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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I . \AJlp ■J. I ■■ immmm^Kf^mmfmrn^^^^ 1 . / , Hj DISSERTATION, (See. 6;c. fir ^ U " ,_ ^ LONDON : SHAOKELL AND BAYLIS^ JOHN8ON's-0OURT> FLEET-STREET. 1 4»^ / r 7 A DISSERTATION ON THE / PASSAGE OF HANNIBAL OVER THE ALPS. BT HENRY L. WICKHAM, A.M. AND THE REV. J. A. CRAMER, A. M. LATE STUDENTS OF CHRIST CHUBCH> OXFORD. r yvua-tu^ tvfxcc k»\ Gfotf, Polyb. L 3. c. 8. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: PRIMTBDFOR G. B. WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE. 1828. U ',1 ■ r- / r ^ . » V »— ' . a^ * '' * '• I '-/ \ \ V A f^ r 1 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WYNDHAM, LORD GRENVILLE, CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 4*c. ot Litde St. Bernard^ forms the com- munication between the valley of the Isere and that of Aosta. It is situated a little to the south of the Mont Blanc^ and is the most northerly of the passages of. that division of the Alps which runs from north to south. The Alpis Gotda or Mont Genevre j^ is situated to the south of the Mont Cenis and to the north of the Mont Viso^ and forms the communication between Brian^on and Grenoble^ and the valley of Susa, which leads down to Turin. As there are no post roads over either of these two passes^ they are but little frequented in comparison with the Mont Cenis and the Simplon. XIV PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. and as Livy is much more read than Polybius, his account has obtained much more credit than it deserves, and has been considered as almost decisive of the question. It has been particularly adopted by almost all the French Mrriters upon the subject, and though they differ from each other as to the road which the army took to arrive at the passage, and further, although the account itself is absolutely inconsistent in many parts, yet the authority of so great a name has almost set criti- cism at defiance, and his commentators have endeavoured to reconcile his contradictions as well as they were able. It was evident, however, to those who were in the habit of looking a little deeper than the surface, that Livy's account, which, even when taken by itself, was far from satisfiictory, was, when compared with that of Polybius, with which it had been generally sup- posed to agree, very different in its conclusion ; and this variation between them was so decided, that it was quite impossible that both could be right. Gibbon was so much struck with this variation, as well as with the respective characters of the two authors as historians, that he would have given up Livy at once, had he not been unable, from his ignorance of the passage alluded PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XV to by Polybius, to decide the question in favour of the latter. The opinion of Gibbon appears also to have been very much influenced by that of D*An- ville, an authority to be respected above all others for wonderful accuracy and depth of research in matters relating to ancient topography. D'Anville, however, is guided in his opinion by the idea that the guides of Hannibal were Taurini, a mistake which is the more extraordinary, as Livy himself states them to be Boii.* Mr. Holds- worth, who had devoted much of his time* and attention to subjects of this nature, t appears to have detected Livy's inconsistencies as well as Gibbon, and to have been of opinion that the army crossed the Alps to the north of the Mont Genevre ; but as he was, as well as Gibbon, unacquainted with the passage of the Little St. Bernard, he was unable to fix upon the exact spot. It is to General Melville that the literary world has been indebted, in later times, for the sugges- tion of this latter pass, and it is by this suggestion that a question so long doubtful has received a most satisfactory explanation. This gentleman on * Livy, lib. xxi. c. 29. f Vide Spence's Anecdotes of Men and Books. XVI PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. his return from the West- Indies, where he had held a high military command, turned his whole attention to the investigation of the military antiquities of the Romans, and for this purpose spent some years in travelling over France, Italy, and Germany, and ex- amined with great attention the countries which had been the scenes of the most celebrated battles and events recorded in Roman history. From his thorough knowledge of Polybius, he was early struck with the great authority that his narrative carried with it, and he determined, if possible, to set at rest the much agitated question of the pas- sage of the Alps by Hannibal. As he perceived that no perusal of the historian, however close and attentive, no critical sagacity or discernment, could alone enable him to arrive at the truth, unless he verified the observations of his author on the same ground, and compared his descriptions with the same scenes, as those which that author had him- self visited and examined, the General surveyed attentively all the known passages of the Alps, and more particularly those which were best known to the ancients. The result of all these observations was a firm conviction, that the passage of the Little St. Ber- nard was that by which Hannibal had crossed over - — r^- PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XVU into Italy, both as being most probable in itsdi^ and also as agrieeing beyond all comparisoti more closely than any other with the description given by Polybius. The aiguments and the evidence which will be brought forward in the following pages are directed to the confirmation of this i^inion, and if they should appear satisfactory, the General must be looked upon as the first who has solved this proWem in history. It is not indeed meant that he was absolutely the first who made the Carthaginian army penetrate by that pass into Italy, since the oldest authority on this point, that of Cadius Antipater,* as we are prepared to shew, represents it as having taken that route ; but it is affirmed that he was the first to revive an opinion concerning that passage, which, although existing in full force in the traditions of the country itself^ appears to have been long laid aside as forgotten, and to have rested that opinion on arguments the most solid and plausible.t Greneral Melville never published any account * Vid. cbop. i. post t Some account of the General's life and discoveries will be found in the preface to the work of M. De Luc^ who quotes from the Monthly Repository of English Literature for Oc- tober, 1812. b XVm PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. of his observations, and they would most probably have been lost to the world, had he not foiind in M. De Luc, of Geneva, nephew of the late distinguished philosopher of that name, a person eminently qualified to undertake the task which he himself declined, and even materially to im- prove upon his labours. The very able and learned work which that gentleman published at Geneva in 1818, entitled Histoire du Passage des Alpes pair Annihalj* contains a very full and clear report of the observations of General Melville, supported by arguments and by evidence entirely original, and which must be admitted by every candid and judi- cious inquirer to be clear and conclusive. Had M. De Luc himself been enabled to follow the route which he describes, and to verify on the spot the whole of General Melville's observations with his own eyes, and with the same discernment with which he has actually examined a part of them, it would undoubtedly have been beyond the power of any writer, however able, to add to or to perfect his work ; but though various circum- stances have prevented him from accomplishing this most desirable object, it is wonderful with * M. De Luc published^ in 1825, a second edition of his work, considerably augmented. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XIX how much clearness he has embodied the Ge- neral'i* remarks, and how well he has described a line of country with which he was not himself personally acquainted. For clearness of description and for acuteness of argument, M. De Luc*s work cannot be suflSciently praised; and it was our intention, after we had read it, to employ ourselves in a translation of it. But for the purpose of enabling ourselves to verify his remarks, we determined to Undertake a journey along the whole road pointed out by M. De Luc, from the first ascent of the Alps to the termina- tion of the march in the plains of Italy. This journey was performed in the autumn of the year 1819. We descended the Rhone from Lyons to Vienne, and from thence struck off, by the old Roman road, across Dauphiny, till we reached the Mont du Chat; crossing that mountain, we descended upon Cham- bery and Montmeillan, and from thence went up the valley of the Isere to Scez, at the foot of the Little St. Bernard. We crossed this mountain, and came through the valley of Aosta to Ivrea, and finally to Turin, by the capture of which town Hannibal's passage of the Alps may be said to be finally temiinated. The whole of the country XX PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. through which we passed was beautiful, and wiU amply repay, by its scenery alone, the trouble of visiting it. The valleys of the Isere and of Aosta are extremely rich and populous, and cultivation is pushed almost to the very summit of the Alps. We carried with us Polybius as well as the work of M. De Luc, and we were as fully satisfied of the general accuracy of the latter as we were of our being in the exact road pointed out by the former. Still, however, much new light was thrown upon the subject in consequence of a per- sonal examination, and much new information was obtained. As also there are a few points in which we differ from M. De Luc, we have thought it, upon die whole, more advisable to publish the result of our observations in an original form, than to persist in our first resolution of merely translating the work of that gentleman. We beg leave, at the same time, to disclaim all the merit of originality upon this question ; and we feel so much indebted to M. De Luc for the greater part of the remarks contained in this work, that we shall be amply satisfied if we should be allowe^l the praise of an impartial examination of the ground with Polybius in our hands, togeth^ with a most earnest desire to arrive at the truth. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XXI It may seem extraordinary that the passage over the Little St. Bernard should have so entirely escaped the observation of all modem writers upon this sub- ject ; but the almost total disuse into which it had fallen, in consequence of the establishment of the road by the Echelles. which was constructed in 1670, and of that by the Mont Cenis, which now forms the great passage into Italy on that side, will suflSciently account for this circumstance. At present, however, notwithstandmg this disuse, there is a considerable intercourse between the vailies of Aosta and of the Isere, and the road along the latter is excellent as far as Scez. The Tarantaise, into which you enter at Conflans, is a very populous country, and the inhabitants are remarkable for a spirit of independence, which makes them avoid much communication with their more civilized neighbours ; though they are among themselves extremely hospitable and kind. The road over the St. Bernard itself, is at present im- passable for carriages as far as La Tuille, but from thence to Aosta it is very tolerable, and from that town to Ivrea and Turin it is excellent.* We passed * These roads have been much improved smce 1819. XXll PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. through some very fine country m Dauphmy, and Vienne, the town from which we first set out, abounds in Roman remains. The Roman road from Vienne to Ivrea appears to have been carried in ahnost the exact track of the modem one. We employed eight days in going from Vienne to Turin, and fi^und very Uttle difficulty in obtaining means of conveyance. Although we were ftilly convinced of the justness of our opinion by this journey, yet in order to satisfy ourselves completely, we determined to return by the Mont Genevre to Briaiij^on and Grenoble. And this latter tour has enabled us to prove, we think beyond contradiction, that it is absolutely impossible for the Carthaginian army to have taken this road, at least if the autho- rity of Polybius is to be considered of any weight in deciding the question. It may be proper here to state briefly the precise road which we conceive Hannibal to have taken, and which we shall develope more at length here- after. After crossing the Pyrenees at Bellegarde, he went to Nimes, through Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers, and Montpellier, as nearly as possible in the exact track of the great Roman road. From Nimes he marched to the Rhone, which he crossed PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XXUl at Roquemaure, and then went up the river to Vienne, or possibly a little higher. From thence, marching across the flat country of Dauphiny in order to avoid the angle which the river makes at Lyons, he rejoined it at St. Genis d*Aouste. He then crossed the Montdu Chat to Chambery, joined the Isere at Montmeillan, ascended it as far a3 Scez, crossed the Little St. Bernard, and de- scended upon Aosta and Ivrea by the banks of the Doria Baltea. After halting for some time at Ivrea, he marched upon Turin, which he took, and then prepared himself for ulterior operations against the Romans. To establish any road at ail, it was necessary to be guided exclusively either by Polybius or by Livy; for the accoimts of these two historians cannot, as we shall shew hereafter, be possibly re- conciled with each other. For reasons which will be stated in the 1st chapter, but principally because Livy's accoimt is inconsistent with itself, we have taken Polybius as our guide. It will be shewn, that the road which has just been laid down agrees in a most extraordinary manner with the one which he describes, especially as to the distances. It may indeed be safely said, that there is only one single XXIV PREFACE 1*0 FIRST EDITIOK. point of difference between us, and that one relates to the plains of Italy, which are said to have been pointed out to the army from the summit of the Alps. As it will be shewn thatthese plains can be seen from no known passage whatever of the Alps, we trust that this variation will not be looked upon as material. In every thing else we agree. M. De Luc's arrangement of giving the sub- stance of the Greek author at the head of each chapter has been adopted, and will be found con- venient, but a literal translation of the whole has been added in the Appendix. After the establishment of our own theory, we have proceeded to remark upon the other routes which have been at different times proposed. The work of M. De Luc was attacked soon after it ap- peared by two French gentlemen, who were anxious to defend their favourite Livy. The pamphlet of the first, M. Le Comte Fortia d'Urban, has been so completely reftited by the observations of the second, M. Letronne, that it has not been deemed necessary to take notice of it ; but we have en- deavoured to shew that this latter author has been himself equally mistaken in his own theory. The map which accompanies this work will, we PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XXV have every reason to believe, be found correct. We have inserted in it the modem as well as the Roman roads, and we have given the ancient as well as modem names of towns ; great care has been taken in laymg down the cham of the Alps, and when we add, that it has been executed by Mr. Arrowsmith, we need say no more in its favour. Some plans of places interesting in the discussion will also be found ; they were taken on the spot, and we believe we may answer for their accuracy. With respect to distances, we have adopted D'Anville's calculation, which is given in his Mesures Itin&raires ; he fixes the miles as follows : The Roman mUe 756 toises. The EngUsh mile 826 The Greographical 951 The Roman mUe, according to Polybius, was divided into eight stadia ; and it is to be observed, that when miles are mentioned in this work, Roman miles are always meant, unless otherwise expressed. ERRATA- Page Line 1, 11, dde the comma. 18, 20, for '^ Laranza," read Larauza, 19, 6, dele the comma. 31, 26, for << Conflans ad PublicaiUM," read Ad Publicawn (Ccnflans.) 34, 11, for << in," read iMtend, 62, 7> for ** «5wig ag»f," read imt^^g. 84, 17, for " ascent at," read descent from. 92, 30, for " I am," read We are. 113, 15, for Pr St. Didier," read Pri St. Didier. 115, 16, 23, for " V* and " I am," read FFe, and We are. 226, 20, for "labeurs," read labours. 231, 21, for " Aoste," read St. Gents d*Aouste. CONTENTS. Plige Dedication 5 Advertisement to Second Edition .... 7 Preface to First Edition . . . . 11 CHAPTER I. Introductory Remarks. — Character of Polybius.— Early History of the Alps 1—35 CHAPTER II. March of the Army from Spain to the Rhone.— Pas- sage of that River 36 — 45 CHAPTER III. # March from the place where the Army passed the Rhone to the foot of the Alps. — ^Description of the Island 46— 62 CHAPTER IV. Accomit of the different Passages over the mountains which inclose the Island. — Mont du Chat described. -—Passage of the Army over it^ and arrival in the Plain of Chambery 63—77 CHAPTER V. March of the Army from Bourget to Scez. — ^Descrip- tion of the Country through which they passed. — Roman Road through it 78— 89 XXVUl CONTENTS, CHAPTER VI. Page Attack made on the Army at the foot of the Great Cham of the Alps. — ^Their ascent to the Summits- Description of the Little St. Bernard.-— Encamp- ment there 90—105 CHAPTER VII. Descent of the Army. — Description of the Road.— Arrival at Donas. — Siege and Capture of Turin.-— Conclusion of the March 106 — 125 CHAPTER VIII. E^Lamination of Livy's Account . . . . 126-^150 CHAPTER IX. Examination of M.lJStronne's Theory . . .151^—163 CHAPTER X. Examination of Folard^ St Simon> Whitaker^ La- rauza, and Napoleon. — Ocmdusion . . 164-^204 APPENDIX. Translation of Polybius.— .Extract from the Histoire de F Academic des Inscriptions. — Extract from the Theatrum Sabaudis. — On the Distance from the Pyrenees to the Village of St Martin . . . 205--235 PLATES. 1. Map to illustrate the Passage of the Alps. 2. Sketch of the Passage of the Little St Bernard. 3. Sketch of the Passage of the Mont du Chat^ and of the Valley below La Tuille. 4. Cqpy of the Inscription on the Mont du Chat^ and Drawing of the Tablet of Silver found at Passage. 3iodirn, Jloa£.-,^,e=^ - ffld JSeiut. Sketch of the Valley below la Tuile. ■'7 /' % 1 r' \ J u " I F '.'&■'?' " r- '?V • DISSERTATION, ^c. ^c. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. CHARACTER OF POLYBIUS. EARLY HISTORY OF THE ALPS. When it is declared in the very outset of this inquiry, that the narration of Polybius is assumed as the entire basis and ground-work on which it rests, it immediately becomes necessary to lay before the reader the reasons which seem to place that historian's authority so much above that of every other competitor, and to prove that he is the only safe and sure guide whom we can follow in our investigation ; and though the inquiry may perhaps lead us into what may seem a minute S- examination of his character^ as an historian and geographer, yet the issue of the question rests so materiaUy on the credit due to his account, that we therefore hope to be pardoned for entering into it somewhat at length. Of the capacity and fitness of Polybius to des- B 2 LIFE OF POLYBIUS. cribe great miUtary events, and particularly those of that memorable period, which, after a long and desperate struggle between the two great rivals, Rome and Carthage, secured to the former the empire of the world, we shall presently be assured, if we consider, what education he had received, what scenes and revolutions he had witnessed, and whence he derived those sources of knowledge, which alone could fit him for so important a task. Bred m the school of PhUopoemen, whose miUtary genius shed a brilliant thoi^gh transient lustre over the decaying fortunes and glory of Greece, Poly- bius, whose father Lycortas was himself a distin- guished statesman and warrior, could have no better guide to traaa hk youthful miad in the pursuit of knowledge, and direct him in the B^tsm^ ment of those qualities, which adoni slike the character of a general and politician. Bom mih no eommon talents,, ^d uiKler the auspi^oeii of n government which then alone raised its head agaijost tyranny and oppression,^ 9X3A strugi^ed fox the dyii^ liberties erf Greece, hk mind ccwM not &il of early devekqping itsdbf, aaptd laying up^ for a maturer age^, an ample store of valuable and div^^ sified acquirement*. While in the eamp and field he learned the duties; g£ a captain and sddier, asid made himself master of the art of tactics, aikd whole scieaokce of war ; at home he became no lessr versed in all the branches erf political knowledge, which the compliieated divisions and dissensions LIBE Of FOLYBIUS. 3 of Greece then rendered so necessary to the education of one, whose services were to be e&erted in the administration of his country, oy in fur«« thering its interests abroad in a diplomatic capacity. At the age c£ twenty-four be accompanied his Either on an embassy to Ptolemy Epiphanes, King of Egypt ; on which occasion he seems so &x to have conciliated the favour and esteem of that court by his merit and talents^ that the successor of Ptdlemy, upon sending to the Achaeans for aid, according to the terms of their alliance,^ requested that Polybius, then in his thirty-seventh year, might have the command of the cavalry. The jealousy, however, with which the Roman Senate began to view the appearance of such talents and abilities in a citizen of a countryt sa fertile in genius and patriotism, soon summoned Polybius to Rome, already the capital of the world. It is to this removal, cruel and unjust no dpubt, though honourable to the merit and virtues which it was meant to stifle i^ their growth, that we owe one of the noblest histories, if we may judge from the grandeur of the design and the resoaains pre- served to us, that the world ever saw. Transplanted to a soil, which aflbrded so much more soope fi>r an eiipansive genius; to a field which could satisfy at once the wide views of the l^i£^ariaa» warrior^ statesman, and philosopher^ he • Voss. de Hist Grflec. Ub. L c. 19. t Harles^ IntrocL in Hist. Lis^. Oraec.sect. S. p. 284. 62 4 LIFE OF POLYBIUS. contemplated the scene before him as a citizen of the world, and consoling himself with the idea, that his country did but share the universal fate of nations, he formed the project of describing the events and unfolding the causes which raised Rome to the pinnacle of power and glory, and laid the world at her feet. He arrived at Rome* about thirty-five years after Hannibal had been forced to quit Italy ; at a time when that city, though mistress of nations and empires, must have had the dangers, under which it had so nearly fallen, still fresh in its recol- lection. The terrors which the name of the Carthaginian General had created, had scarcely yet subsided ; the wounds which he had inflicted were scarcely yet healed ; so that every infor- mation, which regarded that great captain and his actions, might have been easily obtained from living witnesses, and actors on that great theatre of war. A close acquaintance with the most illus- trious characters of Rome,t among whom was young Scipio iEmilianus, attracted towards him by his superior talents and merit ; a keen and im- partial judgment joined to imwearied research and patient investigation, placed within his reach docu- ments of the most valuable and authentic nature ; to their truth indeed the concurrent sentiment of antiquity, and the internal character of his works, ♦ Voss. de Hist Graec. lib. i. p. 19. t Pc^yb. Fragm. lib. xxxii. c. 10. LIFE OF POLYBIUS. O bear ample and unfeigned testimony.* Probity, sincerity, and candour are peculiarly stamped upon all his writings ; to these he has sacrificed the orna- ments of style, the beauties of description, and embellishments of art : and while history shall be appreciated as a genuine guide and instructor through life, so long will his works be preferred to the more polished butless authentic narratives of other historians. It is natural to suppose, that a character like that of Hannibal, which formed so prominent a feature in the period of history which Polybius meant to describe, could not fail of attracting a large portion of his attention. We should be led to expect, from so candid and impartial a writer, a true and fair account of that extraordinary man, who by his sole energy grappled with the gigantic power of Rome at her very threshold, and for a time stemmed the torrent that was destined to overflow the world. Viewing the second Punic war as the great struggle which decided the fate of the world, Polybius has omitted no previous infor- mation or circumstance, which might tend to bring his readers to a fiill and perfect conception of this momentous contest. The causes, pretences, and motives, which led to the war, are examined, distinguished, ^nd balanced with the utmost atten- tion, and most scrupulous nicety ; we have a sure * S^ Casaubon's Preface^ in Schweighaeuser's ed. p. 15. 6 CHARACTER OF POLYPUS guliitatfee 6£ his odii^dnce iA truth and ^lit^^ from his darihg, more than otkC^^ ^enly to chlitge the Romaiui with injustice and kdibitioUd views $ tad we feel asstlred^ thsft in him at least, Greece had not jet deserved the epithet of felse. In order to miake his readers flllly acquainted with the nature and character of thfe contest, he layii before them the resources of ekdti t^tixM &Ad theit allies ; particularly of the Gauls, oil whose assist* ance aiid co-operiation Hamiibd relied so much, in his invasion of Italy, llieir WA!re With the RoiMn!^ and inveterate hatred ag&inst that people, are detailed at length j* their numbers, hnjportance, and gec^aphical position, are defined with dear* ness and precision^ no inf€»rmation> in short, is omitted, which could be deemed useful fOT die understanding of subsequent events. But of all points connected witli the history of the second Punic wa;r, there is none which seems to have interested hhn so deeply, or which he appeairs ix) hav^e been at so much pains in eluci- daimg and describing, ais the journey of Hannibal from S|)ain into Italy j as betoig an event so inte- resting and m^m(»:able in itedif, and displaying the character and talents of that great commanded in 80 striking a point of view 5 and because accounts so romantic and Mprobabte had been given df it by other writei-s, as to involve the whole traflsafr- tion in doubt and mystery. * Polyb. lib. ii. €. 17. AS AN fiOfiirOllIAK. 7 His ardmt hs^ cdT Cnitli> o&d thkst for gei>- gra^ikal knoxdedge, and every thmg coiKnected wkh niilitarf science, led IV^ybitxs to tDaoe tbe Maax^h of the Cia^agmyfti army ^(mi die £bro ta the Rhone, and subsiequisintly over the Alps mb(^ ItfAy ; by which means he has been sAAe to ascer- tain mth accuracy ^adi position stnd locality^ and obtain infi>rmation, which must in vain kave been sought fof m any other manner ^ he himself de- dares, that if there is «iny part of his liirtory> tmd his Eocount to he desetvii!