them from joining the
Carthaginians. They came first to the Bargusii, by whom having been
received with welcome, because they were weary of the Carthaginian
government, they excited many of the states beyond the Iberus to the
desire of a revolution. Thence they came to the Volciani, whose reply
being celebrated through Spain, dissuaded the other states from an
alliance with the Romans; for thus the oldest member in their council
made answer: "What sense of shame have ye, Romans, to ask of us that
we should prefer your friendship to that of the Carthaginians, when
you, their allies, betrayed the Saguntines with greater cruelty than
that with which the Carthaginians, their enemies, destroyed them?
There, methinks, you should look for allies, where the massacre of
Saguntum is unknown. The ruins of Saguntum will remain a warning as
melancholy as memorable to the states of Spain, that no one should
confide in the faith or alliance of Rome." Having been then commanded
to depart immediately from the territory of the Volciani, they
afterwards received no kinder words from any of the councils of Spain:
they therefore pass into Gaul, after having gone about through Spain
to no purpose.
20. Among the Gauls a new and alarming spectacle was seen, by reason
of their coming (such is the custom of the nation) in arms to the
assembly. When, extolling in their discourse the renown and valour of
the Roman people, and the wide extent of their empire, they had
requested that they would refuse a passage through their territory and
cities to the Carthaginian invading Italy; such laughter and yelling
is said to have arisen, that the youths were with difficulty composed
to order by the magistrates and old men. So absurd and shameless did
the request seem, to propose that the Gauls, rather than suffer the
war to pass on to Italy, should turn it upon themselves and expose
their own lands to be laid waste instead of those of others. When the
tumult was at length allayed, answer was returned to the ambassadors,
"that they had neither experienced good from the Romans, nor wrong
from the Carthaginians, on account of which they should either take up
arms in behalf of the Romans, or against the Cathaginians. On the
contrary, they had heard that men of their nation had been driven from
the lands and confines of Italy by the Roman people, that they had to
pay a tribute, and suffered other indignities." Nearly the same was
said and heard in the other assemblies of Gaul; nor did they hear any
thing friendly or pacific before they came to Marseilles. There, every
thing found out by the care and fidelity of the allies was made known
to them--"that the minds of the Gauls had been already prepossessed by
Hannibal, but that not even by him would that nation be found very
tractable, (so fierce and untameable are their dispositions,) unless
the affections of the chiefs should every now and then be conciliated
with gold, of which that people are most covetous." Having thus gone
round through the tribes of Spain and Gaul, the ambassadors return to
Rome not long after the consuls had set out for their provinces. They
found the whole city on tiptoe in expectation of war, the report being
sufficiently confirmed, that the Carthaginians had already passed the
Iberus.
21. Hannibal, after the taking of Saguntum, had retired to New
Carthage into winter quarters; and there, having heard what had been
done and decreed at Rome and Carthage, and that he was not only the
leader, but also the cause of the war, after having divided and sold
the remains of the plunder, thinking there ought to be no longer
delay, he calls together and thus addresses his soldiers of the
Spanish race: "I believe, tribes, that even you yourselves perceive
that, all the tribes of Spain having been reduced to peace, we must
either conclude our campaigns and disband our armies, or transfer the
war into other regions: for thus these nations will flourish amid the
blessings not only of peace, but also of victory, if we seek from
other countries spoils and renown. Since, therefore, a campaign far
from home soon awaits you, and it is uncertain when you shall again
see your homes, and all that is there dear to you, if any one of you
wishes to visit his friends, I grant him leave of absence. I give you
orders to be here at the beginning of spring, that, with the good
assistance of the gods, we may enter on a war which will prove one of
great glory and spoil." This power of visiting their homes,
voluntarily offered, was acceptable to almost all, already longing to
see their friends, and foreseeing in future a still longer absence
Repose through the whole season of winter, between toils already
undergone and those that were soon to be endured, repaired the vigour
of their bodies and minds to encounter all difficulties afresh. At the
beginning of spring they assembled according to command. Hannibal,
when he had reviewed the auxiliaries of all the nations, having gone
to Gades, performs his vows to Hercules; and binds himself by new
vows, provided his other projects should have a prosperous issue. Then
dividing his care at the same time between the offensive and defensive
operations of the war, lest while he was advancing on Italy by a land
journey through Spain and Gaul, Africa should be unprotected and
exposed to the Romans from Sicily, he resolved to strengthen it with a
powerful force. For this purpose he requested a reinforcement from
Africa, chiefly of light-armed spearmen, in order that the Africans
might serve in Spain, and the Spaniards in Africa, each likely to be a
better soldier at a distance from home, as if bound by mutual pledges.
