HANNIBAL PREPARES TO INVADE ITALY
The Romans thought it would be an easy matter to send an army to Spain
to punish the young general for his daring defiance of the Senate. But
as they soon found, it was not so simple as they had deemed.
Hannibal had ambitions beyond the wildest imaginations of the Romans,
and before they had sent an army to Spain, he had left the country to
invade Italy, for this was his great ambition.
In order to reach Italy, he determined to lead his army across the
Alps, a feat that no one without the genius and the daring of the
Carthaginian general could have ever hoped to accomplish.
The Gauls, who had so lately been at war with Rome, promised to join
Hannibal’s forces. When he was assured of the help of the barbarians,
Hannibal called his soldiers together and told them his plans.
‘The Romans,’ he said, ‘have demanded that I and my principal officers
should be delivered up to them as malefactors. Soldiers, will you
suffer such an indignity? The Gauls are holding out their arms to us,
inviting us to come to them and to assist them in revenging their
manifold injuries. And the country which we shall invade, so rich in
corn and wine and oil, so full of flocks and herds, so covered with
flourishing cities, will be the richest prize that could be offered by
the gods to reward your valour.’
[Illustration: “I carry here peace and war, choose, men of Carthage,
which ye will.”]
As you know, Hannibal was the idol of his men, and when he had
spoken a loyal shout arose. It was plain that his soldiers would follow
him to death.
Hannibal thanked his troops for their devotion, told them the day on
which they were to march, and then dismissed them.
He himself went to the temple to pray to the gods for the success of
his invasion of Italy.
Day and night he brooded over his plans, so that even when he slept his
mind was possessed by them.
One night he dreamed that he was in the presence of the gods of
Carthage. The deities bade him invade Italy, and one of them, they
promised, would be with him as his guide.
In his dream he and his divine leader then set out. ‘See that thou look
not behind thee,’ said the god. But in spite of this command Hannibal
looked back and a terrible dragon, covered with innumerable scales,
met his gaze. As the monster moved, it dragged in its path, woods,
orchards, houses.
‘What is this that I see?’ asked Hannibal.
‘Thou seest the desolation of Italy,’ answered his guide. ‘Go thy way
straight forward and cast no look behind.’
Thus encouraged by his dream, Hannibal went back to his army more
confident than before, and marched into Italy to perform his boyhood’s
vow.