road. Hannibal, being sensible that the loss of his baggage only was enough to destroy his army, ran to the assistance of his troops, who were thus embar rassed; and having put the enemy to flight, continued his march without molestation or danger, and came to a castle, which was the most important fortress in the whole country. He possessed himself of it, and of all the neighbouring villages, in which he found a large quantity of corn and cattle sufficient to subsist his army three days.

After a pretty quiet march, the Carthaginians were to encounter a new danger. The Gauls, feigning to take advantage of the misfortunes of their neighbours, who had suffered for opposing the passage of Hannibal's troops, came to pay their respects to that general, brought him provisions, offered to be his guides, and left him hostages, as pledges of their fidelity. However, Hannibal placed no great confidence in them. The elephants and horses marched in the front, whilst himself followed with the main body of his foot, keep. ing a vigilant eye over all things. They came at length to a very steep and narrow pass, which was commanded by an eminence where the Gauls had placed an ambuscade. These, rushing out on a sudden, charged the Carthaginians on every side, rolling down stones upon them of a prodigious size. The would have been entirely routed, had not Hannibal exerted himself in an extraordinary manner, to extricate them out of this difficulty.

army

At last, on the ninth day, they reached the summit of the Alps. Here the army halted two days, to rest and refresh themselves after this fatigue, and afterwards continued their march. As it was now autumn, a

great quantity of snow was lately fallen, and covered all the roads, which caused a disorder among the troops, and disheartened them very much. Hannibal perceived it; and halting on a hill from whence there was a prospect of all Italy, he showed them the fruitful plains, watered by the river Po, to which they were almost come; and therefore that they had but one effort more to make, before they arrived at them. He represented to them, that a battle or two would put a glorious period to their toils, and enrich them for ever, by giving them possession of the capital of the Roman empire. This speech, filled with such pleasing hopes, and enforced by the sight of Italy, inspired the dejected soldiers with fresh vigor and alacrity. They therefore pursued their march: but still the road was more craggy and troublesome than ever, and the difficulty and danger increased in proportion as they came lower down the mountains. For the ways were narrow, steep, and slippery, in most places; so that the soldiers could neither keep upon their feet as they marched, nor recover themselves when they made a false step, but stumbled, and beat down one another.

They now were come to a worse place than any they had yet met with. This was a path naturally very steep and craggy, which being made more so by the late falling in of the earth, terminated in a frightful precipice above ten hundred feet deep. Here the cavalry stopped short. Hannibal, wondering at this sudden halt, ran to the place, and saw that it really would be impossible for the troops to advance further. He therefore was for going a round about way, but this also was found impracticable. As upon the old snow,

which was grown hard by lying, there was some newly fallen that was of no great depth, the feet, by their sinking into it, found a firm support; but this snow being soon dissolved, by the treading of the foremost troops and beasts of burden, the soldiers marched on nothing but ice, which was so slippery, that there was no standing; and where, if they made the least false step, or endeavoured to save themselves with their hands or knees, there were no boughs or roots to catch hold of. Besides this difficulty, the horses, striking their feet into the ice to keep themselves from falling, could not draw them out again, but were caught as in a gin. They therefore were forced to seek some other expedient.

Hannibal resolved to pitch his camp, and to give his troops some days rest on the summit of this hill, which was of a considerable extent; after they should have cleared the ground, and removed all the old as well as the new fallen snow, which was a work of immense labour. He afterwards ordered a path to be cut into the rock itself, and this was carried on with amazing patience and ardour. To open and enlarge this path, all the trees thereabouts were cut down, and piled round the rock; after which fire was set to them. The wind, by good fortune, blowing hard, a fierce flame soon broke out, so that the rock glowed like the very coals with which it was surrounded. Then Hannibal, if Livy may be credited (for Polybius says "nothing of this matter), caused a great quantity of vinegar to be poured on the rock, which piercing into

Many reject this incident as fictitious. Pliny takes notice of a remarkable quality in vinegar, viz. its being able to break rocks and Saxa rumpit infusum, quæ non ruperit ignis antecedens, I. xxiii. He therefore calls it, Succus rerum domitor, 1. xxxiii. c. 2. Dion,

stones.

c. 1.

the veins of it, that were now cracked by the intense heat of the fire, calcined and softened it. In this manner, taking a large compass about, in order that the descent might be easier, they cut a way along the rock, which opened a free passage to the forces, the baggage, and even to the elephants. Four days were employed in this work, during which the beasts of burden had no provender; there being no food for them on mountains buried under eternal snows. At last they came into cultivated and fruitful spots, which yielded plenty of forage for the horses, and all kinds of food for the soldiers.

Hannibal enters Italy. When Hannibal marched into Italy, his army was not near so numerous as when he left Spain, where we find it amounted to near sixty thousand men. It had sustained great losses during the march, either in the battles it was forced to fight, or in the passage of rivers. At his departure from the Rhone, it consisted of thirty eight thousand foot, and above eight thousand horse. The march over the Alps destroyed near half this number; so that Hannibal had now remaining only twelve thousand Africans, eight thousand Spanish foot, and six thousand horse. This account he himself caused to be engraved on a pillar near the promontory called Lacinium. It was five months and a half since his first setting out from New Carthage, including the fortnight he employed in marching over the Alps, when he set up his standard

speaking of the siege of Eleuthera, says, that the walls of it were made to fall by the force of vinegar, 1. xxxvi. p. 8. Probably the circumstance that seems improbable on this occasion, is the difficulty of Hannibal's procuring, in those mountains, a quantity of vinegar sufficient for this purpose.

b Polyb. l. iii. p. 209 et 212-214. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 39.

in the plains of the Po, at the entrance of Piedmont. It might then be September.

His first care was to give his troops some rest, which they very much wanted. When he perceived that they were fit for action, the inhabitants of all the territories of Turin refusing to conclude an alliance with him, he marched and encamped before their chief city; carried it in three days, and put all who had opposed him to the sword. This expedition struck the barbarians with so much dread, that they all came voluntarily, and surrendered at discretion. The rest of the Gauls would have done the same, had they not been awed by the terror of the Roman arms, which were now approaching, Hannibal thought therefore that he had no time to lose; that it was his interest to march up into the country, and attempt some great exploit; such as might induce those who should have an inclination to join him, to rely on his valor,

The rapid progress which Hannibal had made greatly alarmed Rome, and caused the utmost consternation throughout the city. Sempronius was ordered to leave Sicily, and hasten to the relief of his country; and P. Scipio, the other consul, advanced with the utmost diligence towards the enemy, crossed the Po, and marched and pitched his camp near the Ticinus. The ar

Battle of the cavalry near the Ticinus. mies being now in sight, the generals on each side made a speech to their soldiers, before they engaged in battle. Scipio, after having represented to his forces the glory of their country, and the noble achievements of their ancestors, observed to them, that victory was

Taurini.

A small river, now called Tesino, in Lombardy. Polyb. 1. iii. p. 214-218. Liv. I. xxi. n. 39-47.