He sent into Africa thirteen thousand eight hundred and fifty
targetteers, eight hundred and seventy Balearic slingers, and one
thousand two hundred horsemen, composed of various nations. He orders
these forces partly to be used as a garrison for Carthage and partly
to be distributed through Africa: at the same time having sent
commissaries into the different states, he orders four thousand chosen
youth whom they had levied to be conducted to Carthage, both as a
garrison and as hostages.
22. Thinking also that Spain ought not to be neglected (and the less
because he was aware that it had been traversed by the Roman
ambassadors, to influence the minds of the chiefs,) he assigns that
province to his brother Hasdrubal, a man of active spirit, and
strengthens him chiefly with African troops: eleven thousand eight
hundred and fifty African infantry, three hundred Ligurians, and five
hundred Balearians. To these forces of infantry were added four
hundred horsemen of the Libyphoenicians, a mixed race of Carthaginians
and Africans; of the Numidians and Moors, who border on the ocean, to
the number of one thousand eight hundred, and a small band of
Ilergetes from Spain, amounting to two hundred horse: and, that no
description of land force might be wanting, fourteen elephants. A
fleet was given him besides to defend the sea-coast, (because it might
be supposed that the Romans would then fight in the same mode of
warfare by which they had formerly prevailed,) fifty quinqueremes, two
quadriremes, five triremes: but only thirty-two quinqueremes and five
triremes were properly fitted out and manned with rowers. From Gades
he returned to the winter quarters of the army at Carthage; and thence
setting out, he led his forces by the city Etovissa to the Iberus and
the sea-coast. There, it is reported, a youth of divine aspect was
seen by him in his sleep, who said, "that he was sent by Jupiter as
the guide of Hannibal into Italy, and that he should, therefore,
follow him, nor in any direction turn his eyes away from him." At
first he followed in terror, looking no where, either around or
behind: afterwards, through the curiosity of the human mind, when he
revolved in his mind what that could be on which he was forbidden to
look back, he could not restrain his eyes; then he beheld behind him a
serpent of wonderful size moving along with an immense destruction of
trees and bushes, and after it a cloud following with thunderings from
the skies; and that then inquiring "what was that great commotion, and
what the cause of the prodigy," he heard in reply: "That it was the
devastation of Italy: that he should continue to advance forward, nor
inquire further, but suffer the fates to remain in obscurity."
23. Cheered by this vision, he transported his forces in three
divisions across the Iberus, having sent emissaries before him to
conciliate by gifts the minds of the Gauls, in the quarter through
which his army was to be led, and to examine the passes of the Alps.
He led ninety thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry across the
Iberus. He then subdued the Ilergetes, the Bargusii, the Ausetani, and
that part of Lacetania which lies at the foot of the Pyrenaean
mountains; and he placed Hanno in command over all this district, that
the narrow gorges which connect Spain with Gaul might be under his
power. Ten thousand infantry, and a thousand cavalry, were given to
Hanno for the defence of the country he was to occupy. After the army
began to march through the passes of the Pyrenees, and a more certain
rumour of the Roman war spread through the barbarians, three thousand
of the Carpetanian infantry turned back: it clearly appeared that they
were not so much swayed by the prospect of the war as by the length of
the journey and the insuperable passage of the Alps. Hannibal, because
it was hazardous to recall or detain them by force, lest the fierce
minds of the rest might also be irritated, sent home above seven
thousand men, whom also he had observed to be annoyed with the
service, pretending that the Carpetani had also been dismissed by him.
24. Then, lest delay and ease might unsettle their minds, he crosses
the Pyrenees with the rest of his forces, and pitches his camp at the
town Illiberis. The Gauls, though they had heard that the war was
directed against Italy, yet because there was a report that the
Spaniards on the other side of the Pyrenees had been reduced by force,
and that strong forces had been imposed on them, being roused to arms
through the fear of slavery, assembled certain tribes at Ruscino. When
this was announced to Hannibal, he, having more fear of the delay than
of the war, sent envoys to say to their princes, "that he wished to
confer with them; and that they should either come nearer to
Illiberis, or that he would proceed to Ruscino, that their meeting
might be facilitated by vicinity: for that he would either be happy to
receive them into his camp, or would himself without hesitation come
to them: since he had entered Gaul as a friend, and not as an enemy,
and would not draw the sword, if the Gauls did not force him, before
he came to Italy." These proposals, indeed, were made by his
messengers. But when the princes of the Gauls, having immediately
moved their camp to Illiberis, came without reluctance to the
Carthaginian, being won by his presents, they suffered his army to
pass through their territories, by the town of Ruscino, without any
molestation.
