was for making a circuitous route, 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 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 eut 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 these 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 a Many reject this incident as fictious. Pliny takes notice of a remarkable quality in vinegar, viz. its being able to break rocks and stones. Saxa rumpit infusum quæ non ruperit ignis antecedens, 1. xxiii c. . He therefore calls it, Succus rerum domitor, 1. xxxiii. c. 2. Dion, speaking of the siege of Eleuthe ra, says, that the walls of it were made to all by the force of vinegar, 1. xxxvi. D. 8 Probably, the circumstance that seems improbable on this occasion, is the difficulty of Hannibal's procuring on those mountains a quantity of vikes gar sufficient for this purpose. 6 Polyb. l. iii. p. 209, and 212-214. Liv. l. xxi. n. 39. near so numerous as when he left Spain, where we find it amounted to near 60,000 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 38,000 foot, and above 8,000 horse. The march over the Alps destroyed near half this number; so that Hannibal had now remaining only 12,000 Africans, 8,000 Spanish foot, and 6,000 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 standards 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 terriotories 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 valour. 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 b. BATTLE OF THE CAVALRY NEAR THE TICINUS. The armies 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 in their hands, since they were to combat only with Carthaginians, a people who had been so often defeated by them, as well as forced to be their a Taurini. b A small river (now called Tesino) in Lombardy. Polyb. l. iii. p. 214–218. Liv. l. xxi. n. 39–47. tributaries for 20 years, and long accustomed to be almost their slaves that the advantage they had gained over the flower of the Carthaginian horse was a sure omen of their success during the rest of the war: that Hannibal, in marching over the Alps, had just before lost the best part of his army; and that those who survived were half dead with hunger, cold, and fatigue: that the bare sight of the Romans was sufficient to put to flight a parcel of soldiers who had the aspect of ghosts rather than of men: in a word, that victory was become necessary, not only to secure Italy, but to save Rome itself, whose fate the present battle would decide, that city having no other army wherewith to oppose the enemy. Hannibal, that his words might make the stronger impression on the rude minds of his soldiers, speaks to their eyes, before he addresses their ears; and does not attempt to persuade them by arguments, till he has first moved them by the following spectacle. He arms some of the prisoners whom he had taken in the mountains, and obliges them to fight two and two, in sight of his army, promising to reward the conquerors with their liberty and rich presents. The alacrity and vigour wherewith these Barbarians engaged upon these motives, gives Hannibal an occasion of exhibiting to his soldiers a lively image of their present condition; which, by depriving them of all means of returning back, puts them under an absolute necessity either of conquering or dying, in order to avoid the endless evils prepared for those that should be so base and cowardly as to submit to the Romans. He displays to them the greatness of their reward, viz. the conquest of all Italy; the plunder of the rich and wealthy city of Rome; an illustrious victory, and immortal glory. He speaks contemptibly of the Roman power, the false lustre of which (he observed) ought not to dazzle such warriors as themselves, who had marched from the Pillars of Hercules, through the fiercest nations, into the very centre of Italy. As for his own part, he scorns to compare himself with Scipio, a general of but six months standing: himself, who was almost born, at least brought up, in the tent of Hamilcar his father; the conquerer of Spain, of Gaul, of the inhabitants of the Alps, and, what is still more, conqueror of the Alps themselves. He rouses their indignation against the insolence of the Romans, who had dared to demand that himself, and the rest who had taken Saguntum, should be delivered up to them; and excites their jealousy against the intolerable pride of those imperious masters, who imagined that all things ought to obey them, and that they had a right to give laws to the whole world. After these speeches, both sides prepare for battle. Scipio, having thrown a bridge across the Ticinus, marched his troops over it. Two ill omens had filled his army with consternation and dread. As for the Carthaginians, they were inspired with the boldest courage. Hannibal animates them with fresh promises; and cleaving with a stone the skull of the lamb he was sacrificing, he prays Jupiter to dash to pieces his head in like manner, in