^ of %o mudi gt^nter ct^dit thw that ^ a&y other writer^ any question should have arisen reinfecting ike evi&kt t^ are now examinmg, or the Bulgect have ^spet he&m invol^p^ in doubt and obscurity? The question h^e started will perhaps best be answered, if we refledt on the plan wMdi Polybius himself states that he has followed in the geographical part ^f his history, and more paiticnlariy in his ^arrrtive of Hann&aTs march from Spain to the Ticino. It should be observfed,*h that Polybius was writing principaliy ^ his^ counlarymen, to whom Spain and Gaul, and generally the western parts cf Europe, were but little laiown, and who would, * *' qu'il n'ait pas soup^onne qu'il devoit y avoir «^ etitte It Mont Oenevre et le Grand iSt. Bernard^ \m autre ^ padsage, qm pcmrrmt mieux convenk «a redt de Pel^e^ et '^ qc^B. ti'ait fns, ea consequence^ Mt 4ra Tecteiches 'Sm les '^ voles Romainea, etmeme sur les passages desAlpesfirequefites " avant que les Romains eussent ouvert leurs voies militaires au ^ trav^rs 'de >ce8 monttz^nes." Hist du t'ass. des Alpes^ p. 274. t Polyb. lib. iii. c. 4. OF POLTBIUS ACCOUNTSD *t>R* 11 m he 9sy% derive w little isSma^on ^d ifiistii^- tion from the names ^ peopte ^d places v^ith which they wt^re unaic^uamted, a» frcmi mere soundl; that strike the ear without mimfying ihe tind^^ standing ; and he conceives^ that by dividing th^ heavens into four quart^ns^ and considering th^ sev^al parts x£ the earth us situated under pn^ ^ tibiese divisions, the mind is ^le to ref^ that whidi is less known to something of which it has a fitted and definite notion. Now> how correct soever this principle may be, yet^ in its application^ Folybiu% it must be ccmfessed, is somewhat vague and in^- distinct ; to us indeed this must be apparent, who are possessed of such accurate methods q{ ascer^ taining the latitude and position of any place on the globe's sur&ce. Yet this will sufficiently ac^ count for the omission of names both of places, people, ^ rive«, whicfc. lud they W mentioned by Polybius, would long ^o have removed all doubt as to the predse point by which Hannibal entered Italy%* Stilly however, though the data which Polybius affords us in the solution of this question be few^ * tlett ]»€tfaap6 ^t may ht albi#&d td Mnudrk, k^w lltde seems to have becm ns of fix>at and snow j and trade and commerce fhund their way over those passes^ which nature pointed out as affording the moat conv^^iit and easy communication^ It vaa not* howev^, tiU the time of Augustus that the Alpst came to be well known and fre* quented : that emptor* either by the force oi his anas, or by conciliatory measures, finally subdued and and k vi. p. 284» In this instance, he has followed the opinion which was maintained by Livy, and which was most prevalent in his time. If Poly- bius had expressly nanled the passage, by which he affirmed that Hannibal had crossed the Alps, it would not have been a subject of doubt and controversy, as Livy asserts it to have been, when he was writing his history. The question, in truth, may be thus stated. We have two contradictory assertions ; in favour of the one, we have Poly- bius's own authority, as laid down in his own work ; in favour of the other, we have it, taken even in the most favourable light, at second-hand in the works of Stnibo. We may therefore reason- ably conclude, that the easiiest way erf* reconciling' this difference will be to attribute the assertion in Strabo to that author himsdf, and to. leave the passage in Polybius untouched. The first of the passages, mentioned by Sixabo, through the Ligurians, passed over the m^time Alps, from Genoa, through Monaci^, and Nice, to Aries ; this was already a Roman way in the time of Polybius, being die first made out of Italy, and was known by the name of the Via Aurelia.* * Bergier^ Hist des GrflndB Chemins d^ l^Elbpire Romaini lir. iii. p. 347- C 18 DESCMPTION OF tUE The second through the country of the Taurini, civet the Saltus Taurinus, now Mont Genevre, mfq GauL* The third through^ the Salassi, over the Graian Alp, of the Little St. Bernard, to Vienne On the Rhoi\e. - The last from Milan, through ComO, by the Rhastian Alps, Mont Splugen or Septimer, tc^ CoEire in the Grisons* Now if we take into consideration, that from Polybius's account, Hannibal's route seems ta have been previously known and frequented, and that the four passes above named were dll that the historian himself was sicquainted with ; it wilt be obvious that the object pf our search must coincide with one of these, and consequently that our inquiry need not extend itself to such Jis were m use > only subsequently to the times of which we ate now speaking.t As no cfne, however, has * The hypothesis of M. LarsSta, thflt liiia road passed oyeii the Mont Cenis^ will be discussed h^eaftet ; ^e foUow^ at pre-^ sentj the generally received opinion. "^ + Thus the Mons Penninus or Great St. Bernard^ appears to hare been but little known in Caesar's time^ since he tells us^ that the donmi^OAdon l>y that passage was attended with much difficulty and dangef:; and that he was the £rst to render il more practicable. G8es.de BelL Gall. lib. iii. c. 1. Ilie M as a passage frequented by the Roman amies on their way fo Gaul, is derived from Ctear, who seems to have crossed that mountain with imrt of his army at least, when proceeding from Itafy to oppose a formidable inroad of the Helvetii ktto the Roman provmce. The account of Ins march is very concise, and, from that drcomstance^ atteMed witli a certain degree of obsairity. As the pasjsage is iiiteresting, and seems to throw sem^e %ht on the history of thiese mceli next mentioned much less is known ; it * Not de TAnipt Gaule^ p. 50(K t See the map. J, V THE MONT GEKEVRE. .81 ia conceived, however, and with great probability, that they nm3t have occupied that part Of the chain, which lies between Mont Iseran and Mont Genevre ; the latter belonging to the Caturiges, who are th^ la3.t mentioned. The Garocdi thus plajced . between th^ C.entrones and Caturiges* (the latter occupying Brian^^ron and the valley of the Durance, aa far as Embrun,) must have in- habited the valleys in the vicmity of Mont Cenis and the Upper part of the Maiu-ienne^ This sieems further confirmed by old writings, in which the name of St. Jean de Maurienne appears 2is SanctU3 Johannes Garocellius.t It is not improbable, that Caesar might have sent part of his army through the country of the Centrones in the first instance, as also ainpther division through that of the Garoceli. This ex^planation would obviate the difficulty of $;upposing the niountaineers, mentioned by Caesa^, to have assembled on cme point, from a line o£ such extent as that which lies between the Little St Bernard and Mont Genevre; a dijstance which fBven across the mountains, firom the valley of th^ Isere to that of the Arc, and thence to the Mpnt Genevre, cannot be estimated at less than 60 miles. If we consider that Caesar had with him fitwiegions, the diflSculty of subsisting so large a force on one lin^ in these mountains WQuld suflSciently account for hig dividing it, and choosing; to paiietrate / * Not de TAnc Gaule. t Theatr, Sabaud. vol i\. p. 1ft. V \ S2 CiiESAR'S MABCH OVEH f iQto Gaul by different points; besides, it may be added, that the two first routes would lead his troops immediately into the country between the source^ of the Po and Rhone. Appian. Bell. Civil, lib. i. S(»ne have supposed that Pompey's road might have passed by the Cpl d' Argentiere, and the valley of the Stura, but this never appe jr)| to have been in use. 24 PASSAGE OF THE OAOLS p^ agrees entirely with lliat of Cesar, Stnbo/ and A mmianus Marcellimis. Hence we might fairly argue, that, in Pompey*s opinion at least, Han- nibal had not passed by the Mont Oenevre, and it is not improbable that the circumstance of the direct road from Spain into Italy, leading over the Mont Genevre, gave rise to the opinion that Han- nibal must have gone by that passage, as the diortest and most direct, putting the Maritime Alps out of the question, to which there were military obstacles from the neighbomrhood of the Roman anny. It is n^on Urn primd Jade evidence that Bonaparte, in hii^ Memcnrs (vd. 2, M^anges Historiques) has given his opinion in fitvour of the passage of the Mcmt Genevre, an opinion which will be discussed hereafter. But if we are to give credit to Livy, we must suppose the Mont Genevre to have been frequented in times greatly anterior to those of Pompey and Csesar ; for this is the passage which that historian states most of the tribes of the Gauls to have chosen in their migrations into Italy. Now as the account of these transactions is of some consequence to the proper understanding of this inquiry, it may not be useless to examine awhile the history which Livy has given us of them. He states,t that the first passage of the Gauls took place under the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, * Strabo, Kb. iv, p. 285. t Liv. lib. y. c S4. i lUTO ITALY* 25 and enumerates five distinct m^ratmnSii di^mi^ in that respect from Polybius, Diodorua Sicuhis, and Plutarch, who speak only of one. Of these he describes three, as proceeding ov^ the Saltus Taurinus or Mont Genevre, and one by the Pennine Alps, or the Great St. Bernard ; the fifth seems imc^rtain. Though the account of tiiese transactions is given with sufficient dets^ of cir- cumstance, we discover upon examination many points which tend to render the whdie confused, and difficult to be explained or reconciled with the true principles of geography. We are told, that Bellovesus, a Celtic prince, with the superabuncknt population of the Bituriges, Arvemi, Senones, iBdui» Ambarri, and other nations of Gaul, pro*- ceeded in quest of a country where they might settle ; l^t he arrived among the Tricastini, and afterwards assisted the Phocasans, who hstd just landed^ and were preparing to found Marseilles, against the ^dyes. He then witli all his fbrces crossed the Alps by the Saltus Taurinus, and having defeated the Tuscans near the Ticinus, 'fi)imded Milan. The Cenomanni come next by the same pass, and found Brescia and Verona in the country of the Libui. The Salluvii are the tliird, and are followed by the Boii and Lingones, .who cross over the Mons Pqnninus^ and: settle on the right bank of the Po. The whole of this account presents difficulties so apparent and obvious, as to throw no small ^ PASSAOS OF tH£ GAULS (foabt cm tile accuracy of Livy's research^ into these ikots. In the first place, the Boii,* who aeem more properly to have been a German or Helvetian tnbe, and the Lingones, a people of Gaul, who occupied part of Franche-Comte and Burgundy, are united together, and sent over the Pennine Alp3* which, according to Livy*s own account,! could not have heesx passable even in Hannibal's tim^ nor co«ld it have been a pass fr^uented in Poly, bius's time, since it is not one of the four meur tioned by Strabo upon his authority. Again, the Cenomanni are made to occupy the territory of thjs Libui, or, as they ought more pro- perly to be called, the libicii, which certainly wa3 not situated so far to the east as Brescia and Verona^ but lay, as we leam from Polybius,t to the west of aU the other Gauls. But the accoimt of the first migration does not seem the least improbable. Here we have a .vast multitude of the tribes inhabiting the central and south-eastern parts of Gaul, seemingly wandering from their native country at random, „ and quite uncertahi whither they were bending their course : finally arriving at the Alps without even knowing that the country beyond was habitable, muqh less Irfaatwas its fertility, resoiurces, and population. ♦ Cluv« Germ. Antiq. Avent Annal. Boior. Not de I'Anc. Gaule, p. 166—417. t Liv. lib. xxi. cap. 88. $ Polyb. lib. ii. cap, 17. INTO ItALY. 27 Why they should have wandered fid low as the Tricastini,* and still lower even, to the vidnity of Marseilles, serins equally strange. Certainly there can be no reason why the valley o£ the Dm'ance, by which Livy must suppose them to have reached the Alps, should have been mote early p^Dpled, and better known to the rest of Gaul than that of the Isere, so much ite superior in extent and fertility, and situated so much near^ those parts of France, from which the emigration we are sp^ildng of took place. Again, if these Ixibes had pene- trated into Italy by the Saltus Taurrnus, would they have Wandered so far as Milan to establish themselves, and form a settlement, when such a position as that of Tiurin presented itself to them on their first arrival ? How much more probable is it, that each tribe penetrated into Italy by the pass nearest to the point where it settled, and nearest also to that from whence it set out ; thus the Salyes or SaUuvii, and other Ligurians in Gaiil^ will be made to arrive in Italy by the Gottian Alps, and&und Turin.t The Arvemi, ^Edui, and Insubres penetrate through the country of the AUobroges and by the valley of the Isere, and * The positiop of the Tricastim 10 clearly marked l>y thelitde town of St P^uI-TroU-Ch&teauj^^ about fifteen mile3 to the north of Orange on the Rhone ; nor is there any authority for suppos- ing them to have extended much beyond that dis^ct See D'Anville, Notice de TAnc. Gaule, p. 100-*-^5. t Strabo^ lib. iv. p. 312. Plin. lib. iii. cap. 21. S8 PASSAGE OF THE GAULS Teach Italy by the Graian Alp. It wiU be aeoiby the inspection of D*Anville*s map of ancient Gaul, tha£ these people occupied the provinces of Am^rgne, Bresse, the Lyonnois, and Bourbonnois, bordering on the country of the Allobroges or Dauphine, and Savoy ; and the Arvemi, the most powerful of these tribes, are known to have been early connected ¥nLth the Allobroges. * Hence it is probable that they must have had some commu^- nication with Italy before they set out on their expedition ; and tins supposition agrees with Po^ lybius's account, who states, that these Oauli^ were urged to this attempt by the information they had received, of the extreme fertility of the plains pos^ sessed by the Tusoans.t Pliny also mentions, that JELelico, an Helvetian, on returning to his country from Italy,t praised the Mdne of that country so much, that a migration wps instantly determined on. Finally, the tribes which settled in the plains of Verona, Brescia, and Mantua, may have pas^ied by the Rhaetian Alps, these being among the ^r^ liest frequented, according to the tegftimony of Polybius.§ There is another tribe,|| which is described by Polybius as having come from the other side of the Alps, and the country near the Rhone, at the desire of the Insubres and Boii, to assist them in their wars ♦ Liv. Epit lib. Ixi. t Polyb. Hb* ii. c. 17- t PHn. Hb. xii. c 2. § Cluver. Ital. Antiq. p. 343, 344. II Polyb. Ub.n. - mTd ItALY. ^ agaiiist th^ Rdinans ; and whose king Virid by Casuarii (Ce^erieux)^ Boutee (Annecy)^ to Oeneva ; iMs would perhaps be the most direct which the Gsesatae could take. See I^Anville^ Not de VAnc Gaule^ p. 212 — 245. Antonin. Itiner. Wesseling. p. 347* t Simler. Comment de Alp. p. 243. t Com. Niep. Vit Hannib. c 22. 82 ANtlEKT AUTHORITIES RESPECTlKd ''^ qak antea unus homo inermis vix potenii repere. n » • This passage, however, appears to have b^eil more early knbwn under the name of Cremonis jugum; and it is from Livy, that we obtain that and another valuable piece of information, relative to this moimtain. That author, stating the dif^ ferent opinions that had been held respecting the. passage by ^hich Hannibal arrived in Italy, men-, tions that of Coelius, who supposed him to have passed by the Cremonis* jugum ; some, however, would read Centronis jugum, but whether we read Cremonis or Centronis jugum, it matters little, as the same mountain is meant in both cases : Livy telling us, that this pass led through the Salassi, into the country of the Gauls,t called Libui, or rather Libicii, who occupied Vercelke, (Verceil,) Lau- mellum, (Lomello,) and Ticinum (Pavia). The authority of Codius Antipaterj who lived in the time of the Gracchi, about 625 U. C* less tlian. ^ centuiy after HannibaFs expedition, not cmly confirms the idea, tlmt ihe passage of the litde $t* Bernard was frequented in his time, but tends * It 18 worthy atmadce, that the chain which forms the north flUle of this pa«sage>aadooimec|8 the lattle St Bernard with the great chain c^Mont Blanc, is now called the Cramont See De Saossitte's Voyages dans les Alpes^ for a description of thia mountain. t Polyb. Ub. li. c. 17» Plin. Hb. iii. c. 17- dttVen ftal. Antiq. p. 233. THE LITTLE ST. BERNARD. 3S disc materially to prove, that this was Hanniballsi route; smce his character for veracity,* though nothing now remains of his writings, is estab- tished by ample and imquestionable testimony .t Brutus, indeed, esteemed his history of the second Punic war, so much, that he abridged it,t as he is said to have done that of Polybius also; and Cicero, though he considered his style as roi^ and unpolished, always praises him for Us acUierence to truth,§ and would have other writers learn accuracy from his example.!! In the time of Augustus, when a more extensive and active communication with the several parts of so vast an empire became necessary, we find that emperor, among other passages through the Alps which he laid open, or rendered more easy of access, constructing two regular ways over the Pennine and Oraian Alps ;% ^e one leading from Milan to Lyons, the other from the same city to Vienne, formerly the capital of the Allobroges. Strabo, however, makes them both terminate at JjyooB, and thus describes tiiem : ^< Of the passes • VaL Max. Ub. L c. 7- t Cic. de Orat i CiaadAttUb. xiii.ep.8. § Cic de Leg. lib. i. II For a further account of GceBus AxitqM.ter> aee Voss. de Hist Lat Ub. L c 8. Hades, Hist Ling. Lat. L 273. See also Cicero de Divin. on the subfect of Silenus^ a Greek his- torian, whom Codius followed. % Strabo^ Ub. iv. p. 318. Bergier, Hist des O. Chemins de I'Emp. Rom. p. 104-441. D •■ V. 34 STRA1(«'S ACCOUNT OF <* which lead from Italy into Gaol^ and th^ north «* country, one l^ads through the country of the ** Salassi, terminating at Lyons ; hut this 19 two- ^ fold) the one passahle for carriages, but longetf ^ through the Centrones ; the other steep* and ** narrow, over the Mons Penninus." And in anoth^ place he says, " The country of the « Salassi,* lies chiefly in a deep valley, moimtaxM ^ closing it in on both sides ; it reaches also in ^ some parts to the heights that overhai^ it. For .Ivyh^tU) " those then who in/' crossing these mountainst . " their road lies through the vafley we have des- ♦^ cribed. It then branches off, in one direction << crossing over the Mons P^mimis and the sum- ^ mit of the Alps> but this is w>t passaUe for « carriages j the other throtigh the country of the << Centrones is less steep.*' When Strabo says, that the ro^d to Lydued till the reign of Augustos* They were^ coati^rHous- to the Centrones to the nortih> and the lafoicii to the sou&; their chief towns were Augusta PlrsBtoria (Aoste)> a cc^ony ftmnded by Augustus^ and S^oredia, now Ivrea. Btraho^ Kb. iy. Liv. Epit. Jibr liii. Oros. v. 4. THE PASSAGES^ OF tHE ALPS. 35 known and frequented before the works, which Augustus caused to be executed there, had been undertaken. Having shewn that the passage of the Little St. Bernard was known from the earliest time, that it was the most Central With respect to Gaul, and as, in consequence of its affording the most obvious and easy communication between that country and Insubria, from the extensive and &rtil^ vaUeys wMch it connects, both reason aind probabdity codcar in pointii^ it out as that bjr whic^ HannibaPs guides would condu^et him,. we shall now proce^ to £^ew that Poiybms's tiiarf adv^ and description agree with the hypothe*- di& h^e brought forward^ and whi(tb we are aiboi^ to maisftain. k^u.^l\<.KLl!>.3, l>\!'.'- . „ 'NL'Xm ,; JL '\v' . \\ -llYw, tl-vuvi lAxiX oiilUoiu I OUaJ 'Z D 2 ( 36 ) CHAP. II. MARCH OF THE ARMY FROM SPAIN TO THE RHONE,. / PASSAGE OF THAT RIVER. It has been shewn in the last chapter, and in the preface, that we meant to be guided entirely by Polybius in this investigation ; and before we enter upon the march itself across the Alps, it may be right to relate summarily the circumstances which preceded the arrival of the army on the banks of the Rhone, as stated by that author. He * begins his thirty-fourth chapter by saying^ that Hannibal awaited at Carthagena the arrival of certain emissaries, whom he expected from the Gauls ; and it is observable, that from the circum- stance of his mentioning the war in which this people had been engaged with the Romans, we can learn that the envoys whom he expected were to be sent by the Boii and Insubrians. For in the second book, he imiformly mentions these two nations as the chiefs of the confederacy against the Roman arms, and the war in which they are en- gaged is concluded by the capture of Milan.t • Polyb. lib. iii. c 34. t Polyb. lib. ii. c. 34. SITUATION OF THE INSUBRIAKS. S^ It is important thus early to observe upon this fact, in order to shew, that the object of Hannibal being to descend at first from the Alps amongst his allies, he would necessarily take a more nor- therly passage over the Alps than he would have pursued on his arrival at the Rhone, if the more southerly one of the Maritime Alps, or the Mont Genevre(Alpis Cottia) had been equally convenient for hun. It requires indeed some strong reasons to ac- count for his turning directly to the northward after he crossed the Rhone ; for there can be no doubt that these two last mentioned passages were much nearer than the one which it is our intention to shew that he actually did take. Now the situation of the Insubrians is well known, as we find from Polybius that they pos- sessed great part of the coimtry to the north of the Po;* and as Milan was their capital, and the nation was a very powerful one, we may conclude that they reached nearly to the foot of the Alps both on the north and west. Polybius mentions the Laii and Lebecii as being settled near the sources of the Po, after whom come the Insubres, that is, at the spot where the river, instead of running from S. to N., turns to the eastward, which is at Chivasso. The Boii, according to Polybius, were situated to the S. E. of the Insubrians, and to the south of the * Polyb. Hb. ii. c. 17- ^ PISTAH(:e# from wain Po, tbpwgb nifly st^-t^ them to have fQunded Thi? rq[)ort of tb^ envoys on tb^ir arrival being very &vourablet Hannibal declared to the army his intention of marching into Italy, and appointed a day for his departure* Finally, having arranged fais affairs in Spain, he crossed the P3nrenees with SQ.QOO infantry, and 9000 cavalry.t The dis- tances which he had to accomplish, and by which we are above all to be guided, are laid down in the thirty-ninth chapter ) the intermediate ones do not ccmtain any thing material to our purpose. Stadia* From iJroporium ( Alnp^rias) to the pasa sage of the Jlhone v 1600 From th^ Rhone, 9ro/t>^o/ievQi^ vrap' avrov TOP ?rora/*ov, i>€ ^iri rac wifyoij^ for thpse who are trjiveUing along the river in the direction of its source^ to the ^cent of the Alps.§ . • • 1400 The Alps tbemselves ...... 1200 With yespect to the first part of this joxuney^ i^^t from Empori\wn to the Rhone, Polybius ob* * Vide D^Anville^ Notiee de la Gaule^ Art Insubres. t C. 36. X This remark is^ of importance^ inasmuch as it goes far to prove, that the army marched constantly along the Rhone till it reached the Alps, and did not, according to the hypothesis of many modem writers, turn off to ascend the Isere. § Lib. iii. c. 39. TO THE FOOT OF THfi AtPS. 39 senres that he is correct in his reckoning) because the Romans have carefblly m^tsured and marked it at every 8 stadia. It is evident from this, that he wishes us to understand that the army marched along that track which was afterwards the gredt Roman road from Emporium to Nimes. This road, according to IV Anville, crossed the P3nrenee« at Bellegarde, and turning to the right to Ehie (Illiberis) passed through Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers, a little to the north of Montpellier, Pont d'Ambrois, and Nimes, varying very little from the present great road. At Nimes (Nemausus) the Roman road divided into two parts, of which one went southerly to Aries, and the other east to Tarascon. M. De Luc conceives the army to have marched N. E. froiti Nimes, and to have arrived at the Rhone, and effected their passage a little above the town of Roquemaure, on a spot where, according to M. Martin de Bagnols, a very ancient passage of the river called L'Ardoise formerly ex- isted.* The Comte Fortia d'Urban, who has * M< Martin de Bagnol^ in a memoir inserted in the Travaux de TAcademie du Gard^ 1811^ fixes the spot^ from personal observations^ a league above Roquemaure; in this he agrees perfectly with M. De Luc, who had not, however, seen Mr. M's Work when he decided upon the sane spot In ^e mardh ftam the passage of the Rhone to his arHval at the Isere^ Hannibal proceeded at the rate of 20 nnks a day, but he had only his cavalry and elephants with him. Vegetius seems to state the Roman day's march at 20 miles, the modem average is 14 or 15.— De Re MHUari, c 9. 40 THE SPOT WHERE THE lately published a small tract upon this subject, agrees with , M. De Luc, and cites D' Anville and Rollin, together with M. de Manckjors, in support of his opinion. Various other authorities migbt be quoted, but it will be more satis&ctory to mex^ tion M. De Luc's principal arguments, which ap- pear to be conclusive on the subject. In the first place, then, the situaticm is pointed out with great exactness by its distance from the v^oc, or Insula Allobrogum, which is formed l^ the Isere and the Rhone. From the passage of the Rhone to the arrival of the army at the vnurthe30D> immediately opposite to Roquemaure^ and upon the high road from Avignon to Lyons. *' Courthezon dont le '* nom est a-peu-pr^s le meme que le nom Grec de Carthage. ^' II est vraisemblable qu'il (Annibal) y sejouma^ et que c'est ce *' qui a valu cette d^omination a cette ancienne ville." This, however, is aonewifaat fiaidf ul. 44 MARCH OF THE ARHT 1600 Stadia which are reckoned by Polybius be- tween the first of these points and the passage of the river. For according to the Itineraries there are I76 miles from Emporium to Nimes,* and 28 in a straight line from Nimes to Roquemaure, making a total of 204» which is as dose an approxi- mation as we can reasonably expect to find. We are confirmed in this opinion, by the authority of Bonaparte, who in his memoirs, vol. 2. p. 151, places the passage near Orange, below the ArdSche, and above the Durance. .We have been particular in fixing the exact spot of the passage of the river, as it is from liience that the succeeding calculations will be made, and having once obtained an accurate point, we shall have Utile diflSculty in proceeding. The manner in which the passage itself was efiected will be seen at large in Polybius,t and the description is so ad- mirably given, that it would be impossible to retain the spirit of it in an abridgment. M. De Luc places the island where Hanno passed with his de- tachment a little above the Pont St. Esprit, and opposite the village of La Palud, 25 miles from Roquemaure. The Rhone however is so frill of islands above Caderousse, that it is difficult to fix on the precise spot, nor is it indeed material. It was on the fifth day from their arrival at the Rhone that the army (with the exception of the ♦ Vide Appendix. t Polyb. lib. liL c 43. X AFTER THE PASSAGE. 