25. In the mean time no further intelligence had been brought into
Italy to Rome by the ambassadors of Marseilles than that Hannibal had
passed the Iberus; when the Boii asked if he had already passed the
Alps, revolted after instigating the Insubrians; not so much through
their ancient resentment towards the Roman people, as on account of
their having felt aggrieved that the colonies of Placentia and Cremona
had been lately planted in the Gallic territory about the Po. Having
therefore, suddenly taken up arms, and made an attack on that very
territory, they created so much of terror and tumult, that not only
the rustic population, but even the Roman triumvirs, Caius Lutatius,
Caius Servilius, and Titus Annius, who had come to assign the lands,
distrusting the walls of Placentia, fled to Mutina. About the name of
Luttius there is no doubt: in place of Caius Servilius and Titus
Annius, some annals have Quintus Acilius and Caius Herenrius; others,
Publius Cornelius Asina and Caius Papirius Maso. This point is also
uncertain, whether the ambassadors went to expostulate to the Boii
suffered violence, or whether an attack was made on the triumvirs
while measuring out the lands. While they were shut up in Mutina, and
a people unskilled in the arts of besieging towns, and, at the same
time, most sluggish at military operations, lay inactive before the
walls, which they had not touched, pretended proposals for a peace
were set on foot; and the ambassadors, being invited out to a
conference by the chiefs of the Gauls, are seized, not only contrary
to the law of nations, but in violation of the faith which was pledged
on that very occasion; the Gauls denying that they would set them free
unless their hostages were restored to them. When this intelligence
respecting the ambassadors was announced, and that Mutina and its
garrison were in danger, Lucius Manlius, the praetor, inflamed with
rage, led his army in haste to Mutina. There were then woods on both
sides of the road, most of the country being uncultivated. There,
having advanced without previously exploring his route, he fell
suddenly into an ambuscade; and after much slaughter of his men, with
difficulty made his way into the open plains. Here a camp was
fortified, and because confidence was wanting to the Gauls to attack
it, the spirit of the soldiers revived, although it was sufficiently
evident that their strength was much clipped. The journey was then
commenced anew; nor while the army was led in march through open
tracts did the enemy appear: but, when the woods were again entered,
then attacking the rear, amid great confusion and alarm of all, they
slew eight hundred soldiers, and took six standards. There was an end
to the Gauls of creating, and to the Romans of experiencing terror,
when they escaped from the pathless and entangled thicket; then easily
defending their march through the open ground, the Romans directed
their course to Tanetum, a village near the Po; where, by a temporary
fortification, and the supplies conveyed by the river, and also by the
aid of the Brixian Gauls, they defended themselves against the daily
increasing multitude of their enemies.
26. When the account of this sudden disturbance was brought to Rome,
and the senators heard that the Punic had also been increased by a
Gallic war, they order Caius Atilius, the praetor, to carry assistance
to Manlius with one Roman legion and five thousand of the allies,
enrolled in the late levy by the consul: who, without any contest, for
the enemy had retired through fear, arrived at Tanetum. At the same
time Publius Cornelius, a new legion having been levied in the room of
that which was sent with the praetor, setting out from the city with
sixty ships of war, by the coast of Etruria and Liguria, and then the
mountains of the Salyes, arrived at Marseilles, and pitched his camp
at the nearest mouth of the Rhone, (for the stream flows down to the
sea divided into several channels,) scarcely as yet well believing
that Hannibal had crossed the Pyrenaean mountains; whom when he
ascertained to be also meditating the passage of the Rhone, uncertain
in what place he might meet him, his soldiers not yet being
sufficiently recovered from the tossing of the sea, he sends forward,
in the mean time, three hundred chosen horses, with Massilian guides
and Gallic auxiliaries, to explore all the country, and observe the
enemy from a safe distance. Hannibal, the other states being pacified
by fear or bribes, had now come into the territory of the Volcae, a
powerful nation. They, indeed, dwell on both sides of the Rhone: but
doubting that the Carthaginian could be driven from the hither bank,
in order that they might have the river as a defence, having
transported almost all their effects across the Rhone, occupied in
arms the farther bank of the river. Hannibal, by means of presents,
persuades the other inhabitants of the river-side, and some even of
the Volcae themselves, whom their homes had detained, to collect from
every quarter and build ships; and they at the same time themselves
desired that the army should be transported, and their country
relieved, as soon as possible, from the vast multitude of men that
burthened it. A great number, therefore, of ships and boats rudely
formed for the neighbouring passages, were collected together; and the
Gauls, first beginning the plan, hollowed out some new ones from
single trees; and then the soldiers themselves, at once induced by the
plenty of materials and the easiness of the work, hastily formed
shapeless hulks, in which they could transport themselves and their
baggage, caring about nothing else, provided they could float and
contain their burthen.
