  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.” “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.’” CECIL TORR. YONDER WREYLAND, 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. map of the route Proposed route ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ elephant 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 10 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 the 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 English 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. 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. 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 himself 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. 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 I 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)” and * * * * * 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 Coelius 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 Aosta 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 afterwards 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 statement 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 in 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 he 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 the 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 have 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 Coelius 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 (pros 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 the 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 by 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 “the 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 the 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 fighting 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 not 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 narrow 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) 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) of 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 out 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 the 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 St 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. 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 who 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 in 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 to * * * * * 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 the 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 Hannibal 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 the 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 this 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 army elephant CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY W. LEWIS AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS |
|