45 elephants) passed over, and on the sixth Hannibal dispatched 500 Numidian horse towards the mouth of the river, in order to obtain some information respecting the Roman army. On the same day Magilus and the other chiefs of the country about the Po were introduced to the army, and the final intentions of the general were declared : and in die evening of the same day the Numidians re- turned, pursued by the Roman cavalry, who after examining the camp, went back id all haste to Pub- lius. On liie seventh day the infantry were ordered on their march up the Rhone, and the same day, and probably the succeeding one, were employed in bringing over the elephants* On the ninth day Hannibal himself followed the infantry with the cavalry and elephants, and in three days after his departure the Roman consul arrived at the place from whence he had set out. This allows six days for the return of the Roman cavalry with the account of the passage of the river by the Cartha- ginians, smdfor Publius's own march after receiving the information. It is expressly stated by Polybius,* that he (Publius) as well as his cavalry made all possible haste, which will account for doing in six days the work of eight. We shall proceed in the next chapter to examine the road taken from the passage of the river to the foot of the Alps. ♦ C. 45. ( 46 ) CHAP. IIL MARCH rAQM THE PLACE WHERE THE ARMY PASSED THE RHONE TO THE FOOT OF THE ALPS. DESCRIP- TION OF THE ISLAND. Having ascertained in the preceding chapter the jdace where Hannibal crossed the Rhone, we shall begin the present with an abstract of the march from the passage to the foot of the Alps, as related by Polybius.* He led his army from the sea along the river towards its source ; and having marched for four days, he came to a country called the vnurth day of his march. The moun- tains of which our author speaks, as inclosing the third side, begin at the northern extremity of the Lac du Bourget, and run in a southerly direction ♦ The length of the Delta from N. to S. is about 90 English miles^ and its breadth^ from Rosetta to Damietta^ about 70. Prom Lyons to Port Tlsere there is a iiistance of about 70 miles^ and the same along the river from Lyons to the Mont du Chat. From Port de I'lsere to Grenoble 60 miles^ and from Yenne to Grenoble^ in a straight line^ 40 miles. £ 50 DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINS to the Guiers-vif, which they jom between the Pont de Beauvoisin and the Echelles, From hence to the south they form a sort of bason, as will be seen by the map, running first S, E. to the Fort Barraux, and the opening of the valley of the Gresivaudan ; then S. W. along that valley to Grenoble ; thence N. W, to Voreppe and Voiron ; and then North, joining the first chain at the P6nt de Beauvoisin. Within this bason stands the convent of the Grande Chartreuse. This chain fiDTms the first step or Im^e of the Alps. It is divided at the Fort de Barraux by the Isere fi-om the great ridge that runs from the Mount Genis, along the Maurienne and the valley of the Arc. The Mont du Chat, or northern part of it, is not so high as the Jura ; but to the south, and in the neighbourhood of the Grande Chartreuse, the height is much more considerable. The passages through this chain will be pointed out hereafter ; it will here be sufiicient to give a general idea of the island as it now. appears. The. waters flow for the most part from E. to W. and fall into the Rhone between Lyons and Port PIsere ; each stream flows in a flat valley, and the hills which separate them are very low, and towards the north the country is quite flat. Aft;er passing Bourgoin upon the high road from Lyons to Chambery the features are bolder, and the hills rise more and more, till we arrive at the Guiers-vif, and the foot of the chain of mountains already referred to. The whole WHICH SURROUND THE ISLAND. 51 country is extremiely well cultivated, though sub- ject to occasional inundations iii the valleys, very populous, and, towards the eastern part, very picturesque, being well wooded, and some of the trees remarkably fine. It is extremely well calcu- lated to support an army. It may be proper to offer a few remarks, in this place, upon the opinion which has been generally adopted by some of the later French writers on this subject, that the army on arriving at the Isere did not cross that river, but marched up its left or southern bank as far as the mouth of the Arc, according to some, or as far as the mouth of the Drac, according to others. The reasons given for this movement are the difficulty of crossing the Isere at its mouth, and the total silence of Polybius upon so important an operation. But, however difficult it might have been to have crossed the river, I apprehend that infinitely greater difficulty would have been e'xperienced in marching up its southern bank, as the defiles in the neighbourhood of Grenoble are so narrow, and the mountains of Dauphiny plunge so perpendicularly into the river, that it would be quite impossible to carry cavalry and elephants by that line. Again : Polybius, in his enumeration of distances, reckons 1400 stadia from the passage of the Rhone, ahng the rivers to the ascent of the Alps, meaning of course along the same river, and not a different one. But there is another passage in the 47th chapter, which not only E 2 52 PASSAGE OF THE ISERE DISCUSSED. confirms what has been akeady advanced, but which also appears to point out, in a remarkable manner, the exact spot where Hannibal began his first ascent of the Alps. Polybius, in this passage, after sajdng that the Alps take their rise near Marseilles, and stretch as far as the Adriatic Gulf, continues: — ag roff vircp^pagy 'Avvi^aq airo ruiv Kara rov 'PoSavov tottciiv, cvl/BaXcv uq 'IraXcav, ** whlch mountains, Hannibal having crossed in the part where they touch upon the Rhone, entered Italy.*'* This part of the Alps, with refer- ence to the known passages, can only be at Mar- tigny, at the foot of the Great St. Bernard, or at St. Genis d*Aouste, at the beginning of the Mont du Chat, and of the road leading to the Little St. Bernard ; but the first of these pas- sages, according to Strabo, was unknown to Po- lybius, and does not agree in any point with his description ^ or with his distances, so that the opinion respecting the latter is proved almost to demonstration. The manifest error, contained in some editions of Polybius, of ''Apapoc, instead of 'I^apac, has been cor- rected by Schweighaeuser. In the older editions it is 2/cwpac : and M. De Luc assures us,t that General Melville, when at Rome, consulted an ancient MS. of Polybius, ,in the Vatican, in which he found the * Polybius uses in another place, A (^ota^a, xad' n^^^; — -the sea that touches our coasts, t De Luc, p. 71- J MARCH ACROSS THE ISLAND. 53 ward 'laapag. Polybius says, also, that the two rivers which flow from the Island, flow from difierent Alps ; this agrees with the Rhone and the Isere, but not with the Saone, which does not take its rise in the Alps at all.* It is also worth notice, that in an old MS. of Livy, which M. de Mandajors saw at Trinity College, Cambridge, the word Bisarar was written in the 21st book, chapter 31, in the passage which relates to this island, and where Arar is generally read. Through this country then we have to march 100 miles along the river, till we reach the foot of the Alps : and here a dif- ficulty presents itself ; for in keeping constantly on the banks of the river, the 100 miles would be expended at that part of the Rhone where the Bourbe on the S. and the Ain on the N. throw themselves into it, and where the country is en- tirely flat. We must, however, remember, that Polybius was ignorant of the angle made by the Rhone at Lyons ; and we cannot help seeing, that a march conducted the whole way along the river from Port I'Isere to Yenne, where the Alps begin, would have caused the army to have gone over almost twice as much ground as they would have^ traversed if they had struck across the flat country of the Island, and avoided by that means the angle of Lyons. We must therefore take the expression of " along the river** in this place in an enlarged * Hist de la Gaule Narbonnaise^ Paris 1733^ p. 521. 54 MARCH ACROSS THE ISLAND* sense, and suppose that the prince, who accom- panied Hannibal, led him by the shortest road to the Alps. M. De Luc is of opinion, that they quitted the Rhone at Vienne, and rejoined it at St. Genis, on the spot where the Guiers-vif falls into it, and that they followed the road which was after- wards converted into a Roman one, that is, from Vienne to Bourgoin (Bergusium) and Augusta, now Aouste, to Etanna, now Yenne ; and he is con- firmed in this opinion, as the distance from Port de I'Isere by the Roman road to Vienne, and thence to Etanna, is 97 miles, and it is only at Etanna that we leave the Rhone altogether. Was Vienne, then, the capital of the country for which the brothers were contending ? M. De Luc is of opinion, and I think with sufficient reason, that it was. Polybius gives us no data as to distances with respect to this capital ; but the prince whom Han- nibal assisted must have been master of no small territory, since he was able to supply the Cartha- ginian army with arms and provisions to such an extent.* Vienne, according to D'Anville, was one of the most considerable towns of the Allo- broges. Strabo says, that the chidf men of that nation having assembled there, had founded a city, the rest of the people being dispersed n the villages. Ptolemy also mentions this town as being the only considerable one among the * Notice de la Gaule^ art. Vienne. n DESCRIPTION OF VIENNE. 55 Allobroges ; and Polybius himself talks of the bro- thers as contending vTTcp rnciSaaiXeiac, which implies a much higher command than the Kara /xipog i^ye/uovec, whom he mentions afterwards on the arrival of the army at the foot of the Alps. General Melville was of opinion, that the army turned off at St. Ram- bert, and crossed the first chain of Alps at the Echelles, without ever rejoining the Rhone ; but this march would not at all agree with the dis- tances laid down by Polybius ; while, by leaving the river at Vienne, and rejoining at St. Genis, we unite as much as possible the distances, and the march along the river, which would in any other manner be incompatible with each other. The situation of Vienne is extremely strong, being placed at an angle of the river, and protected by some heights, which almost entirely surround it. There are here abundance of Roman antiquities, an amphitheatre, a triumphal arch, and a temple, resembling the Maison Quarr^e at Nimes. The old town was much more considerable than the modem one ; extending itself on the plain on the western side of the river, and having a bridge across, which is now destroyed. It will be seen by the map, that the river makes a turn to the east before it arrives at Vienne and as there is a range of hills which prevent any road from follow- ing its banks to the north, it is probable, that the army would on this spot turn off to the east, and cross the flat country. Jean Chorier, who has « it 66 ROMAN ROAD FROM VIENNE. written on the antiquities of Vienne, which he calls the metropolis of the Allobroges, says, " Les " Gaulois, dont les Allobroges ^toient une illustre " partie, ont paru souvent avec honneur dans " les armies des Carthaginois, toujours composees " d'^trangers. Annibal et son fr^re Asdrubal " ay ant pris leur route par TAllobrogie, pom- passer en Italic, y firent de nouvelles levees. Us grossirent leurs armees et peut-^tre laiss^rent " dans Vienne, qui etoit la M6tropole de ce " peuple, quelques-uns de leurs Capitaines, pour " maintenir par leur presence la bonne intelli^ " gence de cette nation avec la leur. Ce pays " 6toit si connu des Carthaginois du terns m6me " d' Alexandre que le nom de Rh6ne fiit impost " par eux k Amilcar pour gratifier notre nation.*" M. De Luc is of opinion, that the Roman road from Vienne to the Mont du Chat, was constructed by Domitius ^nobarbus, in the year of Rome 631. This fact, if proved, would be important, because it would suppose a previous road to have existed in the same direction ; but it does not appear certain that this was the exact road made after the Roman manner by Domitius, though it is very probable, for it was after his conquest of the Allobroges and * In the Guide de Tfimpire (an account of France, now in course of publication,) mention is made of a strong tradition at St Vallier, that Hannibal passed through it on his march over the Alps. SILVER TABLET FOUND AT PASSAGE. 57 the Arvemi that it was made. Be that as it may, the distances authorize us to conclude, that the army marched in this direction ; and this opinion is confirmed, by a discovery which was made in the village of Passage, a little to the south of La Tour du Pin, and not above half a mile from the present great road from Lyons to Chambery. In the year 1714, a farmer of that village struck his plough against a large piece of rock, under which he found, after much labour, a round plate of silver, twenty-seven inches in diameter. This was deposited in the King^s Library at Paris, where it now is, and where we saw it in the autumn of the year 1819. The surface. is fluted, except in the centre, where is represented a lion under a palm tree, below which, is the leg and hoof of a goat. The exact resemblance which the lion and palm tree bear to all acknowledged Carthaginian medals, together with the singularity of the en- graving, which^ is not in lines or in relief, accord- ing to the Roman manner, but in little points, render it very probable that this plate was a votive tablet, placed in that spot either by Han- nibal himself, or by some Carthaginian general, who followed him on that road with xeinforce- ments, and who would follow his steps exactly j for it is remarkable, that the army never appear to have been led out of their way, and although they were oft^n attacked by the treachery of their guides, they never appear to have been deceived 58 ARRIVAL AT THE FOOT or misled in the road itself* It will be seen, from the article on this subject inserted in the Appen- dix, that there was an old tradition in the country, that the name of Passage was derived from the march of the Carthaginians by that way. The situation of the village itself renders it not im- probable that the tablet was deposited here as a votive offering. It stands on a long and high hill, from which you first discov^ the whole chain of Alps that close the Island. You come at once in sight of them, from their very base, and few views can be more striking, as they appear to oppose here an insurmountable obstacle to any ftirther progress. If Hannibal came by this road, it would be on this spot that he would first have his full and complete view of the barriers of Italy ; and as Polybius has said once or twice, that he was accustomed to sacrifice on great occasions, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he would do so here. The* Roman road from Vienne to Cham- bery passed through Lavisco : now, supposing Lavisco to be Chevelu, (a village at the foot of the Mont du Chat,) a fact which the relative dis- tances from Chamberry and Aouste will suflS- ciently prove, we shall have ninety-eight miles from Port de I'Isere to Chevelu at the entrance of the passage over the Mont du Chat. This dis- tance agrees as well with Polybius as it is possible to wish, and we may encamp the army between that village and the others, at the foot of the moun- OF THE MONT DV CHAT. 59 tain, at the end of the tenth day from the passage of the Isere, and the fourteenth from Hannibal's leaving the place where he had passed the Rhone. M. De Luc, whose general accuracy and research cannot be too much praised, has fallen into an error in conducting the army from St. Genis along the banks of the Rhone by La Balme to Yenne.* This has been caused by his not having himself examined the ground, and from his supposing that the Roman road to Chambery from Aouste passed through Etanna or Yenne, whereas that road left Etanna to the left, and passed through Lavisco. There was however a road passing through Yenne which led from Aouste to Geneva. On our arrival at St. Genis, we followed M. De Luc's road along the river to La Balme ; up to this place, though very closely pressed by a high hill on the right, the pas- sage might be practicable ; but at La Balme the river is confined on both sides between two high rocks, which continue nearly to Yenne, and though the road is now very practicable, having been made in modem times with gunpowder, it would have been quite impossible to have passed that way formerly. It became therefore necessary to look for another passage ; and we were convinced, upon inquiry and from observation, that the old road had passed by St. Maurice, at the back of the hill which flanks tlie modan road dose to the river » * De Luc, p. 76. 60 ROAD OF THE MONT DU CHAT. This way by St. Maurice is now not much fre- quented, as it is very hilly, and intersected by several torrents, which (as the soil is extremely soft) have worn themselves deep beds, which in- crease every year. The torrents are all parallel to the chain of the Mont du Chat, and fall into the Rhone at Yenne. The passage of that river, be- tween two almost perpendicular rocks, of great height, for a distance of about two miles from La Balme to Yenne, is very magnificent. On the French side is a fort called Pierre Chatel, from which the view is beautifrd, as it commands the river to a great extent. The Prince of the Allobroges, who accompanied the army, probably left them at Aouste, where the Guiers-vif falls into the Rhone, and where the flat country of the Island ends : for Polybius seems to confine his attendance to the plains ; so that from hence they were to proceed, accompanied only by those guides from the plains of the Po, who had crossed the mountains in order to ask for their assistance, and by such others as they might obtain in the country, or who had perhaps been left with them by the Prince, when he returned to his own territories. With these guides the army proceeded to the passage of Mont du Chat. In the next chapter we shall give an account of the different passages which lead out of the Island over those mountains which form, according to Polybius, the third side of it, and shall conclude the present EXTRACTS^ FROM JOURNAL* 61 Ohe with some extracts from notes taken on the spot. August 19> 1819* From Vienlie to Bourgoin the road runs along a broad valley with low flat hills, a raised causeway, probably the remains of the Roman way. At Septeme, (ad Septimum,) 7 miles from Vienne, country quite open ; pass Otier (Octa- vum) to Dieme, (Decimum,) very well cultivated, clover, com, fine walnut trees, lucerne, turnips, ftdl of farm houses ; before Bourgoin, small round lulls of sand stone. To the north, high hills, under which the Rhone runs, so that its course is very visible. At Bourgoin, join the great road from Lyons to Chambery, to Tour du Pin. Passage, on the right, from hence a magnificent view of the Alps, shutting in the vr\aoQ. To Aouste, country bolder, hills more prolonged; at Aouste, (Augusta Allobrogum, ) several Roman remains. The Guiers- vif runs through it, and divides France from Savoy. The hills on the other side of the Rhone, which is about half a mile from Aouste, very high ; from Aouste cross the Guiers-vif to St. Genis ; from hence two roads to Yenne ; one close to the river, a good and modem one ; the other by St. Maurice, at the back of the hills which confine the other. The Austrians, in coming from Savoy into France in 1815, took the latter, as the French commanded the modeHi road from Pierre Chatel. Yenne in a small plain, very rich ; Rhone flowing close to 62 EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. it. The old Yenne, or Etanna, now destroyed, about a mile E. S. E. from it. Several Roman re- mains here, and a beautiful view of the Rhone and surrounding country. The Mont du Chat passage, E. by N. very high. ( 63 ) CHAP. IV. ACCOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT PASSAGES OVER THE MOUNTAINS WHICH INCLOSE THE ISLAND. MONT DU CHAT DESCRIBED — PASSAGE OF THE ARMY OVER IT, AND ARRIVAL IN THE PLAIN OF CHAM- BERY. We are to begin this chapter with an examina** tion of the passages from the Island over the first chain of the Alps, in order to shew that we are justified in taking the army by the Mont du Chat ;* which, although not absolutely the ahortest way» was certainly the earUest as well as the most fre* quented. The passages at the present day are, first, by Moirans to Voreppe and Grenoble, and thence up the Isere, by the valley of the Gresi- vaudan, to Montmeillan: second, the great post road from the Pont de Beauvoisin, by Les Echellesy to Chambery: thirds the road of Aiguebellette, * While the description which Polybius gjives of the chain of mountains, which closed the third side of the yiiA1> FROM CHAMBXAT ^ieb would ^ve thirty 4rwo miles m the whoL^ and^ consequently agree oK^ajt^y with the Itinera»- ries, has ^uppos^d the existence of a road nmning dir^ctiiy east from Chambetty^ ov^ some extremely high and very difficult mounftajns, and jomixig the Isere at a place called Mants^et* This makes^ it necessary fcnr him, to suppose an error in the Itineraries as to the distance bet^e^n Mantala. and ad Publicanos» (C(Hiflans)y about trhlch latt^ place there can be no douH at all. M. Do Luc has, I tbmk, with more proprwfty, placed Mantak at Bourg Evescal,'*' whidi is $i^e^i miles from Chambery, by the >fontmeillan road» and the saiDe distance from Gonflans. There is at present no road whatever, across the mountains, in the direc- tion which D*Anville supposes, the chain being of a great height. Conflans, or rather l*H6prteil, whidi is a sort of suburb attached to Gonflans, a little to the north, and upon the river Arly, is ad Pub- licanos without any doubt. This Latin name, according to D*Anville, designates a place where toll was taken for the pass^^e of a bridge, or the entrance into a new territory ; and l*Hdpital marks the existence of an Hospltium or Stabuhmi, which would naturally be erected at such a place. Now, the bridge for which toll wotdd be taken, would be l3ie bridge over the Arly, which runs * Bourg Evescal is very near St. Pierre d'Albigny, one of the most beautalul villages in the valtey. of the Isere. UP THE ISEEE. 83 here iAto the Isere j and as this river formed the boundary between the territories erf the Allobroges and Centrones, we have an additional reason for the payment of toll in this place. From ad Publicanos^ where the road entered the country of the Centrones (the modern Tarantaise), to Darantasia, the capital, the Itineraries give six* teen miles, three to Oblimum, and thirteen to Darantasia. M. L I. Roche, director of the royal salt-works at Moutiers, who has published a small treatise on the Centrones, places ObUmiun at La B&tie, a little more tiian three miles from FH^ital, and derives the name from the large deposits of mud and sand which the Isere makes at its angle in this place. On the c^osite side of the river, aaEid at the same distance fit>m THdpital, is a small village called St. Bkye, which may have taken its name from the Roman station. Darantaaa, according to M. Roche, whose reasons are suffici** ently convincing, must be placed at the old towri of Salins, now almost deserted, and a httle to the south of Moulders, which is more modern. The road appears to have crossed to flie left bank of thb^ river about half way between Conflans and Mou* tiers^ and to have repassed it at the village of Chen^ tron or Centron, about five miles from Moutiers^ From Darantasia the Itinerades give ten miles to Axuma, now Ayme, one of Ae chirf towns of the Centrones, and, according to inscriptions discovered there^ probably called Forum Claudii, before the G 2 84 ROAD PROM CH AMBER Y name of Axuma was finally given to it. It is true that Ptolemy mentions iv rai^ Tpalaig ''AXireai, K€v- rpiivwv 4>opo€ KXov8i«, A$t/ia, meaning apparently two distinct places. Forum Claudii is however not marked in the Itineraries, and the inscriptions themselves seem to indicate that Ayme was first called Oppidum Centronum, then Forum Claudii, and lastly Axuma. The village of Centron has no remains of antiquities, and does not appear ever to have been much larger than it is at present, but its name is certainly derived" from the Centrones. From Axuma to Bergintrum, now Bourg St. Maurice, eight miles ; from thence to Scez, two miles ; making altogether from Chambery a distance of seventy miles, or, if we take it from Bourget, of seventy-seven miles, as the march of the army along the flat country of the Alps, from the first ascent «t/t^>»r,^ the Mont du Chat to the foot of the highest chain at Scez : this being performed in six days, would be at the rate of thirteen miles a day, or perhaps rather more ; for they must have reached Scez about the middle of the sixth day, as it was on that spot that they were attacked during their march by the mountaineers. Such at least is the distance by the Roman road, and the course of the army could not be materi^y diflerent from it. Very little diffir cuhy could be encoimtereid dqring this part of the anarch, and we find that Polybius mak^s mention of none whatever. From Chainbery to Montmeillan ihe valley is large and very rich, and from thence TO CONFLANS AND SCEZ. 85 to Conflans, though not so wide as the valley of tiie Gresivaudan, it is still very large. From the fort of Montmeillajiy which commands both these vallies, the view is beautiful. The roads are altogether excellent, and generally bordered by iine walnut trees. At Freterive, a village a little beyond the place where Mantala probably stood, are several Roman inscriptions extremely perfect. We met however with none which related to the name of the place. Opposite to this village is the entrance of the Maurienne, and the valley which leads up the river Arc to the Mont Cenis. We saw vines every where on the north side of the river, along which the modem road runs. The CTops were very fine, and the land well cultivated. The valley is here about two miles broad, and the ground well calculated for the march of troops. JFor six miles before we arrive at Conflans, the road is quite straight, very fine and broad ; the country covered with fine wood, where it is not under com or vines ; walnuts and oaks. The old Roman way ran close to the river, and has been covered by its inundations. Beyond Conflans the valley is much narrower, but widens again, and the mountains are very high on the sides of the river. Before Mous- tier it narrows exceedingly, and is very rocky : the old road passed on the southern side of the river : the town of Moustier stands in a little plain quite surrounded by mountains. There are here some very rich salt springs, and there are silver and 86 ROAD FROM CONFLANS iead mines near it, as well as a mineral spring of great celebrity. Frwn hence the valley is at first narrow, but soon widens; tiie countary still very jK^ulous, but the fertility such, that they export great quantities of ccwm and much cattle. A great spkit of independence is observable every whare ; tike people do not appear to want any thing firom abroad, but are all of opinion, that tiiey have amply sufficient for themselves. At Ayme a small river runs into the Isere, which turns several saw mills, and there is an appearance of great industry and prosperity in the town. Mr. Roche, to whose book we have already alluded, quotes several in- scriptions, to shew that this town was formerly the Forum Claudii of the Centrones, and that it was called Axima at a later period. In addition to the imcriptions are the following verses, which may, perhaps, not be thought misplaced here. Sylvane^ sacra semiduse fraxino^ Et hujus alti summe custos hortuli^ l!1bi hasce grates dedicamus nrasicas^ Quod no6 per arva^ perque montes Alpitos, Tuiquf luci suaveolentis hospkei^ Dum jus gubemo remque Auigor Cssarun^ Tuo £a,vore prosperante sospitas. Tu me meosque reduces Romaxn sistito : Daque Itala rura te colamus prseside. Ego jam dicabo mille magnas arbores. T. POIIPONII. VIOTORI8. PBOC. AUGU8TO. T.