27. And now, when all things were sufficiently prepared for crossing,
the enemy over against them occupying the whole bank, horse and foot,
deterred them. In order to dislodge them, Hannibal orders Hanno, the
son of Bomilcar, at the first watch of the night, to proceed with a
part of the forces, principally Spanish, one day's journey up the
river; and having crossed it where he might first be able, as secretly
as possible, to lead round his forces, that when the occasion required
he might attack the enemy in the rear. The Gauls, given him as guides
for the purpose, inform him that about twenty-five miles from thence,
the river spreading round a small island, broader where it was
divided, and therefore with a shallower channel, presented a passage.
At this place timber was quickly cut down and rafts formed, on which
men, horses, and other burthens might be conveyed over. The Spaniards,
without making any difficulty, having put their clothes in bags of
leather, and themselves leaning on their bucklers placed beneath them,
swam across the river. And the rest of the army, after passing on the
rafts joined together, and pitching their camp near the river, being
fatigued by the journey of the night and the labour of the work, are
refreshed by the rest of one day, their leader being anxious to
execute his design at a proper season. Setting out next day from this
place, they signify by raising a smoke that they had crossed, and were
not far distant; which when Hannibal understood, that he might not be
wanting on the opportunity, he gives the signal for passing. The
infantry already had the boats prepared and fitted; a line of ships
higher up transporting the horsemen for the most part near their
horses swimming beside them, in order to break the force of the
current, rendered the water smooth to the boats crossing below. A
great part of the horses were led across swimming, held by bridles
from the stern, except those which they put on board saddled and
bridled, in order that they might be ready to be used by the rider the
moment he disembarked on the strand.
28. The Gauls run down to the bank to meet them with various whoopings
and songs, according to their custom, shaking their shields above
their heads, and brandishing their weapons in their right hands,
although such a multitude of ships in front of them alarmed them,
together with the loud roaring of the river, and the mingled clamours
of the sailors and soldiers, both those who were striving to break
through the force of the current, and those who from the other bank
were encouraging their comrades on their passage. While sufficiently
dismayed by this tumult in front, more terrifying shouts from behind
assailed them, their camp having been taken by Hanno; presently he
himself came up, and a twofold terror encompassed them, both such a
multitude of armed men landing from the ships, and this unexpected
army pressing on their rear. When the Gauls, having made a prompt and
bold effort to force the enemy, were themselves repulsed, they break
through where a way seemed most open, and fly in consternation to
their villages around. Hannibal, now despising these tumultuary onsets
of the Gauls, having transported the rest of his forces at leisure,
pitches his camp. I believe that there were various plans for
transporting the elephants; at least there are various accounts of the
way in which it was done. Some relate, that after the elephants were
assembled together on the bank, the fiercest of them being provoked by
his keeper, pursued him as he swam across the water, to which he had
run for refuge, and drew after him the rest of the herd; the mere
force of the stream hurrying them to the other bank, when the bottom
had failed each, fearful of the depth. But there is more reason to
believe that they were conveyed across on rafts; which plan, as it
must have appeared the safer before execution, is after it the more
entitled to credit. They extended from the bank into the river one
raft two hundred feet long and fifty broad, which, fastened higher up
by several strong cables to the bank, that it might not be carried
down by the stream they covered, like a bridge, with earth thrown upon
it, so that the beasts might tread upon it without fear, as over solid
ground. Another raft equally broad and a hundred feet long, fit for
crossing the river, was joined to this first; and when the elephants,
driven along the stationary raft as along a road had passed, the
females leading the way, on to the smaller raft which was joined to
it, the lashings, by which it was slightly fastened, being immediately
let go, it was drawn by some light boats to the opposite side. The
first having been thus landed, the rest were then returned for and
carried across. They gave no signs of alarm whatever while they were
driven along as it were on a continuous bridge. The first fear was,
when, the raft being loosed from the rest, they were hurried into the
deep. Then pressing together, as those at the edges drew back from the
water, they produced some disorder, till mere terror, when they saw
water all around, produced quiet. Some, indeed, becoming infuriated,
fell into the river; but, steadied by their own weight, having thrown
off their riders, and seeking step by step the shallows, they escaped
to the shore.