case he did not give his soldiers the rewards he had promised them. b Scipio posts, in the first line, the troops armed with missive weapons, and the Gaulish horse; and forming his second line of the flower of the confederate cavalry, he advances slowly. Hannibal advanced with his whole cavalry, in the centre of which he had posted the troopers who rid with bridles, and the Numidian horsemen on the wings, in order to surround the enemy. The officers and cavalry being eager to engage, a charge ensues. At the first onset, Scipio's light-armed soldiers had scarcely discharged their darts, when frighted at the Carthaginian cavalry which came pouring upon them, and fearing lest they should be trampled under the horses feet, they gave way, and retired through the intervals of the squadrons. The fight continued a long time with equal success. Many troopers on both sides dismounted, so that the battle was carried on between infantry as well as cavalry. In the mean time, the Numidians surround the enemy, and charge the rear of the light-armed toops, who at first had escaped the attack of the cavalry, and tread them under their horses feet. The centre of the Roman forces had hitherto fought with great bravery. Many were killed on both sides, and even more on that of the Carthaginians. But the Roman troops were put into disorder by the Numidians, who attacked them in the rear, and especially by a wound the consul received, which disabled him. However, this general was rescued out of the enemy's hands by the bravery of his son, then but 17 years old, and who afterwards was honoured with the surname of Africanus, for having put a glorious period to this war.. The consul, though dangerously wounded, retreated in good order, and was conveyed to his camp by a body of horse, who covered him with their arms and bodies: the rest of the army followed him thither. He hastened to the Po, which he crossed with his army, and then broke down the bridge, whereby he prevented Hannibal from overtaking him. It is agreed, that Hannibal owed this first victory to his cavalry; and it was judged from thenceforth, that the main a These two ill omens were, first, A wolf had stolen into the camp of the Romans, and cruelly mangled some of the soldiers, without receiving the least harm from those who endeavoured to kill it: and, secondly, A swarm of bees had pitched upon a tree near the prætorum or general's tent. Liv. 1. xxi. c. 457 b The Numidians used to ride without saddle or bridle. strength of his army consisted in his horse, and therefore, that it would be proper for the Romans to avoid large open plains, like those between the Po and the Alps. Immediately after the battle of the Ticinus, all the neighbouring Gauls seemed to contend who should submit themselves first to Hannibal, furnish him with ammunition, and inlist in his army. And this, as Polybius has observed, was what chiefly induced that wise and skilful general, notwithstanding the small number and weakness of his troops, to hazard a battle; which he indeed was now obliged to venture, from the impossibility of marching back whenever he should desire to do it, because nothing but a battle would oblige the Gauls to declare for him; their assistance being the only refuge he then had left. BATTLE OF TREBIA. "Sempronius the consul, upon the orders he had received from the senate, was returned from Sicily to Ariminum. From thence he marched towards Trebia, a small river of Lombardy, which falls into the Po a little above Placentia, where he joined his forces to those of Scipio. Hannibal advanced towards the camp of the Romans, from which he was separated only by that small river. The armies lying so near one another, gave occasion to frequent skirmishes, in one of which Sempronius, at the head of a body of horse, gained some advantage over a party of Carthaginians, very trifling, indeed, but which nevertheless very much increased the good opinion this general naturally entertained of his own merit. This inconsiderable success seemed to him a complete victory. He boasted his having vanquished the enemy in the same kind of fight in which his colleague had been defeated, and that he thereby had revived the courage of the dejected Romans. Being now resolutely bent to come as soon as possible to a decisive battle, he thought it proper, for decency's sake, to consult Scipio, whom he found of a quite different opinion from himself. Scipio represented, that in case time should be allowed for disciplining the new levies during the winter, they would be much fitter for service in the ensuing campaign; that the Gauls, who were naturally fickle and inconstant, would disengage themselves insensibly from Hannibal; that as soon as his wounds should be healed, his presence might be of some use in an affair of such general concern: in a word, he besought him earnestly not to proceed any farther. These reasons, though so just, made no impression upon |