* • This inseription^ which stood in the church of St Martin, jRt Aymfi, is cited by Guichoioii^ Gram the MSS. of Char. TO ST. MAUR£GB AND aG£Z. 87 At three or four miks &om St Maurice oH ton^ ing a rofdc which cdHms dfrwn dose to l^e rirer, you open ufNm a largie plam, in which sfiaiids that tiHm liiid Scezv The pasiage of iJie Littk St. Bernard k dkecfly in front, and so maifked^ that it is impos« flAie to mistake it ; on both sides of it the moun- tains are T^ry h%b^ and covered with snow ; but the passage itsdf seems low and practicable* A ^g^ gypsum rock, calkd universally La Rodie* blanche> stands at the entrance of it. The ptein itself is cidtivaited^ but near the passage firs alone are seen^ all other trees having disappeared. From this pfaun the army would have to aster the defile of tibe passage of the Littiie St. Ber^ nard in the middle of «the sixth day. They had left the territory ci the Allobroges at Con- flans, and entered upon that of the Centrones. The former were separated by the Isere on the south from the Segalauni and Yocontii ; to the east they bordered on the Medulli and Centrones ; to the north, on the Nantuates and Hdivetii ; and to the west, on the S^ui^ni, Ambarri, and Sequani.* The territory of the Centrones was^ Aug. de Sales^ Bishop of Oraeva. Omdienon^ Hist G^^ de la Maison de Sayoye, T. 1^ p. 34. * The name of Acitavones, cited by Pliny, in the trophy of the Alps, lib. iii. c. 20. is supposed by the best critics to be a mis- take for Centrones, this people not being mentioned at any other time; and it is not likely that so great a tribe as the Centrones should have been omitted. Caesar first mentions 88 ROAD FROM CONFI^ANS according to D* Anville, very much what the Ta- rantaise is now, and PKny callg them bord^ers, that is, bordering on Italy. Ptolemy places them on the Graian Alps, and on that side they touched the Satassi, who inhabited the valley of Aosta. The army would reach Conflans in three days from Bourget, and it was on the fourth day that the envoys met them. This circumstance is in itself sufficient to point out their entrance into the ter- ritories of another people. Polybius describes these envoys as coming out to meet Hannibal, QaWovg ixovTtg Koi (rra^avovc. Dom Vincent ThuUlier, in his translation of this passage, has rendered daXXovc olive branches, a mistake which has induced the Marquis de St. Simon to carry the army as low as Barcelonnette, that being the only place to the north of the Durance where olive trees grow.* On the fourth day the army would arrive very near Moustier, on the fifth between Ayme and St. Maurice, and on the middle of the sixth they would be at Scez ; having arrived thus far without experiencing any difficulty frcan the want of supr plies, and having been engaged in no action since the passage of the Mont du Chat. The great size of the army, drawing as it evidently did its resources from the country through which it passed, suffi- them as having opposed his passage^ vid. Chap. I. and D'An- ville. Notice de la Oaule^ Art Centronea^ p. 221. * We visited Barcelonnette in 1821^ on our passage over the Col de L'Argentiere, and found a most miserable country> and no appearance whatever of olive trees. TO THE FOOT OF THE ST. BERNARD. 89 ciently proves, that this country must have been well cultivated, and consequently full of inhabi- tants ; and this latter circumstance is confirmed by the host of barbarians who hung upon the rear, and attacked them on their passage from Scez. No other of the known passages of the Alps can be at all compared with this one, in these two essential quaUties ; and it is only necessary to have passed through the Maurienne or Mont Cenis road, and the road from the Mont Genevre, along the Romanche to Grenoble, to be convinced that a large army, without magazines, must have been starved iii any attempt to get through them. It is upon this fact, which has never been sufficiently considered before, that we are inclined to lay the greatest stress, and when united with the agreement of distances, it becomes almost irresistible. In the next chapter we shall enter upon the passage of the St. Bernard, and shall shew, that the situation of the pass corresponds as nearly as possible with the description given by Polybius of the spot where the army was attacked by the Centrones, on the middle of the sixth day of their march from Bourget and the plain of Chambery. 90 DESCRIPTION OF TBE ROAD CHAP. VI. ATTACK MADE ON THE ARMY AT THE FOOT OF THE GREAT CHAIN OF THE ALPS. THEIR ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT. DESCRIPTION OF THE LITTLE ST. BERNARD. ENCAMPMENT THERE. , PoLYBius,* in his relation of the attack made upon the army on thek entrance into the defiles at the foot of the highest chain of the Alps, saj^^ that they must aU have perilled, if Hannibal had not placed the baggage in ihe front, aaid the heavy armed troops in the rear. Still, however, the loss was very great, as the barbarians rolled rocks and stones upon them, so that he was obliged to pass the night with some of his best troops upon a certain XcvKOTrerpov o^v/t>ov,t by which manoeuvre he was enabled to protect the line of march. The night was almost spent before the army had entirely passed the defiles ; and as the barbarians had by this time given up their attacks, Hannibal quitted his position, and putting himself at the head of the column, led them on to the highest summit of the Alps. Here he encamped for two days, during * C. 53. t Literally, a white rock, strong from its position. AT THE rOOT OF THfi ST. BERNARD. 91 which time he was joined by many stragglers^ and horses that had been left behind ; he arrived at the summit on the ninth day from his first ascent of the Mont du Chat. The first day was ^nployed in forcmg the pass and taking the town. The second in the halt near Chambery. The following six days in marchmg up the Isere, and he arrived on the ninth. It will be seen, on reference to the plan of the passage of the St. Bernard, that at Scez die Isere makes an angle. The valley through which it runs from the Mont Iseran being on the S. E., while that from Scez to Moustier, is S. W. At this m^ it i8Jomed by the Redus. which takes its rise in tiie mountain of the Little St. Bernard. :^_ modem road goes from Scez to Villars, and soon after crosses the Reclus, and goes up the side of the mountain to St. Germain, running from thence along the ri^t bank of that stream, till it arrives very near its source, when it again crosses it, and joins the old road, which had always k^ on the left bank ; on this left bank, and just above the first bridge, by which the modem road crosses the Redus, stands a high, white rock of gypsum, called in the country, universally. La Roche- Uanche. The Reclus, whose course is to the S. W., runs uiider its side, and is confined in a vary deep and rocky channel. On the other side of the rock is a woody ravine, through which another small stream flows, which afterwards comes down 92 DESCRIPTION OF THE PASSAGE through Villars to Scez. The remains of the Roman road made by Augustits, have be^ti dis* covered m tiie neighbourhood of Villars, and it probably went up this woody ravine in the manner laid down in the plan. The present road by St. Germain is quite modem. From the words used by Polybius ^apayya Tiva Svafiarov Koi KprifivwBrif which apply extremely well to the bed of the 4 Reclus, we might be tempted to suppose, that the army had marched up this torrent -, but this pas- sage would have been so diflScult, that I can hardly conceive it possible to have been accomplished. The Roman road, though very much exposed to the attacks of the barbarians, would have been more easy. As the two passages unite towards the source of the Redus, it is possible, that separate columns might have marched up each of them ; but whether they took the line of the torrent, or the Roman road, or both, the position of the Roche-blanche was eminently calculated for the defence erf their march. From hence, Hannibal commanded the whole plain of Scez, and was able to act against the enemy on the heights above St. Germain, as well as upon those on the flanks of the Roman road. General Melville and M. de Luc attach great importance to the fact of the exist- ence of a white rock, in the exact spot cm which, according to Polybius, it ought to be found. The expression itself occurs only twice in Polybius, and 4" a m not aware, that it is to be found in any OP THE LITTLE ST. BERNARD. 93 other author, as applied in a g^ieral sense. Strabo and Ptolemy both use it, but only as the name of particular promontories. Literally translated, XevicoTTErpov means a white rock ; but in the 10th book, chap. 2?, where the word agam occurs, it must be taken in the sense of a naked rock. In M. La- rauza's work upon this subject, which we shall have occasion to recur to hereafter, there are some judi- cious remarks upon the word XevKoirerpoVf in answer to Mr. Letronne, who considers it as only equU valent to XcwTrcrpov, a smooth rock. M. Larau^ endeavours also to shew, that the word as used again by Polybius, in the 10th book, signifies equally a white rock. This he does by applying the expression to a specific range c£ mountains, which divide Parthia from Hyrcania, instead g£ taking it in a general sense, as applying to any mountains in ihe line erf march. We have been earful not to attach much importance to single points of evidence, though, when strengthened by others, we may fairly consider om: case as benefited by them. Without, therefore, relying too much upon this coincidence, it is certainly worth re- marking. M. De Luc* has given a very animated description of General Melville's passage over this ground, and of his discovery of the Roche-blandie, while he had his Polybius in his hand. It is quite certain, that the rock in question is called, univer- sally, by this name, and that there is a tradition * De Luc, p. 150. >'' 94 DESCRIPTION OF THE PASSAGB among the inhabitants, liiat a great battle bad been fought at the foot of it. Our gaide» who was a very respectable inhabitant of Villar, talked, as a matter of every day conversation^ of Hannibal, and of his march through the country, at the time of the Saracens. He assured us, also, that he had himself seen, and handled, very lar^ bones of beasts, whidi had been taken out of the little stream that flows through tiie ravine, up which the Roman road passaL These bones^ he said, were much larger than those of oxen } and when the little stream overflowed and washed away die seal, some of these bones were sometimes foimd. He himself made no mention of elephants, and seemed ignorant what the bones w^ret some of them, he said, had been preserved, but we were unable to dis^ cover where. The extreme difficulty of the road will very easily account for the whole night spent cm the mar<^ j but as the passage up to the top of the St. Bernard, widens considerably towards the end, Hannibal might without difficulty, after iim enemy had desisted frmn their attadcs, get up to the head of the troops, and lead them to the plain on the summit of the mountain. It is remarkable here, as well as elsewhere, that no menticttit what* ever is made of any attempt made by the guides to mislead the army. They appear to have beai always upon the right road, and no- delay, occurs excepting that which arises from the badness of the way, and the attacks of the enemy. When these OP THE LITTLS ST* BBSVABJft. 9^ attacks oeas^ they ifind their way to the smamit, which, if we have been right in out original con'- ceplion of their route, they could not wdl fail to do ; for tiie pass, which is visible &om a great dis- tance, goes directly from Soez to the top of the St. Bernard, neither turning to the right nor to the ]^L We have before remarked, that it was inq>ossibleto mistake the passage of the Mont du Chat: and from thence the road along the Isere is so <:iear, that, even without guides, it could not be missed. The road up the St. Bernard is visible from St. Maurice, and, being much lower thaan 4die surrounding moim^ tain, seems to have beea pointed out by nature b^re any artificial labour was bestow^ on it. We were four hours and m hakf in going from Scez to tite hospital at tibe top of the mountain by the mod^n road ; the Roman one is rnot so long. It IkuI been in Bonapai?te^s contemplation to carry a new road up the ravine whe^ the Roman one passed, and we saw traceaof tibe preparations dmt had been made for k. It is certain that t^s is ahogethw the easiest passage oven the Alps; for aMiougfa that of the Mont Genevre is lower, there is no getting from Brian^on into the plains without crossing some of the secondary chaiius from D«i. phiny, which are of great height and difflcultyv while the Isere affords an ea^y way to Ihe very foot of the St. Bernard without any check at all.. De Saussure, in his Voyages dans les Alpes, tom. 4^ caXis tt, << Le passage des Alpes le plus &d}e qoe je 96 PBfiCRIPTION OF Tim PASSAGS ^* OMMioisse.'' It was on the mnth day in the morn- ing from the passage of the MB8CRIPTION OF TH£ PASSAGB diameter, exactly resembling what we catt a druidi^ cal circle. The stones are very large, and in gene- ral so deeply sunk in the earth as not to be more than two or three feet above it. This is univtr- sally called the Circle of Hannibal ; and the tra- dition of the coimtry is, that he held a council of war in that circle. Our host at Scez had talked much of these stones, and our guide also ; \mt as their testimony might not be wholly disinterested, we were satisfied on finding a large party of mule- teers and country people assembled at the convent, who were all as well acquainted with the Circle of Hanmbal as our first informants : the name was constantly mentioned by them without any inquiry on our part. After arriving at the source of the Rechis, the road rises very slowly, and the ascent appears to be altogether so easy, that it is difiicidt to persuade oneself that one has arrived at the summit of the great chain of the Alps. The snow begins to fall in September, and the inhabitants said that their winter began at Michaelmas. The distance from Chevelu to the Alpis Graia is, by the Itineraries, ninety-two miles.* The army employed eight days in performing this space, as they halted * This distailce is longer than the real one ; by Raymond's large map of the Alps^ it is not above 85 miles^ and M. A. de Beaumont gives 21 leagues from Chambery to the summit of the Little St. Bernard, which, at 3 miles to a league, makes 64 niles ; to which most be added* the 14 miletfroKn Cfadvekt to Chambery. Total, 78 miles. OP THE LITTLE ST. BERNARD. 99 one 5asy at Chambery, which gives a rate of eleven miles and a half a day. On a second visit to the Little St. Bernard in 1826, we found that some excavations had beeti made, and that the foundations of a large building, which was probably a temple, had been discovered* This building stands a little to the N. E. of the circle of stones, called Hannibal^s Circle, tod is about 150 feet in length by 50 in breadth. Some Roman pottery and bricks were discovered in the course of the excavations, which, however, are very incomplete, in consequence of the removal of the officer who conducted them, to some other station. We were unable, on account of the weather, to ascend the peak called Bfelveder, which stamds N.E* of the Hospice, and from which the view is mag^ nificent. To the north is the Mont Blanc, and the Glaciers which fall into the A116e Blanche ; to the east, the Mont Rosa and -the Great St. Bernard ; to the south, the Mont Iseran, and the immense glaciers of the Ruitor. A more detailed descrip- tion of this view, one of the finest in the Alps, will be found in the Journal des Mines, tom. 17- p- ^5. 1805, in a letter from Mr. J. H. HaAsenfratz. Polybius goes on to tell us, in the fifty-fourth chapter, that as there was already much snow on the mountain, and the troops were beginning to sink under the hardships they had encountered, in order to raise their spirits, Hannibal pointed out to thei^ the plains around the Po, and the situation 100 VIEW OF ITALY FROM THE of Rome itself, and by these means succeeded in encouraging them a little. This passage presents some diflSculty, for it is undoubtedly certam, that from the plam on the summit of the Little St. Bernard, it is quite impos- sible to see the country round the Po, or the situa- tion of Rome itself. Fortunately, however, for our theory, it is equally certam that this country is alike invisible from all the other known passages of the Alps, which are practicable for carriages ; and the view from the Mont Genevre, is as much circumscribed as that of the Little St. Bernard. Thie very circumstance of a passage over this enormous chain of moimtains, supposes a depres- sion in the chain, for no man at all acquainted with the country, or with the difficultie^s attendant upon a march through it, could for a moment suppose that the inhabitants themselves would attempt to scale the inaccessible .precipices of the highest ridges ; and if not the inhabitants, how much les3 would an army, encumbered, as it must be, by its baggage, and beasts of burden, take any way but that pointed out to them, by the very nature of the place, and the previous passage of the natives of the country. We have said, that the very cir- cumstance of a passage supposes a breach in the main ridge ; and if so, it will follow, that the pas- sage, from being lower than the surrounding mountains, must be effectually debarred from any extensive view ; and the facts themselves agree SUMMIT OF THE PASS. 101 with this reasoning, for nothing is visible from the Simplon, from the Great St. Bernard, the Mont Cenis, or the Mont Genevre, any more than from the Little- St. Bernard. It is impossible even to command a view, of any extent, of the valleys them- selves by which you descend, for it will be easy to see, by consulting a good map of the Alps, that the great chain is always flanked by smaller ones that run off from it at right angles, Uke the buttresses . of a cathedral, and these are in their turn flanked by smaller ribs ; so that as the main chain itself runs in many different directions, the valleys at the foot of it are necessarily very wind- ing, and no one exists which maintains the same course for many miles together. But even if we allowed it for a moment to be possible for an army, as large as that of Hannibal, to climb over a part of the highest ridge of the Alps, which should be so high as to enable them to command a view ot the plains round the Po ; it would, even then, from the nature of the ground, be absolutely impossible for them to encamp on this ridge. The passage itself, however, would be totally impracticable; and although the general accuracy of Polybius, and the implicit confidence which we have hitherto placed in him, must make us hesitate before we abandxm the strict literal reading of the account in question ; yet, as he says, in the very same sen- tence, and almost in the very same form of words, that Hannibal showed the army the situation of 102 VIEW OF ITALY FROM THE Rome itself, a^ well as the plaJBisk rotmd the Po, we may reasonably and fairly conduda, that the direction and bearings of these places is all tha-t is meant ; md that the general was satisfied with proving to the army, that they had arrived at the summit of the Alps, and were now about to obtain the reward of their exertions by an easy and rapid descent into the plains of Italy. And this might well enough be done, as the waters begin to flow different ways on the plain itself of the St. Bernard : and the valley of La Tuille, which is not more than 650 toises above the level of the sea, and consequently 475 toises below the St. Bernard, is easily distinguishable from it. M. De Luc* supposed that he was able to shew them the valley of Aoste, as well as that of La Tuille ; but this is not so. The direction of this last, is N. E. and S. W., and the valley runs on in nearly the same direction, as far as Pr6 St. Didier, where it makes a turn to the E., and runs in that line to Aoste. The account of Hannibal pointing out the plains of Italy to his soldiers, has been given by J-rivy in a much more romantic manner, and his description, as well as that of the gaieral appear^ ance of the Alps, decidedly prove, that he was himself totally ignorant of the subject upon which he was writing. This particular part has>, how- ever, been much dwelt upon, and has made a much * De Luc, p. 167. BVUUtr OF THE PASS* 103 greater impression than it deserves ; so much so, as to have induced some French writers on the subject to carry the whole army by the col of the Mont Viso, from which there can be no doubt that they would command a most extensive view of Italy. But such marches for armies are inadmis- sible. The guides from the plains of the Po would lead the army by the passages to which they had themselves been accustomed; and as those passages are marked out by nature, they would remain unaltered to the present day, though, from various circumstances, they may be more or less frequented than formerly. Civilization has afforded great additional incite- ments, and the progress of the arts, and the dis- covery of gunpowder, have given great addition^ fecilities to our undertakings ; but these have nevertheless been generally confined to the im- provement of those passages which were already known, and which, having existed from the first formation of the barriers which they were intended to penetrate, were pointed out by the hand of nature to the first inhabitants of these countries* If any other passage commanded a view of the plains, we might hesitate ; but as none do, we must content ourselves with explaining the ac- count of Polybius as well as we can. And if we confine ourselves to the first part of his observa- tion, we shall 0nd nothing in it inconsistent witii the state of the country on the Little St._ Bernard. 104 VIEW OF ITALY FROM THE Polybius says, that "Hannibal endeavoured to encourage his soldiers, having one resource for this, the sight of Italy." Now that object was easily attainable from the passage in question, as the valley of La Tuille is at the foot of it, and would be perfectly visible from the pass itself by the whole army. But when Polybius goes on to say, that Hannibal pointed out the plains of the Po, and explaiued the situation of Rome itself, we must enlarge the expression so far as to suppose that he called the stream which falls into the Po by the name of that river, which he might as well do, as attempt to point out the situation of Rome itself, with which it seems quite impossible that he could be acquainted, and which, if cor- rectly pointed out, would not have been very encouraging, as the passage is closed up by very high mountains to the S. E., and this is equally the case with the Mont Genevre ; which, like the Little St. Bernard, takes a N. E. direction from Savoy to Piedmont. After all, the difficult ex^ pressions are nearly superfluous ; for, the mere fact of the descent of the waters on the side of the passage opposite to that by which the army had ascended, would sufficiently shew that the great difficulties were overcome, and there was time enough, during the two days' halt on the summit, to explain the fact of their having reached the highest point of their road. But if, after all, these expressi#ns are to be considered as inexplicable. J SUMMIT OF THE PASS. 105 and they certainly are difficult, we must be con- tent with repeating that they are equally so with respect to the other passages mentioned by Poly- bius, as quoted by Strabo, and they must remain to exercise the ingenuity of future commentators. The account of the descent will form the subject of the next chapter, in which the mawjh from the Mont du Chat to the plains of the Po and the Insubres will be concluded. 106 DESCENT OF THE ARMY CHAP. VII. DESCENT OF THE ARMY. DESCRIPTION OF THE ROAD. ARRIVAL AT DONAS. SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF TURIN. CONCLUSION OF THE MARCH. • In the latter part of the fifty-fourth and m the fifty-fifth chapter we find, that on beginning their descent all attacks on ^he army by the barbarians had ceased ; notwithstanding which, their loss was nearly as great as in their ascent, for the road was extremely bad, and covered with snow, so that the men lost their way, and fell down precipices j and, finally, they came to a place where it was impossible to pass ; for the road, which, for the distance of a stadiimi and a half, was very rugged, and liable to be carried away, had actually been so m a very great degree ; so that having in vain endeavoured to turn this difficult passage, Hannibal was obUged to encamp at the commencement of it. He was unable to go by any other way, for a fresh fall of snow having covered the old snow of the year be- fore, which, by an accident of very unusual occur- rence, had remained unmelted, it became impossi- ble for the men and horses to proceed. The troops FROM THE LITTLE ST, BERNARD. 107 were therefore employed in clearing away the mow and repairing the road, and in a day the cavalry and baggage were enabled to pass ; the hordes were then sent down to the plains below, and distribute in the pastures. In three days more they sue- ceeded, with great difficulty, inmaking a road for the elephants, who were by this time almost starved* After this he collected his whole army, and de-^ scended to the plains, which he reached after a march of three days ; and entered boldly into the country round the Po, and the territory of the Insubrians, having saved 20,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry. After this account follow three chaptera of no importance, and then, in the sixtieth chapter, we are told, that he encamped for some time at the foot of the Alps, in order to recruit the strength of his soldiers, of whom he had lost 18,000 infantry and more than 2000 cavalry, in the passage of the Alps, for he passed the Rhone with more than 46^000 men. After this, finding that the Taurini were at war with the Insubres, his allies, he made overtures of reconciliation to them; which not being accepted, he attacked their capital, andtakingit, after a siege of three days, put the inhabitants to the sword ; in consequence of which, the neighbour- ing people immediately entered into treaties with him, so that he was enabled to undertake further and more brilliant operations. It will not be necessary to follow Pc^ybius a»y fturther, and in feet the desoent of the Alps ceases 108 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROAD jat his arrival in the plains of the Insubrians ; but it is essential to insert that part which relates to the capture of Turin, in order to explain the error mto which those writers have fallen,"who have supposed Hannibal to have arrived first among the Taurini. The road downwards fi'om the St. Bernard passes through a valley by the side of the Doria, (which takes its rise on the plain,) till it arrives at Pont Serrant; here this stream is joined by another, which comes down from the mountains to the north, in a very deep and formidable ravine. The road crosses it by a wooden bridge, and the army would probably have crossed below its junction with the Doria, where the ground is easier. The ravine itself might have formed one of the nume- rous precipices, into which the soldiers fell from missing their way. Shortly after, the road reaches La Tuille, a large and well built village, standing in a small plain tolerably well cultivated. Here the Doria is joined by the Baltea, which flows from the Ruitor, a very high snowy mountain to the S. E., which forms one part of the central chain of the Alps. It now becomes a stream of some size, and takes the name of the Doria Baltea. The modem road runs along this river as far as Ivrea ; and it is clear from the Itineraries, that the Roman road went the same way, except in a few instances, where it was carried along the sides of the moun- tains, instead of the banks of the river. . On leaving La Tuille, the river turns to the north, and enters a FROM LA TUILLE TO AOSTA. 