29. Whilst the elephants were conveyed over, Hannibal, in the mean
time, had sent five hundred Numidian horsemen towards the camp of the
Romans, to observe where and how numerous their forces were, and what
they were designing. The three hundred Roman horsemen sent, as was
before said, from the mouth of the Rhone, meet this band of cavalry;
and a more furious engagement than could be expected from the number
of the combatants takes place. For, besides many wounds, the loss on
both sides was also nearly equal: and the flight and dismay of the
Numidians gave victory to the Romans, now exceedingly fatigued. There
fell of the conquerors one hundred and sixty, not all Romans, but
partly Gauls: of the vanquished more than two hundred. This
commencement, and at the same time omen of the war, as it portended to
the Romans a prosperous issue of the whole, so did it also the success
of a doubtful and by no means bloodless contest. When, after the
action had thus occurred, his own men returned to each general, Scipio
could adopt no fixed plan of proceeding, except that he should form
his measures from the plans and undertakings of the enemy: and
Hannibal, uncertain whether he should pursue the march he had
commenced into Italy, or fight with the Roman army which had first
presented itself, the arrival of ambassadors from the Boii, and of a
petty prince called Magalus, diverted from an immediate engagement;
who, declaring that they would be the guides of his journey and the
companions of his dangers, gave it as their opinion, that Italy ought
to be attacked with the entire force of the war, his strength having
been no where previously impaired. The troops indeed feared the enemy,
the remembrance of the former war not being yet obliterated; but much
more did they dread the immense journey and the Alps, a thing
formidable by report, particularly to the inexperienced.
30. Hannibal, therefore, when his own resolution was fixed to proceed
in his course and advance on Italy, having summoned an assembly, works
upon the minds of the soldiers in various ways, by reproof and
exhortation. He said, that "he wondered what sudden fear had seized
breasts ever before undismayed: that through so many years they had
made their campaigns with conquest; nor had departed from Spain before
all the nations and countries which two opposite seas embrace, were
subjected to the Carthaginians. That then, indignant that the Romans
demanded those, whosoever had besieged Saguntum, to be delivered up to
them, as on account of a crime, they had passed the Iberus to blot out
the name of the Romans, and to emancipate the world. That then the way
seemed long to no one, though they were pursuing it from the setting
to the rising of the sun. That now, when they saw by far the greater
part of their journey accomplished, the passes of the Pyrenees
surmounted, amid the most ferocious nations, the Rhone, that mighty
river, crossed, in spite of the opposition of so many thousand Gauls,
the fury of the river itself having been overcome, when they had the
Alps in sight, the other side of which was Italy, should they halt
through weariness at the very gates of the enemy, imagining the Alps
to be--what else than lofty mountains? That supposing them to be
higher than the summits of the Pyrenees, assuredly no part of the
earth reached the sky, nor was insurmountable by mankind. The Alps in
fact were inhabited and cultivated;--produced and supported living
beings. Were they passable by a few men and impassable to armies? That
those very ambassadors whom they saw before them had not crossed the
Alps borne aloft through the air on wings; neither were their
ancestors indeed natives of the soil, but settling in Italy from
foreign countries, had often as emigrants safely crossed these very
Alps in immense bodies, with their wives and children. To the armed
soldier, carrying nothing with him but the instruments of war, what in
reality was impervious or insurmountable? That Saguntum might be
taken, what dangers, what toils were for eight months undergone! Now,
when their aim was Rome, the capital of the world, could any thing
appear so dangerous or difficult as to delay their undertaking? That
the Gauls had formerly gained possession of that very country which
the Carthaginian despairs of being able to approach. That they must,
therefore, either yield in spirit and valour to that nation which they
had so often during those times overcome; or look forward, as the end
of their journey, to the plain which spreads between the Tiber and the
walls of Rome."
