ing on the river, they, according to their custom, broke into dreadful cries and howlings; and, clashing their bucklers over their heads, one against the other, let fly a shower of darts. But they were prodigiously aston. ished, when they heard a great noise behind them, saw their tents on fire, and themselves attacked both in front and rear. They now had no way left but to save themselves by flight, and accordingly retreated to their respective villages. After this, the rest of the troops crossed the river quietly, and without any opposition.

The elephants were still behind, and occasioned a great deal of trouble. They were wafted over next day in the following manner. From the bank of the river was thrown a float of timber, two hundred feet in length, and fifty in breadth; this was fixed strongly to the banks by large ropes, and quite covered over with earth; so that the elephants, deceived by its appearance, thought themselves upon firm ground. From this first float they proceeded to a second, which was built in the same form, but only one hundred feet long, and fastened to the former by chains that were easily loosened. The female elephants were put upon the first float, and the males followed after; and when they were got upon the second float, it was loosened from the first, and by the help of small boats, towed to the opposite shore. After this, it was sent back to fetch those which were behind. Some fell into the water, but they at last got safe to shore, and not a single elephant was drowned.

The march after the battle of the Rhone. u The two Roman consuls had, in the beginning of the spring,

Polyb. 1. iii. p. 200-202, &c. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 31, 32.

set out for their respective provinces: P. Scipio for Spain, with sixty ships, two Roman legions, fourteen thousand foot, and twelve hundred horse of the allies ; Tiberius Sempronius for Sicily, with one hundred and sixty ships, two legions, sixteen thousand foot and eighteen hundred horse of the allies. The Roman legion consisted at that time of four thousand foot and three hundred horse. Sempronius had made extraordinary preparations at Lilybeum, a seaport town in Sicily, with the design of crossing over directly into Africa. Scipio was equally confident that he should find Hannibal still in Spain, and make that country the seat of war. But he was greatly astonished when, on his arrival at Marseilles, advice was brought him, that Hannibal was upon the banks of the Rhone, and preparing to cross it. He then detached three hundred horse to view the posture of the enemy; and Hannibal detached five hundred Numidian horse for the same purpose; during which some of his soldiers were employed in wafting over the elephants.

At the same time he gave audience, in presence of his whole army, to a Gaulish prince inhabiting near the Po, who assured him, by an interpreter, in the name of his subjects, that his arrival was impatiently expected; that the Gauls were ready to join him, and march against the Romans; that he himself would conduct his army through places where they should meet with a plentiful supply of provisions. When the prince was withdrawn, Hannibal, in a speech to his troops, magnified extremely this deputation from the Gauls; extolled, with just praises, the bravery which his forces had shown hitherto ; and exhorted them to sustain to the last their reputation and glory. The

soldiers, inspired with fresh ardour and courage, declared, with uplifted hands, their readiness to follow whithersoever he should lead the way. Accordingly he appointed the next day for his march; and after offering up vows, and making supplications to the gods for the safety of his troops, he dismissed them; desiring at the same time that they would take the necessary refresh

ments.

Whilst this was doing, the Numidians returned. They had met with and charged the Roman detachment; on which occasion the conflict was very obstinate, and the slaughter great, considering the small number of the combatants. One hundred and sixty of the Romans were left dead upon the spot, and more than two hundred of their enemies. But the honour of this skirmish fell to the Romans; the Numidians having retired, and left them the field of battle. This first action was interpreted as an omen of the fate of the whole war, and seemed to promise success to the Romans, but which at the same time would be dearly bought, and strongly contested. On both sides, those who had survived this engagement, as well as the scouts, returned to carry the news to their respective generals.

V

Hannibal, as he had declared, decamped the next day, and crossing through the midst of Gaul, advanced northward; not that this was the shortest way to the Alps, but only, as it led him from the sea, it prevented his meeting Scipio; and by that means, favour the design he had of marching all his forces, without lessening them by fighting, into Italy.

▾ Hoc principium simulque omen belli, ut summa rerum prosperum even. tum, ita haud sane incruentam ancipitisque certaminis victoriam Romanis portendit. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 29.

Though Scipio marched with the utmost expedition, he did not reach the place where Hannibal had passed the Rhone till three days after he had set out from it. Despairing therefore to overtake him, he returned to his fleet and reimbarked, fully resolved to wait for Hannibal at the foot of the Alps. But in order that he might not leave Spain defenceless, he sent his brother Cneius thither, with the greatest part of his army, to make head against Asdrubal, and himself set forward immediately for Genoa, with intention to oppose the army which was in Gaul, near the Po, to that of Hannibal.

The latter, after four days march, arrived at a kind of island formed by the conflux" of two rivers which unite their streams in this place. Here he was chosen umpire between two brothers, who disputed their right to the kingdom. He to whom Hannibal decreed it, furnished his whole army with provisions, clothes, and arms. This was the country of the Allobroges, by which name the people were called, who now inhabit the jurisdiction of Geneva,* Vienna, and Grenoble. His march was not much interrupted till he arrived at the Durances, and from thence he reached the foot of the Alps without any opposition.

The passage over the Alps. The sight of these mountains, whose tops seemed to touch the skies, and

wThe text of Polybius, as it has been transmitted to us, and that of Livy, place this island at the meeting of the Soane and the Rhone, that is, in that part where the city of Lyons stands : but this is a manifest error. It was Exapas in the Greek, instead of which o Apapos has been substituted. J. Gronovius says, that he had read in a manuscript of Livy, Bisarat, which shows, that we are to read Isara Rhodanusque amnes, instead of Arar Rhodanusque; and that the island in question is formed by the conflux of the Isara and the Rhone. The situation of the Allobroges, here spoken of, proves this evidently.

* In Dauphine.

y Polyb. 1. iii. p. 203-208. Liv. 1. xxi, n. 32-37.

were covered with snow, and where nothing appeared to the eye but a few pitiful cottages scattered here and there on the sharp tops of inaccessible rocks; nothing but meagre flocks, almost perished with cold, and hairy men of a savage and fierce aspect; this spectacle, I say, renewed the terror which the distant prospect had raised, and struck a prodigious damp on the hearts of the soldiers. When they began to climb up, they perceived the mountaineers, who had seized upon the highest cliffs, and prepared to oppose their passage. They therefore were forced to halt. Had the mountaineers, says Polybius, only lain in ambuscade, and suffered Hannibal's troops to strike into some narrow passage and had then charged them on a sudden, the Carthaginian army would have been irrecoverably lost. Hannibal, being informed that they kept those posts only in the day time, and quitted them in the evening, possessed himself of them by night. The Gauls returning early in the morning, were very much surprised to find their posts in the enemy's hand: but still they were not disheartened. Being used to climb up those rocks, they attacked the Carthaginians who were upon their march, and harrassed them on all sides. The latter were obliged, at one and the same time, to engage with the enemy, and struggle with the ruggedness of the paths of the mountains, where they could hardly stand. But the greatest disorder was caused by the horses and beasts of burden, laden with the baggage, that were frighted by the cries and howling of the Gauls, which echoed dreadfully among the mountains; and being sometimes wounded by the mountaineers, came tumbling on the soldiers, and dragged them headlong with them down the precipices which lay close to the