109 very narrow passage between»two rocks ;' from hence it runs on to Pr6 St. Didier, in a direction almost parallel to the A116e Blanche, and the back of the Mont Blanc ; being divided from them by the long chain of the Cramont, in all probability the Cremo- nis jugum of Livy.* After La Tuille, the Arto- Uca of the Itineraries, the modem road crosses from the leift or W. to the right or E. bank of the river, and recrosses it about three miles lower down. The old road remained constantly on the left bank, and was obliged to be abandoned in consequence of the numerous avalanches, which always fall from a pointed rock that overhangs it, and which in the winter frequently carried it away. It is very re- markable, that that part of the old road which was most exposed to these accidents is about 300 ystrdis in length, a distance agreeing almost exactly with the stadium and a half of Polybius ;t and it appears that, from the very nature of the ground, it must always have bieen so exposed 4 for, as will be seen! by the plan, it is situated at the bend of the river, and immediately under one of the highest points of the Cramont, and that chain of the mountains which forms the S. E. side of the A116e Blanche. From this point the ground slopes rapidly down to the river in a concave or funnel-shaped direction, the mouth of the ftmnel ending at the river, so that ♦ Lib. 21. t The stadium is equal to 125 pa^sus^ or 625 Roman feet ; a stadium and a half will therefore be 9371 Roman feet. 110 DESCRIPTION 07 THX UOMD an avaknche from tfae top wocddbe necemBtHy canfitsjed within the limits of the bend^ mid within th^ spade of three hundred yards* It appears^ from the reports of the inhabitants, that this passage is peculiarly subject to avalanches } and it happens a^o^ that, owing to the narrowness of the bed of the river in this spot^ stnd the precipitous nature of the rocks on bodi £d^ of it, the snow which is brought down in this manner from tte CramOnt, xmd wMcb fails m itnmense masses into it, remains sometimes unmeked during the whole of the swrn* mer, and torms a natural bridge over the torrent for a consideraWe distance. This event happens sa rarely, as to be, in the words of Polybius, Utop Km ira^\\ayidvr* M. De Saussure, in the year 179®, at which time he passed over this rc^, says, speak- ing of this precise spot, " Le chemin est bon ♦* et assez large, mais sur une comiche tr^s^lev^e **au dessus de la Tuille. On voit 1^ sous ses ** pieds des amas de neige, qui se sont conserv6J ** depuis Phiver, et qui forment des ponts sur ce ** torrent/' Our guide told us that the same thing had happened in 1816, at which time the snow filmed a complete bridge over the river. The snow remained unmelted dso in 1828. I took great pains to ascertain whether the snW ever remained unmelted the whole year round in any other part of the road, and I was assured that such an ^vent never took place ; nor would it occur in FROM LA TUILLE TO A06TA. Ill this spot» were it not entirely sheltered from t^ sun by the extreme narrowness of the ravine and the great height of the mountains on both sidei^. It may perhaps be thought, that the coincidence of the distance of a stadium and a half betwe^i the present day and the time of Polybius is too exact ; and that in the course of 2000 years the appearance of the defile must have undergone some more material alterations ; but the funnel-shaped con- struction of this part of the passage has p-evented the avalanches from extending themselves ; and although masses of rock may have fallen from the highest points, there appears to have been no mark of any change in the lower part of the hollow. M. De Luc, in the appendix to his work, has inserted a very curious paper upon the effects of torrents were still hostile to the Romans.* In the forty- fourth chapter, Polybius expressly states, that the envoys sent from the plains about the Po were Gtiuls ; and as they were to accompany, and even to guide, the army over the Alps, they would naturally bring them first into their own country, in order that they might recover from the fiitigues of the march. M. De Luc closed the 150 miles at Aoste ; but in our opinion incorrectly : for, even if we put dates and distances out of the question, it is ♦ In Polybius's account of the war between the Oauls and Romans^ no mention whatever is made of the Ligurians ad having taken a part in it. AMONG THE 1N8UBRIANS. 123 impossible to say that the plain of Aoste is the coiintxy which borders on the Po, since it is separated from the real plains near Ivr^a by a long valley of 30 miles in length. The error has arisen from not taking into consideration the three days of descent in addition to the fifteen first etnployed in the passage. In consequence of this, M. De Luc has been unable to make his distances agree with those of Polybius as accurately as they ought to do* This gentleman has, in his second edition, cor- rected this error, and has adopted our calculations. It is not necessary for us to carry the discussion ftirther than the capture of Turin, which was effected after a siege of three days, and which terrified the neighbouring district into submission. The circumstance of this attack is in itself a suflS- cient proof, that he did not descend by the Mont Genevre ; for we know that the Insubres were his allies, and that they were at war with the Taurini : how can it then be supposed, that these last Mrould have suffered the Carthaginians to encamp in per- fect tranquillity at the foot of the Alps, and con- sequently almost at the very gates of their city, while they themselves knew that they were in alliance with their enemies, and while they were in such a state of weakness and disorganisation, that it would have been impossible for them to have opposed any resistance to a well combined attack ? And would Hannibal, on entering a terri- tory whose inclinations towards him were at least 124 CAPTURE OF TURIN doubtful, have dispersed his army, and left himself entirely without defence, in the manner described by Polybius? Among the Insubrians, on the contrary, he was at liberty to recruit his forces without any fears ; and what was more natural than that he should turn his arms first against the enemies of those allies to whom he had been so much indebted, especially as by defeating them he secured the neutrality, at least, if not the more active co-operation, of the country in their neighbourhood : more especially as the Ligurians occupied a lai;ge district in the north of Italy, and were a powerful tribe, whom it became necessary therefore to conciliate, or to awe into submission by force. We find indeed,, firom Livy, that after the capture of Turin, Hannibal was joined by a large body of that nation. Here then we may close this branch of the discussion, in which we have endea- voured to confine ourselves strictly to Polybius, and to make the road, by which we have supposed the army to march, agree with his account.* It * Much information on the passage of the Little St. Bernard will be obtained from M. Brockedon's most beautifrd work on the Passes of the Alps, which is now in course of publication. The vignette of his first number gives a view; of the pass i^ear La Tuille, which has been so often alluded to, and the resem- blance is most accurate. The work in general is so remarkable, in addition to its other merits, for its faithftd representation of the places which it describes, that we may consider ourselves altogether as extremely fortunate in having the benefit of so able an illustrator as Mr. Brockedon. BY HANNIBAL. 125 now remainis for us to examine the hj^otheses of other writers who have treated on this subject, and to shew that they all disagree vnth our author, and that some of them are absolutely inconsistent with themselves ; and as Livy is the source of all the opinions in favour of the Mont Genevre, we shall examine his account in the following chapter. 126 livy's description - ; CHAP. VIII. EXAMINATION OF LIVY*S ACCOUNT. M. DE Luc, in his very ingeniouB refutation of Livy, by a comparison with Polybius, has intro- duced the parallel passages of the two authors, and has, by this means, shewn how closely the Latin historian has generally copied the Greek one, as well as the new matter which he has introduced ; but as this comparison may be easily made, we shall, in order to avoid needless repetitions, con- fine ourselves to those passages where he forsakes his original; for that Pqlybius was. that original cannot be doubted by any one who wiU take the trouble of reading the two accounts together. And, first, it may be noticed as somewhat singular, that he never once, in the whole course of his narrative, acknowledges that he is indebted to Polybius. Again, the total want of all compu- tation of distance, though Polybius prefaces his account with a very exact detail on this head, must strike every observer as being the result, if OF THE PASSAGE OF HANNIBAL. 127 not of design, at least of great negligence and inaccuracy. Having brought: Hannibal from the Pyrenees to the Rhone, and made him cross that river at the same point, and under the same circumstances which Polybius describes, Livy tells us,* that on Uie day after Hannibal had harangued his army, he set forward along the Rhone, and up the stream towards the interior of Gaul ; not that this was his nearest way to the Alps, but because he conceived that the farther he retired from the sea, the less probabiUty there would be of his encountering the Lmans, with whom he was not desirous oflght. ing before he reached Italy. Now we in vain look in Polybius for such a commait on Hannibal's movement up the Rhone; OB the contrary, we are assured that it must have formed part of the original plan : this appears plainly from the thirty-ninth chapter of the third book, in which the distances are enumerated from the passage of the Rhone to the arrival of the army in Italy; and which proves, beyond a doubt, that the march up the Rhone was not forced upon Hannibal by the approach of Scipio, * Postero die prafectus adversH rip& Rhodani^ mediber- ranea GaUiar petit; iK>n quia rectior ad Alpes via essei, sed quantum a mari recessisset miims obvium fore Romanum credens; cum quo priusquam in Italiam ventum foret^ non erat in animo manus eonserere. Liv. lib. xxi. cap. 31. ed. Crevier. 128 LIVY*S DESCRIPTION OF but must have been undertaken according to his previous design and plan. Polybius has expressly declared,* that Hannibal had formed the whole plan of his march long beforehand. He had well ascer- tained, previously to setting out, all the diflSculties and dangers which must necessarily attend so bold and arduous an undertaking ; he had weU inquired into the nature of the country and places through which Jie was to pass, as well as the character and disposition of its inhabitants ; above all, he relied on the guides of the country, Ka0riyefi6(nv kyywpioiQ^ who had advanced to the passage of the Rhone to meet him, and who, as they were to share his good or ill fortune, were necessarily devoted to his cause. Are we then to suppose, that the tmexpected appearance of the Roman consul at the mouth of the Rhone, at a distance of four days' march from the Carthaginian camp, could have the efiect of totally deranging such a well-digested plan, of altering combinations so deliberately made, of counteracting measures so maturely weighed and organized ? — or, rather, must we not attribute this comment of Livy to the necessity under which he found himself, of giving some explanation of the deviation here assumed from the course which he supposes Hannibal intended to follow? We repeat, that nothing of this sort is to be found in Polybius. The only measure which, in * Polyb. lib. iii. cap. 34 — 48. THE PASSAGE OF HANNIBAL. 129 his account, seems to imply ^apprehension on the Carthaginian general's part, is the prudent pre^ caution of placmg the cavalry and elephants in the rear in his march towards ^ the north, . after the passage of the Rhone. But allowing for a moment the truth of Liv/s assertion, and supposing Hannibal to have ori- ginally intended to proceed to the Alps by the shortest way, "qua rectior ad Alpes via esset,*'* how ar^ we to account for his crossing the Rhone so much above the Durance, along whose banks he might have marched with as much facility, and as little molestation from the enemy, as along the Rhone ? If no reason can be assigned, it follows, that it never entered into his determination to proceed that way. Livy,t however, goes on to tell us, that Han- nibal in four days arrived at the country called the Insula, which we have seai so accurately described by Polybius. The Roman historian merely informs u^, that this name is given to a cer- * The Roman way followed the Durance from Cabellio^ Cavaillan, to Apta Julia, Apt; Segustero^ SUteron; Ebro- dunum> Emhrun, to Brigantio^ Briangon, and the Mont G^enevte. Wesseling. Vet Rom. Itmer. p. 342> 3. t Quartis caatris ad Insulam pervenit: ibi IstanL Rhocla« nueque anmes^ diversis ex Alpibus decurrentes^ agri aliquan- tum amplexi^ confluunt in unum. Mediis campis Insulse nomen inditum; inoolunt prope Allobroges, gens jam inde nulla Gallica genteopibus autfama inferior. Lib. xxi. c. 31, K J '^ 130 DIFF£a£NCE 9BTWEEV THE tain portion of territory encompassed by the hefe* and BiKme at their junction; thus omitting aU menticm of the mountainous barrier which dosed the third side» as well as of its extent and fertility. This difference between the two accounts m as atrfldng as its reason is manifest. Polybius evidently describes a country in which the operations he dep tadls are carried on, and consequaottly wishes to make his readers as weU acquainted with its situa* tion as possible ; while Livy necessarily omits ft detail which would be in evident contradiction with the route he had in view. Nor is the ht^r mor« correct or exact in the position whidb he as8%ns to the AQobroges. " Hard by,'* says he, "live tfce Allobroges ;** surely not near the Insula, as Creviesr well observes, but in it. It certainly iB in the In^ sjiila that Polybius places the scene of tiiose Ixans- actios, jn which Hannibal settled the disputes between the two brothers^ by securmg to d^ elder the possession of the throne. 'Kiese are aJ* lowed by livy to be AllolMroges j while, howevePt he copies from the Greek historian the general facts, he still amplifies and adorns the narrative in a manner peculiar to himself. He then proceeds to state^t that Hannibal, having settled tiie dis« "^ 'Hiough moBt of the MSS. restd Ar^r, it is dear that it ought to he Isara. One MS. reads Bisarar^ which gives the true reading Ihi Isara. t Sedatis ce^rtaminihus AUohr^gtm^ quum jam Ai^a pe- teret, non repti regione Uer in^ti^^it i aed ad Isbvma in Tri* ACCOUNTS OF LIVY AND POLYBIUS. 181 putes, did not ocMitinue his march by the direct route, but incKned to the left towards the Tricas* tini ; that is, he did not take -the road which would have brought him to Vienne and the Mont du Chat, by still continuing his march along the Hhone, but he soiight to regain the road which led to the Cottian Alp in the best and shcHtest mami^ he could. If in this account, however, livy ia eonmstent with his plan and hypotibesis, he is not equally so with reason and Polyl»us. With reason, because it seems absurd to imagine that Hannibeil should cross the Isere either with the whole or part of his army, to waste time of so much value in settling a dispute with which he could have no concern, had his amval in the counta^ not ferfiEied a natural incident in his march. With Polybius, because his silence as to aU deviation, nay, ratiier his poi^tive declaration to the contrai^^, from the computation x)f the mardi along the Rhone, pre- vents us from supposing he coi^d ^ all have en- teartained the idea. Let us, however, see how the Qarthaginian army is to arrive at the Mont Oenevre from t}ie left bank c£ the Isere, if it il^ contended tl^t it ^d not c;ros$ ^lat river. It will surely not be by returning to the Tricas- castinos flexit: inde per extremam oraxn Vocontiorum agri teleadk in Trioovios : haud luquam imt>edki via^ priusquam ad Druentiam flumen penraut Is et ipse Alpinus amnis^ longe omnium Gkdlie flnminum diffidUimiia tranritu es^^ te* K 2 132 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROAD ; tini ; tlmt is, nearly to the very point from which tibey had set out after the passage of the Rhone. Nor is it possible to conceive how thtf Tricastini, the people of St. Paul-Trois-Ch^teaux, could have been to the -left of the Carthaginian army as it moved from the Isere. There is sufficient reason, there- fiwe, for supposing the passage to be corrupt ; and, if a conjecture mi^t be allowed in a difficulty, which seems scarcely to admit of a more reason- aUe explanation, we should be inclined to suppose that these words, "ad Jaevam in Tricastinos fleMt,*' are in their wroiig place, and ought to have forttied part'^f'the passage quoted from the beginning of tlie same chapter.* This will at least enable us to obviate what is so repugnant to reason and common sense. Another way of explaining this turn to the left, might be by supposing the army to retrace its steps, and to march directly down the Rhone from the island, in which case it would on its arrival at St. Paul-Trois-Chateaux, turn oflF to the left, and skirting the Vocontii on thear southern extremity, reach the Durance at Sisteron. There exists at present a road in this direction by Nions and Serres, but it is difficult and mountainous. This return down the Rhone would also be inconsistent * This passage might then stand thus: Postero 4ie pro-, fectus adverse rip& Rhodani^ ad laevam in Trioastinosfl«ctit et niediterranea Gallise petit. ( LAID DOWN BY LIYY. 133 with the reasons which, according to Livy, had induced Hannibal to march up that river as far aa the island, namely, to avoid the Roman army, since, by this countermarch, he would run the risk c£ falling directly in with them. In this return from the Insula towards the Durance, it is also possible that Livy might have had in view the road laid down in the Itineraries, as leading from Valentia (Valence) on the Rhone, and near its junction with the Isere, by Dea Vocon- tiorum (Die), and the Mons Seleucus (Mont Saleon), to Vapincum (Gap), and Eburodunum (Embrun), on the Durance. This road we- have before alluded to in examining Caesar^ march over the Mont Genevre, and it would certainly conduct Hannibal through the Vocontii j but the question is, where to find the Tricorii, whom D'Anville would place in the valley of the Drac, a river which joins the Isere near Grenoble, whfle M. die Valois, without sufficient authority, supposes their capital to be Vapincimi or Gap. It must be ob- served also, that D*AnviHe founds all his reasoning on this passage of Livy, and that he imagines the northern extremity of the territory of the Vocontii to be here meant. The question is evidently one of great intricacy, and whidh must be left to geo- graphers to settle.* But by whichever route we * Cluverius conceives that some vestiges of the ancient name may yet be traced in the town of Cors or Gorps^ si-> 134 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROAD suppose Hannibal, according to Livy, to have reached the Durance, it will be found to agree but litde with the description given by Polybius,* of a pl^ country through which Hannibal passed without molestation, being protected by his cavalry and the friendly escort of the Allobroges; We have also seen, that Polybius expressly stated the coimtry which he then traversed to be that of the AUobroges ; so that uiiless we suppose that de- nomination to have extended also to the Vocontii; who are mentioned earlier than the AUobroges in the Roman history,t and consequently must have been a distinct people,, we shall have here evidence sufficiaitly decisive, that the routes d^cribed by the two historians are perfectly different. Hannibal having reached Embrun, would there certainly find the Durance, but not such as it ia described by the Roman historian, tvhose exag- gerated account of the ravages of this Alpine tor* rent, and the dijOKculties attending its passage, can tutted neaar tliiS source of the Drac^ stAd is tHerefore inclined to place t^s nation in the valley of that river. (Gluver. ItaL Antiq. p. 372.) His authority has been followed in the an- nexed map. •'Polyb.l.iii.c.50. t M. FulviuB Fkccus triiuaphed over the Ligmnons and Vocontii^ A. U. C. 629; one year be^e G. Domitius Mao^ barbus obtained a similar honour for a victory over the Alio- brotges. Fasti. Capit apud Pigh. Liv. SuppL Freins. L Ix. e.39. LAID Dt)WN BY LtVX. 185 only agree, as M. De Luc wdl dbsarves, with thd latter part of its course, after it has received the waters of the Bleauntie, to its junction with the Rhone at Avignon. Hannibal, continues Livy,* having crossed the Duraofice, at length reaches the Alps^ we are besides informed, that his Hne of march from that river lay chiefly through a plain coimtry, and that he accompUshed it without molestation. The reader will rem^nber, that these were precisely the circumstances, if we except all menticm of the Durance, under which Polybius brought the Car- thaginian army to the foot of the Alps *, the avaSoXi) tHjv "AXn^tav* But s^uch a description will be found to agree but Uttle with the cotmtty to which Livy has now conducted them. In the TaUey of the Durance th^y would be engaged in the very midst of the Alps ; and if we consider Embrun as the first point where they would find the Durance, they would be within a few miles only of Brians f on,t at the foot of Mont Genevre, or the central chain. The surprise which this circiunstance must create in the mind of the reader, who has given * C. 32. Aiudibal ab Dru^itia campestri maxiitie itiiiere cum bona pace ad Alpes incolentium ea loca Gallorum per- venit, &c. t D'Anville estimates the distance at little more than 28 miles. Not de TAnc Gaole, Art Rama. p. 58?. Wesseling, Itiner. vet Rom. p. 341. 136 IMlSCRIPTrON OF THE his attention to the subject, is not at alilikely to be abated upon finding that livy here again takes up Polybius*8 account, at the very point where that historian has brought the Carthaginian army to the foot of the first range of the Alps. The description, however, which Livy gives of the defile, at the entrance of which Hannibal found his prc^ess exposed by the Barbarians, whom he calls mountaineers,* is very difierent fi:om that of Polybius, which was found to agree so well with the passage of the Mont du Chat. Livy*s fine and wintery description can only apply to the central and snowy chain ; and even then, will scarcely suit the Mont Genevre, which, though forming part of the primitive range, is in elevation far below the point of eternal snow, not exceeding 950 toises, or 6000 feet above the level of the sea. Here then we find ourselves entangled and bewildered in difficulties, from which it seems impossible to extract any sense or truth ; and we may in fact conclude, that whether we have been correct or not in our explanation of Polybius's account, it is impossible to attach any credit what- ever to that of Livy. We must also conclude, that the latter, having adopted a fixed plan, and being determined to bring Hannibal into Italy by the Mont Genevre, has endeavoured to force and , * C. 32. Erigentibus in primos agmen ctivos adparuerunt inminentes tumulos insidentes montani. PASSAGE OF THE MONT GENEVRE. 137 twist the narrative of the Greek historian, whcnn he did not understand, to his views, without con- sidering whether the circumstances of distance, time, or place, would be found to tally. He in fact presents us with a lively example of those writers, whose account of this expedition Polybius* censures as so improbable and void of reason ; and who, like the tragic writers, would want a god or some other machine to extricate their hero from his difficulties. Let us however proceed in our comparison. Hannibal having occupied the defile during tiie night, when the mountaineers retired to their homes, is attacked next morning during the des- cent ; he succeeds, however, in routing his assail- ants, and finally capturing their city or strong holdjt and the adjoining villages. Now as we are compelled to place the scene of action on the Mont Genevre, we are consequentiy obliged to suppose that Hannibal was there op- posed by the Segusini, or the people of the valley of Susa, and contiguous to the Caturiges,1:on whose ter- ritory the army would have marched from Embrun ■ • Polyb. 1. iii. c. 47- t Castellum inde^ quod caput ejus regionis erat> viculos- que drcumjectos capit i Ptolemy would indeed give Brian9on to the Segusini^ but D'Anville contends with reason for its belonging to the Ca- turiges. Not. De I'Anc. Gaul. art. Brigantio and Caturiges^ p. 174—215, 16. XS8 DESCRIPTION OF THE to Brian^on. The town which fell into the haads of the victor, could therefore be no other than Ce* zanne, at the foot of the mountsun (m the Italian side, though it never could have beai of sufficient importance to deserve the title of " caput regionis j*' nor could the wretched valley in which it stands ever have furnished the supplies, which must have been required to subsist so numerous an army. If Hannibai from this place continued h]£t march, as he naturally would along the Doria Susana, he would have reached Tiuin in six days at least, without meeting with any (^er mountain to obstruct his passage. ; this cannot, however, be the route -v^^ch Livy has in view, since he follows* Pdlybius in nearly all the circumstances which that writer appUed to Hannibal's march after hav- ing passed the first defile, and which we found to agree so well with the passage of the Little St. Bernard. Let us, however, suppose that the Car- thaginian army would attempt to proceed by the Col de Sestrieres, as the Ron^tn amlies certainly did, before a free passage was allowed them through Cottius's dominions,! we shall still find a perfect disagreement between that route and the Roman historian's accoimt. Cezanne is situated at the » * C. 34. 'Perventum inde ad frequentem cultoribus alium, ut inter moatana pqpulum^ ibi nan bello aperto^ sed stds artibus^ fraude^ deinde insidiis est -jprape drcumyentus. Magno natu principes castellorum oratores ad Poeauin Teniant, Sec t See the Ist Chapter. PASSAGE OF THE MONT OENEVRE. ISQ fiiot of the Col de Sestrieres as well as the Moid: Genevre j so that a person setting out from thence, might easily pass the form^ mountain in one day ^ whereas, from Livy's acx^ount, Hannibal was nine days in reaching the summit of the Alps,* frcsn the town he captured ; so that it is impossible on eitiier suppositioik' to reconcile Livy's narrative with tfuth. Yet has it been contended,^ tiiat Livy could nevet have meant to place fdie first defile,^ or the entrance of the Alps, at the Mont Genevre, but that we must look for this entrance of the Alps before the army reached the Durance. Now this supposition is entirdy contradicted by the text of the author, and can oidy be admitted by implying a manifest error in his' narrative: still we will allow £oi a mt^nent^ that Hannibal might have been attacked by the Catuorigest on his crossing into thdbr country &om that of the Tricorii and that he reached the Mont Genevre on the ninth day. We shall yet be able to shew tih^t this mountain can no more be conceived to be the second than it was the first passage : that it differs, in short, entirely from livy's own description,, and • C. 35. Nono die in jugum Alpiiun perventum est, per invia pleraque et errores, quos ant ducentiiun fraus, aut, ubi fides lis non esset, temei^e' initse valles a conjectantibus iter, &debant t This is the suppositicm of General de Vaudoncourt^ in his Hist des Campagnes d'Hannibal^ Milan, 1812. 