31. He orders them, roused by these exhortations, to refresh
themselves and prepare for the journey. Next day, proceeding upward
along the bank of the Rhone, he makes for the inland part of Gaul: not
because it was the more direct route to the Alps, but believing that
the farther he retired from the sea, the Romans would be less in his
way; with whom, before he arrived in Italy, he had no intention of
engaging. After four days' march he came to the Island: there the
streams of the Arar and the Rhone, flowing down from different
branches of the Alps, after embracing a pretty large tract of country,
flow into one. The name of the Island is given to the plains that lie
between them. The Allobroges dwell near, a nation even in those days
inferior to none in Gaul in power and fame. They were at that time at
variance. Two brothers were contending for the sovereignty. The elder,
named Brancus, who had before been king, was driven out by his younger
brother and a party of the younger men, who, inferior in right, had
more of power. When the decision of this quarrel was most opportunely
referred to Hannibal, being appointed arbitrator of the kingdom, he
restored the sovereignty to the elder, because such had been the
opinion of the senate and the chief men. In return for this service,
he was assisted with a supply of provisions, and plenty of all
necessaries, particularly clothing, which the Alps, notorious for
extreme cold, rendered necessary to be prepared. After composing the
dissensions of the Allobroges, when he now was proceeding to the Alps,
he directed his course thither, not by the straight road, but turned
to the left into the country of the Tricastini, thence by the extreme
boundary of the territory of the Vocontii he proceeded to the
Tricorii; his way not being any where obstructed till he came to the
river Druentia. This stream, also arising amid the Alps, is by far the
most difficult to pass of all the rivers in Gaul; for though it rolls
down an immense body of water, yet it does not admit of ships;
because, being restrained by no banks, and flowing in several and not
always the same channels, and continually forming new shallows and new
whirlpools, (on which account the passage is also uncertain to a
person on foot,) and rolling down besides gravelly stones, it affords
no firm or safe passage to those who enter it; and having been at that
time swollen by showers, it created great disorder among the soldiers
as they crossed, when, in addition to other difficulties, they were of
themselves confused by their own hurry and uncertain shouts.
32. Publius Cornelius the consul, about three days after Hannibal
moved from the bank of the Rhone, had come to the camp of the enemy,
with his army drawn up in square, intending to make no delay in
fighting: but when he saw the fortifications deserted, and that he
could not easily come up with them so far in advance before him, he
returned to the sea and his fleet, in order more easily and safely to
encounter Hannibal when descending from the Alps. But that Spain, the
province which he had obtained by lot, might not be destitute of Roman
auxiliaries, he sent his brother Cneius Scipio with the principal part
of his forces against Hasdrubal, not only to defend the old allies and
conciliate new, but also to drive Hasdrubal out of Spain. He himself,
with a very small force, returned to Genoa, intending to defend Italy
with the army which was around the Po. From the Druentia, by a road
that lay principally through plains, Hannibal arrived at the Alps
without molestation from the Gauls that inhabit those regions. Then,
though the scene had been previously anticipated from report, (by
which uncertainties are wont to be exaggerated,) yet the height of the
mountains when viewed so near, and the snows almost mingling with the
sky, the shapeless huts situated on the cliffs, the cattle and beasts
of burden withered by the cold, the men unshorn and wildly dressed,
all things, animate and inanimate, stiffened with frost, and other
objects more terrible to be seen than described, renewed their alarm.
To them, marching up the first acclivities, the mountaineers appeared
occupying the heights over head; who, if they had occupied the more
concealed valleys, might, by rushing out suddenly to the attack, have
occasioned great flight and havoc. Hannibal orders them to halt, and
having sent forward Gauls to view the ground, when he found there was
no passage that way, he pitches his camp in the widest valley he could
find, among places all rugged and precipitous. Then, having learned
from the same Gauls, when they had mixed in conversation with the
mountaineers, from whom they differed little in language and manners,
that the pass was only beset during the day, and that at night each
withdrew to his own dwelling, he advanced at the dawn to the heights,
as if designing openly and by day to force his way through the defile.
The day then being passed in feigning a different attempt from that
which was in preparation, when they had fortified the camp in the same
place where they had halted, as soon as he perceived that the
mountaineers had descended from the heights, and that the guards were
withdrawn, having lighted for show a greater number of fires than was
proportioned to the number that remained, and having left the baggage
in the camp, with the cavalry and the principal part of the infantry,
he himself with a party of light-armed, consisting of all the most
courageous of his troops, rapidly cleared the defile, and took post on
those very heights which the enemy had occupied.