The glory of Hannibal was that he did not wait for the Romans, but had
the audacity to march into Italy to attack them. As he had no fleet,
he resolved to advance by land, through the Pyrenees, crossing the
Rhone and the Alps. He made sure of the alliance of the Gallic peoples
and penetrated the Pyrenees with an army of 60,000 men, African and
Spanish mercenaries, and with 37 war-elephants. A Gallic people wished
to stop him at the Rhone, but he sent a detachment to pass the river
some leagues farther up the stream and to attack the Gauls in the
rear; the mass of the army crossed the river in boats, the elephants
on great rafts.
He next ascended the valley of the Isere and arrived at the Alps at
the end of October; he crossed them regardless of the snow and the
attacks of the mountaineers; many men and horses rolled down the
precipices. But nine days were consumed in attaining the summits of
the Alps. The descent was very difficult; the pass by which he had to
go was covered with ice and he was compelled to cut a road out of the
rock. When he arrived in the plain, the army was reduced to half its
former number.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333