140 DESCRIPTION OF THE from that of Polybius. Having visited this moun- tain as well as the Little St. Bernard, during the summer of 1819* with a view to this question, we shall here present the reader with the result of our observations. The town - of Brian^on is situated in a valley from which three others branch oflF in different directions ; that of the Guisanne to the N. W., the fertile valley of Neuwache to the N., and the valley . of the Durance, which descends from Mont Genevre, to the S. W. The foot of this moimtain is little more than two miles from the town ; the valley that leads to it is at present drfended by the numerous ^d formidable forts of Brian^on, but it is too wide to admit of an army suffering from any attack made from the heights on either side with such missiles as thei moimtaineers could have used. The present beautifril road over the Mont Genevre, constructed by French engineers under the reign of Buonaparte, ascends the right bank of the Durance ; the old road could be traced for a considerable way on the left bank, but still it would be too remote from the mountains on that side to riender any attack from that quarter at all formidable. The mountains themselves are too high and difficult of access to favour this suppo- sition : in fine, this valley is much too considerable to answer the notion conveyed by the terms (j^apayya Tiva SvcrGarov Kal jcp?7fiva>Si7, in Polybius,* Or * Polyb. 1. iii. c. 52. PASSAGE OF THE MONT OENEVRE. 141 the " angustiorem viam ex parte alterd subjectam jugo insuper imminenti,** in Livy.* The modem road runs for some time m a N. direction, towards the valley of Neuwache, and then winds roimd the mountain which separates this valley from that of the Durance. The old road keeps constantiy on the left bank of the river, which is here, however, but a very incon- siderable stream. The ascent on that side seems by no means abrupt, and presents no difficult passage or defile, till within a short distance of the summit, where the heights close in on both sides considerably, and form a passage not unlike that of the Mont du Chat. : The simimit itself is a long and wide plain, tolerably well cultivated in parts. The large village of Bourg Mont Genevre is situated neariy in the centre: the heights them- selves on either, side of the plain do not* rise to a thousand feet above its level, and are covered to the top with abimdance of large fir trees. This description, it will easily be seen, essentially differs from Polybius's accoimt of the high summit on which Hannibal jurrived on the ninth day. We are there told, that the summit was so &r fit>m being cultivated^ that it was destitute of all vegeta- tion ; and unless a great change in the climate and temperature of the Alps be supposed to have iaken place since that time, this must be allowed to pre-. * Wv. 1. xxi.c. 34. 142 DESCRIPTION OF THE sent a strong argutn^it against Iivy*s hypothesis. The temperature mdeed of some rallies, may have been improved to a certsutn degree byBuperior cul- tivation; in others also, where the snows and ^aciers advance and recede at stated periods, like the ebb and flow ank ^ the river. This part of tibie de- soent is known by the name of the Tourniquet ; and supposing this to represent the difficulties en- countered by the Carthaginian army previous to PASSAGE OF THE MONT GENEVRE. 148 tfaek reaching the point rendered impassaUe by the i^iUing away of the road and old snow, we shaU find ourselves at Cezanne, without meeting a single spot which could agree willi the last mentioned drcumstance. Upon repeated inquiries, indeed, we invariably received the same answer, that there was not one point on whidi snow was known to r^nain all the year round. The valley of the Doria is indeed so wide, evai long before reaching Cezanne, that it raiders such a supposition alto- gether untenaUe. We must also observe, that from no part of the passage can a view of Italy be obtained ; for the chain of the Col de Sestrieres ^itirely blocks up the vdley of Fenestrelles to the east, while Mont Cenis and the mountains of Maurienne equally obstruct the view to the north, by the valley of Exilles and Sittsa. At Cezanne the descent terminates; and from tib^ice to Turin, there is not one point which would present any difficulty, much less wh^e we n%ht expect to fin i in autumn snow of the pre<> ceding year. Though the valley of Cezanne is cultivated in some degree, it is altogether poor and barren, nor at all to be compared with the environa of St. Didier in the Yal d'Aoste. As far as Ibdlles, indeed, lliere are no pastures, the river Doria cover- ing the whole plain with stones or morass. There yet remain a few circumstances to be pointed out, in which livy's narrative differs from tliat of Poly- bius. Of the story of the vinegar used in softening 144 VARIOUS ERRORS IN rocks,* it is difficult to say whence it derived its origin, and whether there is in reality any foun- dation for it: certain it is, that Polybius never leads us to suppose that such an expedient was resorted to by Hannibal. It is quite improbable that the Carthaginian army should have had any great supply of . that acid ; or if they had, that it could produce any effect on primitive rock. There is also a manifest contradiction in this story of Livy ; for while he tells us that Hannibal made an immense fire to heat the rock, he forgets that else- where he has informed us that the summit of the Alps is naked, and destitute of trees.t M. De Luc also very justly notices another strange error into which Livy has fallen with respect to this rock, when he represents the road as having fallen away, and formed a precipice of a thousand feet high ; whereas in Polybius this slip of the road is clearly stated to have taken place not in respect to height, but length.t By this alteration, the operation which Hannibal's soldiers had to perform, and * G. 37* Inde ad rupem muniendam^ per quam unam via esse poterat^ milites ducd^ quum caedendum esset saxum^ arboribus drca immanibus dejectis detruncatisque^ struem ingentem ligiuirum faciunt ; eamque (quum et vis venti apta fadendo igni coorta esset) succendunt, ardentiaque saxa infuso aceto putrefadunt. f C. 37* Nuda enim fere cacumina sunt^ et, si quid est pabuli^ obruunt nives. X C. 36. Natura locus jam ante prseceps^' recenti lapsu terra :in pedum mille admodum altitudinem abruptus erat. livy's account. . 14A ^diidi is so naturally stated in the Greek historian, in Livy becomes absurd and unintelligible. ' Livy states besides, that Hannibal allowed his troops three days rest, after their fatigues during this work J* and yet he allows it is generally agreed, that the Carthagiman army performed their march throiigh the Alps in fifteen days, when, by his own calculation, the number of days amounts to nineteen. It must, however, be remarked that the same inconsistency, as it should seem, equally attaches to Polybius ; and that the only difference, in fact, between them, as to the days spent among the Alps; is not in their number, biit in the manner in which they are said to have been passed by the army, Polybius's three additional days are spent in reach- mg the plains from the last difficult pass; according to Livy, they are days of rest, allowed to the army after their fatigues. He also represents the Car- thaginians as having been exposed to many errors and wanderings, from the treachery of their guides or the rashness of their leaders. In this circum- stance he again differs from Polybius, whose silence on so important a point cannot' but be construe^ as a reftitation of the fact. - ^ Livy having finally brought Hannibal into Italy, expresses his siuprise that it should ever * n>i jumenta in pabulum missa^ et quies mumendo fessis hominibus data iriduo. Ibid. 146 livy's reasons for have been nmtter cf doubt in whi^ direction Haix* nibal crossed the Alps.^ He with reason rejects the popular opinion, which considered the Great St. Bernard as that passage, from the false idea of its having derived the name of Mons Penninus from the term Poeni, when it evidently was so called from the worship of the Celtic god Pen. But his reasons for rejecting the opinion of L« Cselius Antipater, who affirmed, in his history of the Second Punic war, th^ Hannibal had passed by the Cremonis jugum, are not equally vidid. The authority of this early historian constitutes indeed a very material feature in the present in- quiry. From what has been said of him in the remarks on the early history of the Alps, it is evident that his testimony ought not easily to be rejected or overlooked. From the period at which he wrote, he possessed means of information whidi alone would entitle his statement to a degree of * 0. 38. Id quum inter oitmes oonstet, eo magis txdnxt axbbig^ quaxiam Alpes traxisierit: et vulgo credere, Penino atque i]id« nomen et jugo Alpium ^iidituni^ transgressuxnu Coelius^ per Cremonis jugum dicit transisse : qui ambo saltus eum non in Taurines^ sed per Salassos montanos ad Libuos Oallos deduxissent. Nee rerisimile etst^ ea turn ad Galliaitt {Mtxiisse itinera; utique^ quee ad Peninum fisrunt^ obeepta gentibu0 semigermanis fuissent neque, Hercule^ montibus his (si quern forte id movit) ab transitu Poenorum ullo Ver- agri^ incolse jugi ejus^ norunt nomen inditum; sed ab eo, quem^ in summo sacratum vertice^ Peninum montani appel- lant ADOPTING THE MONT OENBVaS. 147 attentuxL very superior to that clain^ hy Iivy« since the latter quotes no authority whateva*. So that even if we were to set aside the testimony of Polybius as indeterminate, on account of his not naming the pass of the Alps which Hannibal crossed, we might rest the cause of the Little St. Bernard with safety on the evidence which livy himself afibrds us by adducing this account of Cadius. Livy seems to allow that this passage might have been frequented at that time, but maintains that it could not have been that of H^i^ nibal, as it would not have brought him dirediy upon the Taurini, but the Libuan Gauls. << Now rt is agreed,** says he, " on all hands, that he arrived among the Taurini after crossing the Alps.** Cer- tainly not, according to Polybius, who states posi- tively, that having refreshed his troops by a few days* halt, he entered boldly into the country of the Insubres. Now the Libui are reckoned by Ptol^ny* under the Insubres, so that Polybius and Caelius may very well be conceived to agree in this particular. Livy, however, rejects the account. of Cadius on the authority of L« Cincius Alimentu8,t ♦ Ptol. Geo^. t C. 38. L. Cincius Alimentus^ qui captum se ab Hannibale scribit^ maxime auctor me moveret— -ex ipso autem audisse Haimibale^ postquam Rhodanum tranderit> trigmta sex millia hominuin^ ingentemque numerum equorum et albrum jumen- torum amisisse^ in Taurinis^ quae Qallis proxima ^ens erat^ in Italiam degresso. l2 148 INCONSISTENCIES CONTAINED 9n early Roman historian, who became Hannibal's prisoner, and had an opportunity of hearing that general state, that from the passage of the Rhone to his arrival among the Taurihi, he had lost 36,000 men, besides a vast nmnbef of horses and beasts of burthen. However confused and perplexed the passage undoubtedly is, the meaning seems evi- dently to be, that Hannibal's whole loss, from the time of his crossing the Rhone to his axrival among the Taurini, amounted to the number above stated. Now it is well remarked by Gib- bon,* that " Hamiibal wished to give an idea of the **. losses he had sustained in passing the mooii- '^ tains, in consequence of battles, cold, and fatigue. He begins, therefore, from his cross- ing the Rhone, and ends at his arrival in the territory of the Taurini ; since it was really in their country, and by taking their capital, that he began his operations in Italy, Their terri- tory, therefore, formed the limit between things totally distinct — his losses in Italy and those in the Alps, It was not necessary that the country of the Taurini should be the first place of Italy into which he descended from the Alps ; it sufficed that it was the first where he fought a battle. The former explanation is adopted by Livy, but the latter appears to me very capable of being defended. It deprives * MiscelL Works^ vol. ii. p. 185. « it « i4 U U if *( IN LIVY's ACCOUNT. 149 " the Latin; historian of what appears to him a *^ decisive proof; it even turns, this decisive proof " against himself, by laying open the source of " his mistake. The argument upon which Livy builds is. not only refuted, but destroyed; and the authority of Polybius subsists ■ alone and un- ** rivalled.'* It appears from Livy*s account, if we leave out all mention of what he has copied from Polybius, and read it with reference to itself alone, that Hannibal crossed the Rhone at Roquemaure; that he. then, frightened by the Romans, marched up to the Island of Jthe AUobroges ; that he then re- turned through the Vocontii and Tricorii till he reached the Durance, at a distance of nine days* march from the summit of the Alps ; and that he then crossed. the Mont Genevre, and descended among the Taurini. . This marching and counter- marching would alone be sufficient to make us sus- pect his accuracy; but when we find, which we shall do upon comparing the two narratives, that he fol- lows Polybius step by step to the Insula, then drops him dining the return to the Durance, and then takes hind up again in the same place where he had left off, beginning afresh from the Durance, as Polybius does from the Isere ; that after this he follows him word for word, with the exception of his own exaggeration, through a country which it is clear he knew nothing about, since the country described by Polybius is as different as possible 150 ERRORS IN LIVT. frc^n the road between the Durance and the Mont Genevre ; and when finally he brings him out with an enfeebled army among a hostile people ; what can we conclude but that the Latin author is not only totally unworthy of credit, but that he was also so ignorant of geography and of the country he was describing, as not to be able even to make out a credible or intelligible account o£ his own hypothesis ? The exaggerations with respect to the appearance of the Alps ; the descent of a whole army, with baggage and elephants, down a precipice one thousand feet high ; the flat country described as existing in the most rugged, barren, and mountainous part of the Alps ; the misstatement as to the character of the Durance, ought in themselves to make us reject his authoriiy ; and, at all events, he ought not for a moment to be placed in competition with an author, who, besides being totally free from all the faults of his rival, has a just daim to our belief, from having himsdf visited the coimtries which he so accu- ratdy describes,* * M. Larauza> in his '' Histoire Critique^'' which we shall examine hereafter^ endeavours to reconcile the account of Jiivy laid Polybius with each other^ by converting the Durance into the Drac> and by alteiing entirely the hitherto received situa- tion of the Tricairtini^ the Vooontii> and the Tricoiii^ but without any authority whatcrer. i M. lstaonne's theory. 151 CHAP. EX. BXAMINATION OP M, LETRONNE'b THBORT. In the last chaf^^er we have emkavoared to shew, that the account of Livy, ahhotigh copied almost literally in many parts from that of Polybiiis^ was on the whole quite inconsistent with it, and that thte inconsistency was produced by the deter^ mination of the Roman historian to carry the army over the Mont Genevre. And it seems clear, that if Livy had not written at all upon the subject, the fects menticmed by Polybius, first that the army marched alcmg the river a distance of 175 miles, till they arrived at the foot of the Alps ; and, secondly, that they descaoided among the Insu* brians, would be quite sufficient, if not to establish the passage by the Little St Barnard, at least to exdude that by the Mont Genevre. As, however^ Livy, an author of so great, and^ in many respects, so deserved a reputation, has positively stated this latter to be the road which Hannibal followed, it becomes necessary for writers 153 WEAK PODTTS IK upon the subject to choose between the two audio- rities; and we have, we trust, given sufficient reasons why that of Polybius should be preferred. Various attempts, however, have been made by French writers to reconcile the two accounts, and on these we shall make some observations, begin- ning with that of M. Letronne, a scholar of repu- tation, who published a critique on M. De Luc's work, in the Journal des Savans, for January 1819* It may previously be remarked that all the woAs to which we shall allude were written in answer to the first edition of M. De Luc*s treatise, in which that gentleman certainly laid himself open to some animadversions. His weak points, were, however^ str^igthened, and his errors corrected in a seomd edition, much ailarged, which was published in 1825, and to which no answer has yet Bsp- peared. Mons. L. maintains, in the first place, that Livy is in all respects quite correct in his account of this transaction ; and he quotes the passage in Strabo, to which we have already alluded,* in order to prove that Polybius had, in his own writings, actually stated that the Carthaginian army passed by the Mont Genevre ; or, which amounts simoet to the same thing, that they had descended amongst the Taurini. Enough has been said in the first chapter to shew, that the words in this passage, "* In the First Chapter. M. letronne's theory* 158 fiv 'AvyiSoc &ifXOcv are an mterpolation of Strabo's, and are not to be considared as the original words of Polybius } and even if our reasoning on this point should not be conclusive, the words are at all events doubtful ; whereas the KarypB roXfiripijQ etc ra vipl rov TlaSov TrcSca Kai to riov Iao/iSp€i>v €0i^oC) in the fifty-sixth chapter, are most decidedly the very, words of Polybius, extracted from his own writings, and, therefore, as such, to be depended upon. M. Letronne, however, who has attacked M. De Luc very severely for his omission of the former pass^e, himself passes over the latter one without any mention whatever, and prefers taking his author at secondhand in Strabo, to reading him in his own words. Although it is far &om our in- tention to charge M. L. with bad &ith, it certainly behoved him to be extremely careful not to lay himself open to the charge of a wilful omission of the text of his author, at the very moment when he was accusing M. De Luc of the very same fault. It seems, besides, altogether to have escaped him, that Polybius in his own story mentions the attack upon Turin, as having taken place long after Han- nibal had reached the plains, and not till the army had Completely recovered from their &tigues. So far indeed is he from having noticed this &ct in Polybius, that he positively quotes him as his authority for sa3ring, that the Taiirini were the first people whom Hannibal met with on his descent from the Alps ; and this authority he finds in the 154 M. LETROKiSTB^S ACCOUNT chapter : <^ D'ailleurs cette drconrtaiice* /' est tout>i-&it en harmonie avec ce que Poljbe << raconte plus bas ; aavoir, que ks Taurini Airent ^< les premiers peuples qu'Aimibal rencontta k la " descente des Alpes.'^t If by this violence committed on the text of one of his authors, M. L. was in any degree assisted in his hypothesis, some excuse mi^t be found for him; but the admisision c^ his premises only throwa him into much greater difficulties £6r the purpose of axrivmg at his conclusion, as we shaU fmd on examining the manner in which he pursues hia construction of the Greek text. After allowing, with M. De Luc, that the army crossed the Rhone near Roqvemaur^t and agreeing aitirely as to the situation of the Insula Allobrogum, he arrives at the banks of * The circumstance of the passage in Strabo^ where he gays tiiat the army passed by the Mont Genevre. *' t Polyb. L iii. c. 60. i Notwithstanding the passage at Boquemaure^ M, L. holds with Livy tha|; the sabsequent march to the northward was made for the purpose of running away from the Roman army: and he again quotes Polybius in support of this opinion. As it might be difficult to discover the passage from which this support is to be obtained, it may be right to «tate> that the wh<>le aulhari^ is contained in the word Ifk; which important word^ according to M. It., has been hitherto neglected by translators. ^^ Le mot ling a 6t6 passe par les ^^ traducteurs ; il importe cependant, parcequ'il montre avec ^ qudle Mte Annibal vouloit s'^oigner des Romains.** Journal des SavBxi8> Jan. 1819> p. 26. OF THE PA6SAa tov TTOTOfkovf which immediately followed the name of that river, could apply to nothing else ; but i DISCUSSED AND REFUTED. 157 when Polybius was describing the Island, the Isere was the river last mentioned : by parity of reasoning, therefi^re, irapa rov vorafAovf now ap- plies to the Isere.** In this idea, however. Professor Schweighaeuser had already anticipated him in a note to the third book of Polybius, c. 50. vol. v. p. 596. The learned ftofessor, however, at the end of his note, which is a long (me, finally aban- dons this idea, because he plainly sees that Po- lybius has expressly stated, c. d9> Hannibal to have mwched 1400 stadia along the Rhone, till he came to the Alps. But according to M. Xetronne, the expression of Polybius, 'A wo Si rf/c Siataamq rov PoSavov iropivofiivoig irap' ainov rov irora/uov, implies only that this was the general direction of the route at the first setting out, and not that the 1400 stadia were to be measured along the river. Hannibal, therefore, does not cross the Isere, but marches along its banks on the south side, in order to complete the 100 miles which are to be expended biefore he can reach the Alps. Here, however, M. L. forgets that Polybius podtivdy states the amiy to have marched these 100 miles throiigh a plain country, cv toic cTmreSoic, c. 50. Now, such a coiuitry, between Valence and Grenoble, it is quite impossible to find. Some of the highest of the secondary chains of the Alps take their rise immediately to the south of the Isere, and very much lower down the river than Grenoble ; and, in- &ct, that town, which ought, according to M. 158 COKTINUATIOH OF L/s march, to be in the midst of plains, is, as every body who has seen it well knows, surrounded by some of the highest mountains in France. There tkBvec was any Roman road on the south bank of that part of the Isere between Valence and Gre* noUe, and the road which now exists there is barely passable, and nothing more than a mere communication from one village to another. It is indeed only laid down in maps of a very large scale. The great road runs to the north of the river, and the Roman road only joined it at Moi^ rans. But even allowing M. Letronne to march through an impassable country along the banks of that irora/Aoc, which was the Rhone, and which he has now convarted into the Isere, this march» if he keeps close to his river, must at last cxmduct htm to the Little St. Bernard by the valley of the Gre^ivaudan, which nms from Montmdllan to Grenoble, a valley so rich, and so broad and mag* nificent, that if Hannibal had once arrived in it, he nev& could have abandoned it. So that if his original intention had been to march along the Isere, it is also clear that it was equally his inten-* tion to go by the Little St. Bernard. M, L. is therefore very little advanced in his undertaking, and it would have been vay difficult for him to have escaped out of this strait, had he not fortunately fomid the river Drac just before his arrival at Grenoble ; which river, as it comes from the southward, would, if followed up to its source^ M. letronne's theory. 159 at length put the army into the right road to the Mont Genevre. The Tora/iioc therefore, which from the Rhone had becxmie the Isere, is mom to undergo another change, and to be called the Drac *^ n remcmta ce torrent (le Drac) que sa larg^ir d6t lui faire prendre poiu* la m^e rivi^e que FIsere.'' That is to say, Hannibal, guided by the people of the country,* who knew the roads, &Uows the Isere as long as it is impracticable, and as soon as it becomes easy, he abandons it, and mardies up the banks of the equally impracticable Drac, along the low^ part of which there is no road whatever, either ancient (ht modem. Finally, the entrance of the Alps is placed at St. Bonnet, a imiall town near the source of the Drac, and on the ff^eat road from Grap to Grenoble. It is necessary lor M. L. to make this the entrance of the A^s, because his 100 miles terminate here ; for a3 to its being really the entrance of the Alps, he mif^ as well iqpply that term to Briani^on itself, the one being situated in as mountainous a country as the other. Bolybius has stated, that the army marched through the territory of the Allol^oges. Now though it is quite notorious, that this nation never extended itself along die Drac to the southward, M. Letronne says, that as in Polybius's tune nobody * We say guided by the people of the country, because as he had not yet arrived at the foot of the Alps, according to M. L. he must still have been accompanied by the troops of the prince of the AUobroges, whom he had reinstated in his capital. 160 CONTINUATION OF knew anythii^ about them» th^ might as wdl have lived on the Dnic as any where else. In this manner has Polybius been reconcfled with Livy ; but putting the latter entirely out of the question, is it possible for a moment to admit an explanation of the Greek historian, so utterly contrary to all rules of grammar, as weU as of common sense. Let us now see how the inconsistencies of M. L/s &m}xnte author, Livy, are accounted for.. And first with respect to tiie *^ ad laevam in Tricastinos ** flexit,^ the vexata quaestio of the commentators. Nothing is easier ; ad laevam rrfers to the position of the historian himself, ** on auroit dd sentir que "cet historien en disant *flexit ad laevam,* parle " relativement k sa position en Italic, ce qui est " assez ordinaire aux auteurs anciens.*** But allow- ing Hannibal to turn to Livy's left hand, how is hey acccarding to M. Letronne's hypothesis, to arrive among the Tricastini, who are to be found in the neighbourhood of St. Paul-Trois-Ch4teaux mi the Rhone ? From this situation, in defiance of all authorities ancient and modem, they are brought up to the N. E. and placed on the Drac and Isere; No difficulty now ; occurs j we march, still follow- ing Livy across the Vocontii and Tricorii, and arrive at the foot of the Alps at St. Bonnet. Here, however, we ought to get to the Durance, at which river when we have arrived, we are, according to * Joum. des Savans^ p. 33. « M. lstronne's theory. 161 Livy to pass through a flat country for some days, and then finally to reach the Alps ; and as this difficulty might have finally vanquished M. L. he has wisely omitted to notice it at all ; he therefore marches to the Mont Genevre, and descends by Susa upon Rivoli. After this examination, we may without any unfairness quote M., L.'s own words to M. De Luc* . " Ce n'est pas par de telles raisons qu'on pent se flatter d'edaircir definitive- ment un point d'histoire.*'* The result indeed of our observations appears to be, that M. L. is quite wrong in his interpretation of Polybius, and stiU more so in that of livy ; so that the only point in which he makes his two authors agree, is in their ccmimon variance from his own hypothesis. In consequence of the article in the Journal des Savans for January 1819, M. De Luc published an answer to M. Letronne, which is remarkable for its clearness of argument, and its temperance ; to this M. L. replied in the Journal des Savans, for Dec. 1819. In this reply he discovers, that the snow, which had remained, according to Poly- bius, unmdted during the whole summer, was in reality only the snow which had fallen about a month before ; and he assures us " que les Car- " thaginois purent la prendre pour de la vieille " neige rest6e la depuis Tannee prec6dente.*' M. L. also treats all the accessory proofs, such as the * Joum. des Savaiu^ p. 29. Jan. 1819. M 162 coiircLusiON OP plate of silver and the XtvKoirBTfi^v,* and the Ira- dhion respecting the " via Annibalis/' with great contempt, and he even furnishes M. De Luc gra- tuitously with another feet of the discovery of some medals supposed to be Carthaginian, at Aoste. Finally, he says, that as all these Utile facts agree equally well with the passage by the Great St. Ber- nard, which is manifestly absurd, they cannot possibly be of any importance when applied to the Little St. Bernard. These accessories, however, are merely brought in as corroborative of the general argumtent, and no weight could possibly be atta;ched to them if they stood ak)ne. General Melville and M. De Luc may perhaps have given rather too much importance to them ; but if they were thrown on one side entirely, the main ^gument founded on the text of Polybius, on the concurrence of distances, dnd on the moral as weB as physical pro^^ babilities, which all unite in favour of the Little St. Bernard, would remdn completely uninjured and unchanged. We cannot, after all, take our leave of M. Le- tronne, (who although blind to the errors of his « own route, has shewn much quickness in detecting the absurdities of others,) without thinking him for taking the trouble of refoting General F. G. de * M. L. observes with respect to this word, that it occurs ^•equently, " ce mot, 4ui revient plusieurs fois." It cMiIy recurs in the tenth book ahready quoted, and never again in Polybius. M. LETRONNfi's ARGUMENT. l63 Vaudoncourt, who has abandoned the Rhone alto- gether, and M. Le Comte Fortia d'Urban, who, because he possessed some property near Orange, places the Insula Allobrogum close to that town, and calls the Eygues the Isaras. It remains for us to say a few words concerning the Chevalier de Folard, the Marquis de St* Simon, and our country, man Mr* Whitaker, who has carried the army over the Great St. Bernard. We must also notice the hypothesis crfM. Larauza, who is supported by Napoleon, in his preference of the Mont Cenis, and this we shall do in the fcdlowing chapter. M 2 164 EXAMINATION OF VARIOUS CHAR X. EXAMINATION OF FOLARD, ST. SIMON, WHITAKER, AND LARAUZA. CONCLUSION. The Chevalier de Folard, having determined, it seems, to lead Hannibal by the Cottian Alp, or Mont Genevre, and yet being compelled to follow Polybius, the author he was commenting upon, as far as this hypothesis would allow, has struck out for the Carti^tginia- army a route which no one has ever, I beUeve, contemplated but himself, and which it is only necessary to hear described in order to be satisfied, if not of its utter impractica- bility, at least of its discrepancy from the accounts of both the original historians whom we have ex- amined. The Chevalier seems, indeed, to disdain all the rules of criticism, and wishes his readers to understand that he means to be guided solely by his knowledge of the country through which he supposes the Carthagmian army to have passed; a knowledge which several campaigns in the Alps and Piedmont had furnished him with. He sup- poses Hannibal to have arrived at Romans, on the WRITERS ON THE SUBJECT. l65 Isere, at some distance from its junction with the Rhone, without having any intention of crossing that river. He easily gets rid of the difficulty which the march of 800 stadia fiirther up the Rhone would place in his way, by rejecting that passage in Polybius altogether, as a blunder of some copier. He styles these 800 stadia " une imagi- " nation, une faute des copistes, dont Polybe se " moqueroit s*il mettoit la t6te hors de son tom- « beau.'^* It is impossible to argue according to the rules of criticism, with one who so boldly rejects them all ; but we wiU be content to dispute the question on M. de Folard's own ground, and lajdng aside both Polybius and Livy, to debate the point from our own knowledge of this singular route. The Chevalier supposes Hannibal to have followed the right bank of the Isere as far as Grenoble, there to have crossed the Drac, and followed this river till its junction with the Romanche. Hannibal, accord- ing to M. de Folard, now leaves the Drac, and follows this third river in its course through the mountainous coimtry of Oysans, the territory ol the ancient Uceni. Thus much, indeed, it is fair to state in favour of the Chevalier's opinion, that the route he has adopted, however difficult and * Histoire de Polybe^ traduite du Gbrec par Bam Vincent Thuillier^ avec tin Commentaire par M. de Folard. &c. torn. iv« p. 73. Amsterdam^ 1729. l6tf ROAD FOLLOWED B¥ THE impiobable &r an army to take^ is yet diatinctly maf kod in the Tabula Tiieodosiaiia as a road known to the Romans, and used by them«* As far as the Bourg d^Oysans^ though th^ Romanche is confined between h^h jand perpen- dicular rocks« the ro^ is yet sufficienliy good and practicable; the Bourg itsdf is situated in a charm*^ ing plain or ha^oui which the receding xnouiatains allow to ext^id to some distance on each bank of the river. But about two miles further up the river, and a litde beyond the point where it re- ceives the impetuous Ven? on, which issues from the valley of Venos, the bed of liie Romanche is closely confined between exceedingly hi^ and rugged mountains, which scarcely affi>rd a passage to the waters c^ the roaring torrefit^. The old road * This road (which is^ however, not mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary^ nor in the Itinerar. HierosoL) leads irom Vlenne, by Cularo, (Grenoble^) to the Alpis Cottk. The etaddons^ dial; aorae atadon has been (HnitledheinKreen Gulaio and Catorissium. See D'Anv. Not de I'Anc Oaule^ Art Cat from Brian^on to Turin 66. mSes, making a total of 97 or 100 nules; whidi Mk Aort of Pdybius^s dntance by 50 miles. CHEVALIER P£ FOLARX). l6j h^p le^ tlm river to sc4e the ajmpst perpendicular lii^ht$ of the Mont d^ Lens, being cut, as Mr» Fcdd;rd allows, like a staircase in the rock ; and was ^yea then so difficult and impracticable, that it wai? jtii^u^t proper within a few years to carry the ro^id, after incredible pains and labour, clo3e along the bank^ of jthe river. This astonishing enter- prise, which is one of the last great works per- formed under the reogn of the h^e French £mper<»> ps but little knoym, not in this country only, but 0vi^ in France ; yet in the boldness of the underr ^taki^g, the subUme grajgideur of U^ scenery^ the Extent of the excavations which have been mad^ it jStfrpasses both the pass of Bramante in the roa4 io the Mpnt Cenis, md that of GqimIo on the iSdnapiow.* The old road seems dearly to have been a Roman work, of which several traces are yet dis- tinctly seen on the Mont de hens ; this is probably the Mellosedum of the Itineraries ; hut before thi3 the valley never could have beep practicable fop an army. It is, however, by this pass that M. de Folard supposes Hwmibal to h^ve led ^is troops ; nay, jfarther, he conceives that this was the route which the Gauls had qonstantly followed in their .^Lpeditions into Italy. The difficultije^ however, * The route here described is laid down^ in the Guide de FEmpire^ as the second road from Lyons to Turin^ foy OreiMible and Brian^on. Buonapavte meant it lor a nulitory joad, AsiiffiQndingiite ;«ilQE|e8tif:fmwuiV would have as much reason on their side. Let us hear the Marquis de St. Simon, who maintains the latter opinion : " Quoique je ne sache pas pr6cis6ment," says * Mr. Dutens^ in his Itinerary^ also states^ that he had been repeatedly assured by Piedmontese officers^ that the open {dain could be seen from no other situation. Qen. de Vaudon- court has in this point followed the authority of Folard. Hist des Camp, d' AnnibaL 170 BXAMINATIOH OF the Marquis, ^ qudle route Annifaal ^'est ouyert ^* pour arriver k la sommit^ des Alpes, je ne le ^ perds pas plus de vue qu'un diasseur qui des ^^ hauteurs laisse sa meute par^ourir les routes et les fourr^es d'un bois k Tentn^e de laqudie ji Pa conduite ; il ue la voit plus, m^ il TaGt- ** tend au loin, et la ri^oint aussit6t qu'dle quitte ^* les fbnds, Je me retrouve de m^e avec An- ^^ nibal sur le M*tous les detours ou la fraude de ses guides; ^^ aon peu de confiance en eux et son mamquie dfs << connoissance de Pint^rieur des montagnes, a -** dA le faire errer pendant neuf jjours.*** M. De Luc has bestowed one entire diapter on the refutation of Mr. Whitaker, wfao^ in two large volumes 8vo. has takea much pains to shew that Hannibal went hy the Great St. Bei>- Hard. M. De Luc's objections to this writer's hypotbeslis are so decisive and convincing, that lit is soarcdy necessary to say any thing further flB ihe subject. ]jt is strange, that, with the as- sistance of G^Bi^ai Meiville's notes and obser- vations to direct Imn in his researches, Mr. Whitaker should have preferred to support an x^^ion which has not one ¥aUd iur^umjent or plausible reason to recommend it. He seems * Hi3t de la Ouerre de^ Alpe?^ ou C«inp« de 1744* p^ M. }e Marquis de St ^imimj Aide^dchQaii^ du Prioo^ de Ccntj. Amsterdam^ 1770* i ME. WHITAKER's theory. I7I to have thought that learnings of which it cannot be denied that he has given proof, was to eup^y the place of personal observation, and that wikf theories could supersede that knowledge ^iph must be derived from experi^ice and judicious investigation. M. Whitaker is often so Minded by the predilections with which his hypothesis has inspired him, that when he finds the text 0i Polyfoius at variance with it, he does not €fcruple to throw all the blame on the hi^orian, and to charge him with committing gross errors and mistakes. By the hdp of such ress 1. 1. X Travels in Oermany^ Italy^ and 3icily^ by Stolberg. t 1. § CBuvres diverses de M. Abauzit, Londres^ 1770* Lettre de Mr. Mann^ p. 177- ^ suiv. II Voyages dans les Alpes^ par de Saussure^ Bvo. t. iv. § 987^ t. V. § 1191. IFDescript des Alpes Orecques et Cottiennef par. J. F. Albamf de Beaumont^ t i. P. i. p. 98. t ii P. ii* p. 633. 174 THE PASSAGE BY THE history «nd geography, must cerfattnly entMe his opinion in the present question to particular atteri^ tion. This learned Scholar, ift the introductory chapter to his Geography of Ancient Italy, in which he gives an account of the Alps and the various {>asse3 by which they were formerly travars^d, ex- presses his belief that Hannibal crossed the gteaA chBm by the route of Mont Cenis,* In forming his opinion, he appeai^s to have been solely guided^ ftiid, no doubt most judiciously, by the nartrative 6f I^olybius ; arid he professes to have fourid the distances, as given in the best modem inaips, aocu^ jf^tely £^eeing with the statement of the Greek historian. This fact we must dispute, for, although the route of the Mont Cenis deviateii at ferst very titde from that on which our own system is founded^ ^et the? immediate descerit upon Turiri shortens the total dii^nce very considerably, and it will be impossible to m^ke up 150 miles from the first ascent t)f th^ Alps to tiie descent at Susa, withcmt vety ftiuch overtating the tetual distances, and falling into the error of M. Larauza, who adopts the measurement of the modem post-road, which for the sake of easy ascent and descend has been very materially lengthened. We iriust abo stre- nuously oppose the Argument on which the Ger- man Professor seems so mainly to insist, as favouring his views of the subject, namely, that ♦ Ge6gr. t. ix. P. 1. p. 30. MONT CfeNId DISCUSSED. 1*73 the plains of Italy can be seen from the summit eif Mont Cenisy and from thence only.* It is most certain that be has been misinformed on this point, though it has also been mamtained by olliers. Even de Saussure, who ascended the Roche Michel far above the Hospice of the Ofande Croix, could not perceive the plains from ilktl elevated smnmit. The Roche Mdon is the only point in this vicinity from whence it is possible to navfe a vieW of Piedmont ; btit it is not dccessibld from the Qrande Croix or any pdint in the road of the Mont Cenis. Upon the whole, it is evident, ihat Professor Mamtiart has not gone Very deep into the question, mdre especialty, we may add, since he does not appear to have been acquainted with Mr. De Luc's work or with our difi»ai:ation. But the most strenuous and elaborate advocate for the Mont Cenis is a French writer named La- rauza, whose dissertation on the subject has been already noticed. It is entitled " Histoire Critique du Passive des Alpes par Annibal, d^ms laquelle on determine la route qu'il suivit depois les fron- tieres d'Espagne jusqu'a Turin, par feu M. J. L. Larauza, anden Maitre de Conferences a FEcdie Normale.** It was published after the author's death, in 1826. This being a professed work on the question which it is the object of this disser- tation to discuss, and written by a maq of learn- * Greogr. t. ix. P. 1. p. 41. 176 EXAMINATION OF THE ing, who had hunself crossed the Alps, as he pro- fesses, on all the principal pomts ccmnected with the inquiry,* it seemed necessary to examine, in this place, the arguments on which he grounds his theory, and to prove their inadequacy to sustam the conclusion that he is anxious to estab- lish. M. Larauza's system being in conformity with that which M. De Luc and ourselves main- tain, up to the arrival of Hannibal at the jimction of the Isere and Rhone, it will be needless to make any remarks on the previous part of his dissertation. But from this point we separate, and therefore it seems proper to inquire what reasons induced the learned French writer to abandon the route evidently marked out by Poly- bius, m order to foUow a different one from that which we, under his guidance, have not hesitated to adopt. M. Larauza conceives, as M. Letronne did before him, that Hannibal did not enter the Island with his whole army, but that having, by means of a strong detachment, effected the object he had in view of supporting the claims of the elder prince of the Allobroges, he proceeded on his march along the left bank of the Isere to * O. 1. p. 4. a careful perusal^ however^ of the work^ leads us to doubt the. accuracy of this assertion. It seems ahnost certain that he never examined the Little St Bernard on the Savoy aide. ARjGUMENTS of M. LARAU2A. 177 Gre^dble, and so up the valley of the Gresivau- dan to the junction of the Isere and the Arc, when, by ascending the latter stream, he arrived finally at the foot of Mont Cenis, M. Larauza's principal reason for thus deviating from the more obvious route by Vienne and Chambery, appears to have been the hope of reconciling by this means the narratives of Polybius and Livy: but few critics will be disposed to agree in his conjee* tures and the boldness with which he overturns all the notioi^ hitherto entertained on the subject of the ancient gec^aphy of Gaul. It is thus that he contends, in defiance of all ancient and modem authorities, and therefore solely because it suits bis hypothesis to do so, that the AUobroges, whom Polybius speaks of as lying in Hannibal's route, did not at that period occupy the position which CsBsar, Cicero, Slxabo, and numerous other writers, concur in assigning to them. M. Larauza does not appear to adduce even the shadow of a reason for this bold assertion, though the omts prO" handi rests so evidentiy with his side of the question. Polybius plainly teUs us that tiie Island was a very fertile and wdl-inhabited country ; and if it was not tiien occupied by the AUobroges, who were no small and obscure tribe whose territory could with difficulty be traced on the map, we have a right to be told by what other Gallic clan it was tiien held. j4Ilobroges jam inde n/uUd GaUicd gente N 1^78 ERRORS IN M. LARAUZA^IJ opihus autjbmd inferior^ says Livy ; and this state- ment, together with what D'Anville has collected on the subject,* precludes the necessity of any further reply to M, Larauza on that point. . This gentleman, however, still prepossessed in fiivour of his plan of reconciling Livy and Polybius, goes on to show with the same facility that the Tricastini might, in the days of Hannibal, have occupied the banks of the Isere ; the Vocontii, those of the Drac ; and the Tricorii, the valley oS the Gresivaudan. The Druentia of the Latin historian, to whose charge all the mistakes are laid, turns out also to be the Drac, But Monsieur Larauza seems to forget, tihat in Livy the three people above-named occur in the march before the Druentia ; whereas, according to his arrangement, the Tricorii would present themselves after the passage of that river. But there is another very material objection to the route he has traced out for the Carthaginian army. It is simply this : that there is no road whatever on the left bank of the Isere, and such is the nature o£ the coimtry, that there never could have existed any route in that direo- ticm: this we have already stated in our examination of Monsieur Letronne's theory. Let us, however, suppose with Monsieur Latouza, Hannibal and his troops arrived at the junctioa of the Isere and the Arc, and about to enter the vaBey of the latt» * Art. Allobroges. Anc. Gaule. GEOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT. 179 river, which wiU lead him to the foot of the Mont Cenis in the central chain. Where shall we now find the avajSoXi? riv "'AXTrfmv? Monsieur Larauza places the entrance or approach to the Alps at La Chavane and Maltaveme, between Montmeillan and Aiguebelle, and the defile in which Hannibal was attacked by the mountaineers, beyond the latter town ; but though the valley of the Arc is in some places narrow and confijied, it no where presents serious obstacles to the passage of an army, and least of all does it answer the de- scription of the position in which the Carthagi- nians were attacked by the Allobroges. In the historian's account, Hannibal encamps at the foot of the heights occupied by the enemy, irpoc tmc virt/o/SoXaic, and when they retire for the night to their town, he seizes on the defile with a select body of troops ; the barbarians in the morning return and attack the army, on its advance from the position which Hannibal had secured ; when the Carthaginians are exposed to great danger and loss from the nature of the ground, which was rugged, narrow, and precipitous : and it is further expressly stated, that many of the beasts of burden were car- ried down with their loads into the precipices.* But in advancing along the vallejr of the Arc from Aiguebelle to St. Jean de Maurienne, we fbd no h^hts to scale, no narrow and precipitous de- * See Translation of Polybius, c. 60. 180 ERRORS IN M. LARAUZa's files to descend ; in short, there is scarcely any thing to deserve the name of SiKx^wpiac or (rreva. Monsieur Larauza does not trouble himself much to examine what town it was which the Cartha- ginian general took after the action ; he only ob- serves, " entre Argentil et Eypierre on apperf oit " divers chemins jet^s fa et la dans ces montagnes, la ville prise par Annibal devait etre situee par 1^ au milieu des monts qu'on a sur la droite, peut-^tre du c6t6 ou sont aujourdhui les mines de St. Georges d'Urtiferes/** We are to remem- ber also that this town belonged to the Allobrdges according to Polybius, whereas we are now in the Maurienne which was occupied by the Medulli, or Garoceli ; Alpine nations quite distinct from that people ; nor is it probable that whoever were the inhabitants of this poor and sequestered valley, they would have ventured to attack the numerous and warlike forces of the Carthaginian general. But to proceed : after an uninterrupted march of four days from Eypierre, the troops encounter on the fifth, a deputation from another people, with apparent offers of amity and good will, but conceal- ing designs of a most treacherous and hostile nature. Here it may be observed how very im- probable it is, that the Maurienne should have supplied two distinct tribes in one continuous valley, and each rich and powerful enough to supply pro- * P. 103. GEOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT. 181 visions for the support of a numerous army, as well as a sujfficient number of warriors to venture on hostilities against such forces as those of Hannibal. Such difficulties, however, do not occur to the mind of Monsieur Larauza, who places the defile in which these new enemies assailed the army, between Termignon and Lanslebourg. He also discovers there a " Leucopetron,** composed of gypsum, the existence of which we shall not ques- tion } but we much doubt whether it would have presented such a favourable position for the pro- tection of Hannibal's main army as the author of the dissertation we are now exsimining supposes. Monsieur Larauza, who makes every circumstance described by the Greek and Roman historians coincide with his system, insists very much on the view of the Italian plains, which is to be dis. covered from the Mont Cenis, and he quotes Grosley and Lady Morgan, as great authorities on this point ; he does not affirm, however, that he enjoyed this view himself, but he was assured by the inhabitants of the mountain, that the plains could be seen fit)m a summit named Coma Rossa, belonging to the chain of the Petit Mont Cenis.* The fact may be as it was stated to Monsieur Larauza,t but if that gentleman had ascended the height himself to verify the information commu- ♦ P. 128. t De Saussure denies altogether the possibility of any such view. 182 ERRORS IN M. LARAUZA's nicated to him, it would have been far more satis- factory ; as it is, the question cannot be considered as settled ; but granting the &ct to be true, can we for a moment suppose, that in the situation to which Hannibal and his troops were then reduced, they would have the inclination or power to dimb the surrounding heights, then covered with snow, in order to obtain a view of the plains of Italy. We repeat what we have said before, the circum- stance related by Polybius must not be taken aa pied de la lettre, but in a general and somewhat figurative sense, more suited perhaps to the orator than the dry matter-of-fact historian. It has been certainly granted that no such prospect could in a literal sense be obtained frcmi the Little St. Ber- nard, but if it is pretended that Hannibal ascended the loftier simimits to see the fields of Cisalpine Gaul, stretched below his feet, we maintain that he could as easily do this from the Graian, as the Cottian Pass;, since the peaks of the Ruitor a»d Valaisan, which rise above the former, would furnish as boundless a prospect as those of Coma Rossa, or Roche Mek>n, belonging to the latter.* * The authors of the present dissertation are acquainted with but one pass in the Alps where the fact related of Han- nibal could be strictly realized. It is the Col of Monte Viso, which leads from the valley of the Guil in Dauphine to that of the Po in the ancient marquisate of Saluzzo^ passing close to the source of the latter celebrated river. Here the view is grand and J CALCULATION OF DISTANCES. 183 In the descent Monsieur Larauza supposes the accident of the road carried away for the length of three half stadia, to have happened a little beyond the plain of St. Nicholas, where the road is exposed to frequent avalanches, but the snow is never known to remam throughout the year. Our author, who is aware of this objection, avails himself in order to get rid of it, of Monsieur Letronne's con- jecture, which has akeady been noticed ; namely, by supposing that Polybius, or those who related the circumstance to him, may have made a mistake, having regarded as last year's snow, what really bad only &llen a few weeks previous to Hannibal's passage. Thus does the ingenious Frenchman, overcoming all diflSculties, finally bring the Car- thaginians to Susa, Rivoli, and the plains around Turin. We have yet one more remark on Monsieur Larauza's calculation of distances. In his measure- ments he has taken as his guide the post-book, which cannot certainly be considered as a &ir criterion of mensuration ; fiw: it is well known that in moimtainous countries, the distances are always overrated for the benefit of postmasters. Thus for instance, the post-book reckons three posts, or fifteen miles firom Lanslebourg to the stage on the stupendous beyond description ; but no one would^ on tihat account^ affirm that the Carthaginian chief had strayed with his fbirees to that lofty height to ^oy the tut distint and almost honndltts firaqpect wUch it presents. 184 GEITEEAL OBSERVATIONS ON summit of the pass, whereas the real distance is not ten miles, and of course the old road by which we ought to make our reckomng would be still shorter. It is evident, therefore, that a consider- able reduction must be made from Monsieur La- rauza's calculation, and instead of 148, which he reckons from Maltaverne to Rivoli, the real dis- tance by the map, after making every allowance for imevenness of ground, which, howeva:, is not considerable in the vaUey of the Arc, will be found to fall short of 120 Roman miles, which would leave a deficiency of SO miles from 150 miles, or 1200 stadia, reckoned by Polybius from the foot of the Alps to the plains of Italy. Havmg now sufficiently examined the arguments on which Monsieur Larauza grounds his particular theory, we may conclude by ofiering some general observations on the hypothesis which would regard the Mont Cenis as the pass of Hannibal. It has been already stated in the introductory remarks on the early history of the Alps in Chapter I. that no mention whatever is made of that mountain as a passage frequented by the Romans, nor has it ever been proved that it was crossed by the armies of any nation before the time of Charlemagne, when the name of Mons Cinisius first appears in history. This must alone afford the strongest presumption that it was not Hannibal's route. Monsieur La- rauza i^ddeavours, indeed, to sdiew fix)m Albanis Beaumont, that there were Rcnnan ways in the THE PASSAGE OF THE MONT CENIS. 185 Maumnne, but that writer, who, by the way, is of very doubtful authority in matters of antiquity, asserts only that there was a road established over the Col de la Roue, which he says, was called Mons Rudus. This, however, would prove nothing with respect to the Mont Cenis, for the Col de la Roue furnishes an immediate commu- nication with Italy by the Col de Sestrieres, and, therefore, would be a more desirable {mssage for the Romans ; its being frequented therefore would be rather a proof that the Mont Cenis was not. Segusio or Suze was the capital of Cottius, and as long as he was hostile, it is not to be supposed that the Romans would make a road through the centre of his dominions. It is for this reason that, till he had been conciliated by Augustus, they always crossed the Col de Sestrieres and the Mont Genevre. There is an obscure passage in Strabo, in which that geographer, speaking of the moun- tains situated in the country of the Medulli, who are supposed to be the inhabitants of the Mau- rienne, says they contained a lake from which the Druentia, and the Doria of the Salassi derived their source, and we notice it, because Monsieur Larauza brings it forward to prove, that the lake is that of the Mont Cenis, and consequently that the moimtain was frequented by the Romans in the geogr^her's time ; but allowing that the citation does refer to the small lake on the summit of the Mont Cenk which may reasonably be doubted, it 186 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON undoubtedly proves from the great &ncoT into which Strabo has fallen, mth respect to the two rivers he has named, that he had heard a very confused and unperfect account of this part of the Alps, and consequently that the Cenis could not at that p^od be a well frequented pass, least of all could it be the Saltus Taurinus of Polybius and - Livy. It is also highly improbable that Hannibal should have selected this passage for crossing into Italy, from the great difficulties it would present before it was rendered accessible for carriages, especially on the Italian side, where the descent was most abrupt and precipitous previous to the improvements which were eflFected by order of Buonaparte. Besides the Maurienne is so poor a coimtry, that the Carthaginian would have had the greatest difficulty in procuring the necessary sup^ plies during a march of nine days, which is the period allowed by the historians from the entrance to the summit of the Alps : and yet it appears that Aey were abuiukntly furnished with provisions by the inhabitants of the country. All which objec- tiot^ suffici^itly demonstrate that it was not by this route that Hannibal carried his army into the plains of Italy. Monsieur Larau^a's work, though ccMOh taining some very bold and unauthcnized assertions;^ is nevertheless written with great temper, and in 8 tone winch makes us r^et his early deaths whkh took pbu^ befere the publication of his work THE PASSAGE OF THE MONT CENIS. 187 He has sedzed with great acuteness some weak points in M. De Luc's work, but as he only ccMi- sulted the first edition of that author, much of the weight of his argument has been destroyed by the corrections which M. De Luc has subsequently in- troduced. M. Larauza's reasons for considering the Taurinus Saltus as the road from the Mont Cenis, instead of, as imiversally admitted, that from the Mont Genevre, we leave to be disputed by the advocates for the latter passage; but we cannot help entering our protest against the manner in which he gets rid of the difficulty that is presented by the words of Polybius B. 3. C. 56. Karyps TokfitifMg €ic Tci TTtpi Tov TlaSov ircSta, Koi to rHiv 'laofi^pfov e0i;oc. He contends, that instead of the generally received translations of these words, " He descended boldly into the plains of the Po, and the country of the Insubrians^'^ we ooght to read towards the plains, &c. ^* vers le pays des " Insubres,'* by which alteration he conceives, that * the text will admit of Hannibal's attacking the city of Turin and capturing it, befote he fiiarched towards the plains of Lombardy. But even allow- ing, (which we do not,) that M. Larauza's trans- lation were accurate, a perusal of the whole pajssage in Pcdybius, will shew that he is in error, for in the d6th Chapter, the hktorian says, that the mdrch bemg completed m fifteen days, the army descended into the plains, and so competed the passage ; and it is not till the 60th< Chapter, after the whole nsU*^ 188 REMARKS OK rative of the inarch is concluded, that he proceeds to relate the circumstances of the capture of Turin, considering it evidently as an event subsequent to, and not, as M. Larauza would wish us to admit, previous to, the establishment of the army in the plains. Notwithstanding, however, the errors which it contains, M. Larauza*s work is worthy in many respects of an attentive perusal. It remains for us to say a few words on the opinion of Napoleon on this subject, as stated in his "Notes sur TOuvrage Intitule Considerations sur ?Art de la Guerre,** in the 2d vol. of his Melanges Historiques. In these notes he gives a very concise account of the road which he con- ceives Hannibal to have taken, and which is as follows : — he crossed the Rhone a Utde below Orange, and in four days reached either the con- fluence of the Rhone and the Isere, or that of the Drac and the Isere, settled the afiairs of the two brothers, and then, after six days march, arrived, on the former supposition, at Montmeillan, and from thence, in nine days, at Susa, by the passage of the Mount Cenis ; or, in the latter case, if he arrived at Grenoble at the end of the four days, he would reach St. Jean de Maurienne in six days, and Susa in nine days more i from Susa he marched upon Turin, and after the capture of that city he advanced to Milan. The reasoning by which Napoleon suppc»i:s his hypothesis, is principally founded on what the ._J napoleon's hypothesis. 189 French call "la raison de la Guerre,^ that is, Hannibal did this because, as a military man, he ought to have done it : and if we were discussing prospective operations, there is no doubt that the opinion of so great a general as Napoleon would be almost conclusive ; but in reasoning upon the past, the elements of the discussion are as open to civil as to military writers, and the former arie quite as capable of conducting an argument logically as the latter. Napoleon has been guilty of several inaccuracies in his statement, and his argument is conducted in that decided manner which hesus down all opposition, and which supposes, that whatever he says must be right. He asserts, that both Polybius and Livy state, that the army arrived, in the first instance, at Turin, and he loses sight altogether of the detailed narration of Polybius. The author upon whose work he is commenting, adopts the passage of the Little St. Bernard, which Napoleon refuses to believe, because Hannibal must have been early acquainted with the retreat of the Romans towards their fleets and would not, in that case, have marched further north. The explanation of all this may be found in Napoleon's own words, " La marche d'Annibal depuis Collioure jusqu'a Turin a it6 toute simple, elle a 6t6 celle d*un voyageur ; il a pris la route la plus courte.** Hardly so, since the road by the Mont Genevre was shorter than that by the Mont Cenis, as he himself allows, a few pages before. 190 REMARKS ON In a word, if we had no historical details to guide us, Napoleon would probably be right; but as we profess to be guided by those details, and as from his omitting to notice the greater part of them, he appears either to have been ignorant of them, or to have been unable to make them agree with his hypothesis, we must come to the conclusion, that what he says rests upon no proof, and is to be merely considered as the opinion of a great general upon an hypothetical case. It should seem too, that he was unacquainted with any of the arguments in &vour of the passage of the Little St. Bernard, as he alludes to none, and satisfies him- self with a simple contradiction of the author upon whom he is commenting, who, on his part, gives no reasons whatever for his opinion, and who by carrying, as he does, the army to Lyons, very naturally induced Napoleon to suspect his authority upon other points. Having thus gone through the various hypo- theses erf those writers who have maintained that the Carthaginian army marched by the Mont Genevre, the Mont Cenis, or the Great St. Bernard, it has, we trust, been shewn that none of these roads can be made to agree with the plaiq text of Polybius ; and if we lay the Greek author aside, and, with the followers of Livy, take the Latin one alone for our guide, how does it happen diat among the host of writers upon this sttl^ect, no two of them agree upon the road napoleon's hypothesis. 191 which the army took m order to reach the Mont Genevre. This fact alone would be sufficient to throw great doubt and suspicion upon the account given by livy, as, if he had expressed himself with tolerable clearness, these variations could hardly have occurred. Perhaps, however, Livy has been unfortimate in his supporters, for they have generally beai dther scholars or military men; the former of whom have remained at home in their closets, and have contented them- selves with marching on their maps, without any real knowledge of the actual state of the country, and without appearing to be aware that a large army, encumbered with baggage, cannot pass, like an individual, ov^ pathless moimtains and heists almost inaccessiUe, and still less through countries totally . incapable of affording them subsistence ; but that, on the con- trary, a long march, through a difficult country, and under an able general, is always planned beforehand, and not left to accident; that the easiest roads are fixed upon ; and that if maga- zines cannot be provided beforehand, the line (rf march is conducted, as much as possible, through a country where the population is bige enough, and where the fatuity and culti- vation are sufficiait to ensure subsistence for the troops. Can it be reasonaHy supposed that a general, endowed with the talents of HMtnibal, would engage himself and forty thou^ 192 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON sand men, upon whom not only his own reputa* tion, but the safety, and even the existence of his country depended, in a long chain of moun- tains, of which he could personally know neither the extent nor the resources, without having long before fixed upon his plan of operations ? And could he, as some authors have imagined, have trusted blindly to his good fortune to ex- tricate him from defiles which he would in that case have rashly entered, without knowing to what place they led, or whether there was any issue at aU firom them ? The most rational and easy way to penetrate through a very extended chain of mountains, is to trace the rivers which flow from them up to their sources, for sub- sistence and population are generaUy to be found on their banks, and the road is usually more easy, and the ascent more gradual; and accordingly, in the road which we have pro- posed, we have only to pass over two moun- tains, the Mont du Chat and the Little St. Bernard; while to eflFect a commimication be- tween the Isere and the Durance, chains of mountains are to be crossed, in many places of nearly as great a height as the Little St. Bernard itself, and a country is to be traversed, where the inhabitants are so poor as to be unable to do more than subsist themselves. It is impossible for a writer totally unacquainted with the Alps, been supposed by some writers^ that Hannibal must have gone to Balbotet on the Col de Fenes- trelles^ because that is the only place from whence the Alps are visible ; but Balbotet^ which is close to Fenestrelles^ is so near to the plains around the Po^ that it would not require a march of three days to reach them^ besides which^ it cannot by any possibility be made out to be the summit of the Alps. THE WHOLE QUESTION. 197 best suited for the subsistence of his army : and in these two points, the latter of which is always kept in view by Polybius, the valleys of the Isere and of Aoste are eminently superior to all the others of the Alps ; so much so, that even at the present moment, if time were not an object, and if the im- proved means of transporting subsistence, which modem armies enjoy, were put aside, an army might cross the Alps with greater general facility, and with much less individual suffering, by this passage than by any other. The only two parts of the road that are bad, are the Mont du Chat and the Little St. Bernard itself; and a little labour would put these two places into very good order. In addition to our general agreement with our author, this theory is supported by a great number of facts, which though when taken singly they may appear unimportant, are yet, collec- tively, of great strength ; such as the silver tablet, the imiversal tradition of the inhabitants, the Roche Blanche, and others of that nature. It is also consistent with itself, which is a quality that must be denied to many others ; and if we may judge by the attack made on it by M. Letronne and others, it is not op^n to any very powerful objections. The only important point upon which we differ from Polybius, is, as we have already stated, the view fr(Mn the summit of the passage. There is a 198 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON second, but of minor importance, viz* the matrch through the plains from Vienne, instead of follow- ing exactly the course of the Rhone by Lyons to the first ascent of the Alps. There is also a third point which may admit of discu^ion, which is the passage in Strabo already alluded to, in which it is stated, that Hannibal passed by the Saltus Taurinus. We hav^ we think, shewn with respect to the first of these difficulties, that it applies equally to all the other passages ; rather less so perhaps to the Mont Cenis than to the Mont Genevre, but still so much so, as to make the assertion of Poly- bius, if taken literally, quite contrary to the fact* The statement of M. Larauza, as to the view from the Coma Rossa, is positively contradicted by De Saussure, in his description of the passage of the Mont Genis, in which he proves to demonstration, by an^es taken on the spot, that any view of the plains of Italy, even from the points of the Coma Rossa, would be completely intercepted owing to the position and the superior height of the Roche Melon, and the mountains to the S. £• As to any view from the plain itself, this is totally out of the question. Since then this difficulty is common to all the passages, we may at once set it aside as not bearing upon our hypothesis with greater weight than the others. As to the second point, respecting the march along the Rhone^ we have shewn, that Polybius, in his description of the Island, considered that river as flowing in a straight THE WHOLE QUESTION. 199 course from the point where it touched upon the Alps, to its confluence with the Isere, neglecting or being ignorant of the angle which it forms at Lyons. This course we adopt, and by fulfilling the first and the final term of the problem, we do all that can be reasonably required of us, consistently with the text of our author ; and the difficulty, such as it is, can be got rid of in no other way : for even if we admit that " the river,^' may be converted from the Rhone to the Isere, as the opponents of our theory would have it, we are not at all more ad-» vanced, since the left bank of that river is now and always has been altogether impracticable for the march of an army, and the right or north bank waa equally so at the time of Hannibal's passage, though this latter fact is of no importance, because all the supporters of the march up the Isere proceed on the supposition of the army taking that road in consequence of the difficulty of crossing the river j besides which nothmg would be gained in pomt of agreement of distances with Polybius, even by a march up the Isere, as the road from the con- fluence of the two rivers to Grenoble, where we must place the entrance of the Alps, differs more from the 100 miles of Polybius, than a march con# ducted exactly along the banks of the Rhone to Lyons and St. Sorlin would do. As to the third point, it has already been sufficiently discussed, and the argument seems conclusive against it, that we have Polybius himself stating the descent among the SOO ' CONCLUDING REliARKS ON Insubrians, while we have Strabo at second hsoid, asserting the passage by the Saltns Taurinns ; but as the two passages are mconsistent with each other, we are bound to follow the text of the original author. Having thus disposed of our own weak points, we may add a few remarks upon those of our ad- versaries, or rather, upon those of M. De Luc, for none of the opponents of that gentleman appear to have met with this dissertation, and many of their objections to M. De Luc's first edition have been entirely removed in his second, in which he has adopted almost all the amendments that we had reconunended : and this circumstance must be careftdly kept in mind by the readers of the works alluded to. The first and strongest objection to all these theories, is, the impossibility of reconcil- ing than with Polybius, not only generally as to the character of the road, but particularly as to the distances laid down by him, and especisally as to the descent among the Insubrians. This last. difficulty seems insurmountable; but if we add to this the impossibility of subsisting an im- moise army in the coimtries which they would traverse, as well as the difficulty of carrying it through such roads as they would endeavour to follow, we must remain convinced that the loi^est way is the easiest; and no readers will be so convinced of this truth as those who have thaod- sdves explored the different passives ; and it is to THE WHOLE QUESTION. 201 such readers that we appeal with the fullest confi- dence. We may add, in justice to ourselves, that we have endeavoured to discuss the question with the most perfect fairness, not weighing improperly upon the points which made in our favour, nor, on the other hand, suppressing those which might tell against us. To those who, thinking for themselves, wish to form their own opinion upon this subject unbiassed by that of others, we should recommend a diligent and exact study of Polybius, and, after that, a comparison of all the different hypotheses with the text of that author ; and we must look upon Livy in this case not as an historian only, but as one of the supporters of a particular theory, for he himself allows that the question was doubtful and much debated in his own time ; so that his assertions axe no more to be taken for granted than those of more modem writers upon the subject. If this plan be adopted, it appears to us that the passage by the Little St. Bernard will be found to be more consonant to the text of Polybius, asad attended with fewer difficulties than that by any other of the known passes of the Alps. It is impossible to conclude this dissertation without again expressing our obligations to M. De Luc. It is to him that the theory of General Melville owes all its development; and it was most fortunate for the literary reputation of the General, that he communicated his notes to 909 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON M. De* L» as well as to Mn Whitaker, who ap-* pears to have been totally unaware of the value of the treasure confided to him. To all who may feel interested in this question, we most earnestly recommend the perusal of M» De Luc*s work ; and we are most happy in being able once more to bear testimony to the uniform good &ith, dili* gence, accuracy, and talent, displayed in his re- marks. Should the arguments brought forward by that gentleman, and by ourselves, feil in pro- ducing conviction, we should advise an inspection of the ground itself, in a visit to the places them- selves ; as, independently of the great interest attached to the question which has been here dis- cussed, this passage is decidedly the most beautiful of aU. The vaUies of Aoste and of the Isere are superior to aU others in Alpine scenery, and their beauty alone wiU amply repay the trouble of visiting them. Although these vallies are not much frequented by strangers, yet their great population, and the constant intercourse they maintain with each other, wiU always ^isure to the traveller the means of transporting him- self with ease from place to place. It is easy to go from Geneva to Scez, at the foot of the Little St. Bernard, in three days ; and when once there, the two vaUies may be thoroughly examined in a week. To those, however, who are unable or unwilling to undertake this journey. THE WHOLE QUESTION. 203 we trust that the arguments brought forward in ihe preceding pages in favour of the passage by the Little St. Bernard, will appear sufficiently con- clusive to set the question fairly, if not finally, at rest ; and if so, we feel we cannot better conclude this dissertation than by referring all the honour of the discovery to General Melville, in the words of M. De Luc, whose modesty on this occasion, and whose uniform delicacy and unwillingness to bring forward his own merits, deserve the highest praise. " Si ce fiddle et judicieux historien'* (speak- ing of Polybius,) " revenoit au monde, et qu'il " vit combien toutes les peines qu'il s'est don- " n^es pour ne laisser rien d'incertain sur la " route d'Annibal, ont et6 inutiles, il demande- " roit k quoi servent tons les progres que les modemes ont faits dans la geographic. II seroit surpris qu'au milieu de ces progres et avec les donnfees qu'il foumissoit pour ne pas se tromper, on fut tomb6 dans un si grand " nombre d'erreurs ; il verroit que Texactitude et la justesse d'esprit sont des qualit^s aussi rares k present qu'elles F6toient de son temps ; il seroit ^tonn^ qu'un Ecossois, (le G6n6ral Melville,) un habitant de la Cal6donie, de ce pays le plus recul6 des pays soumis par les Romains, eut r^solu cette question si sou- vent agitee sans succes, question que les ha- it 204 CONCLUSION. " bitans des Alpes, et des pays qui sont k leur ** pied, que les militaires meme qui ont fait la " guerre dans ces pays, avoient fet6 hors d'fetat *• de r&oudre.*' APPENDIX. PoLYBiTTS, Book iii« Chap. 34. Hai^Kibal having taken every precaution for the security of Africa and Spain^ now awaited and expected the arrival oi those persons who had been seaat to him by the Gauls ; for he had inade exact inquiries with req)ect to the fertility of the country at the foot of the Alps, and near the Po; the niunber of its inhabitants, and their courage in war ; but, above all, he had ascertained their hatred against the Romans from the former war, of which we gave an account in the preceding book, in order to make our readers better acquainted with the events now to be related. Hannibal therefore entertained much hope fnnn this circumstance, and sent diligently to the chiefs of the Oauls, both those who dwdt on the other side of the Alps^ and those who inhabited these mountains themselves; making large offers and promises : for he concdved that he should alone be able to raise a war in Italy against the Romans, by succeeding in passing the difficult jdaces that intervened, and arriving in the country above mentioned, and obtaining the assistance and co-operation of the Oauls in his friture projects. 206 APPENDIX. These emissaries having therefore arrived, and having announced the good will and expectation of the Gauls, and declared that the passage of the Alps was indeed very laborious and difficult, but not at all impossible, Hannibal drew together his troops from their winter quarters at the commencement of spring. News had also lately arrived from Carthage, which much elated him, and inspired him with confidence in the good will of his fellow citizens ; so that he now openly exhorted his troops to prepare for a war with the Romans, laying before them in what manner the Romans had ven- tured to ask that he and all the principal officers of the army should be given up to them : he explained to them also liie fertility of the country in whidi diey would arrive, and the good will and friendship "ci the Gauls towards them. Upon the army^s testifying their eagerness and zeai, he praised their spirit, and having fixed a day for Ms departure, broke up the assembly. Pabt of Chap. 39* Distances. From the pillars c^ Hercules to the Pyrenees there are 8000 stadia; from ^e pillars to Carthagena, whence Hannibal set out, the distance is 3000 stadia ; from thence to the river Ebro, there are 2600 stadia ; from the Ebro to Emporium, 1600 ; and also from thence to the passage of the Rhone, there are 1600 stadia : for all these distances have been measured in steps, and divided at intervals of eight stadia acouratdy by the Romans. From the pas- sage of the Rhone, for those who proceed along the river as if towards its source, to the ascent of the Alps on the way to Italy, tiiere are 1400 stadia. There remains the passage of these mountains, a distance of about 1900 stadia, which having crossed, Hannibal would reach those plains of Italy that are adjacent to the Po. APPENDIX. 207 Chap. 42. Hannibal having reached the Rhone, immediately pre- pared to effect a passage where the river was one entire stream, being then encamped about four days journey from the sea ; and having by every means conciliated the people who inhabited the banks of the river, he purchased from them all thdr canoes and boats in sufiBciait quantity for his purpose : f(»: these people who dwell on the Rhone are much in the habit oi trading to the sea ; he besides received from them a quantity of timber for ccmstructing canoes ; so that in two days he had got together a vast supply of vessels to carry over the army ; each one striving to stand m no need of his neighbour, but to put in himself all hope of effecting a passage. Meanwhile a numerous body of barbarians was collected exi the opposite bank, to prevent the passage of the Car&aginians, upon tiie sight of whom, Hannibal, judg- ing that in his presoit situation it was not possiUe for him to cross the river by force in the face of so numerous a body of enemies, nor to remain there, lest he should be attacked on all sides, at the approach of the third night, sant off a detachment of his army, with natives as guides, and under the orders of Hanno, the son of Bomilcar These having marched up the river for 200 stadia, came to a place where it is divided by an island ; there they halted, and having cut down timber from a neighbouring forest, they partly used it in constructing boats, and partly fastened it together for rafts, of which th^ soon made a sufficient number for their present pinrpose ; on these they then crossed over without any (^position, and having taken iqp a strcmg position, they waited there that day to rest frooi liieir fatigues, and also lo be ready to execute those 208 APPENDIX. orders which should be issued to them. Hannibal also did the same with the remainder of his army ; his greatest difficulty being how to carry over his elephants, of which he had thirty-seven. Chap. 43. At the approach of the fifth night, those troops who had crossed over at day-break, began their march along the river against those barbarians who w^re opposed to Han- nibal. The latter having his forces now prepared, pto* ceeded to carry them across the river ; having filled the largar vessels with the cavalry armed with targets, and the canoes with Ught infantry. The larger vessels were placed higher up and along the stream, and below them the smaller boats; that the force of the current might be broken by the former, and so render the passage of the canoes more secure. It had been devised also, to draw the horses as they swam from the stems of the larger vessels, one man being able to manage three or four on each side of the vessel, by means of ropes, so that a great body of horse wa« carried over in the very first crossing. But the barbarians, seeing the attempt made by their, enemies, hurried out of their intrenchments in a scattered and tumultuous manner, persuaded that they could easily prevent the passage of the Carthaginians. But Hannibal, as soon as he saw on the opposite side his troops now ad- vancing, and signifying their approach by smoke, as had been agreed upon, gave orders for the whole army to- embark, and for those who were appcanted to the larger vessels, to force their passage across the stream. This being speedily executed, aiftl those who were in the larger boats vying with each other in loud cries, and struggling against the rapidity of the stream ; and both armies stand- 209 210 APPENDIX. (urmy, by means of an interpreter, what luul been determined upoa by them. Among the circumstances calculated to inspire them with confidence, these were the jHrindpal : first, the pre- fi^ice of those men who incited them to the war, and undertook to assist them against the Romans ; and next, the promise which they made of conducting them through places, in which they would lack nothing, and at the same time reach Italy speedily and with safety, was most per- suasiye ; as well as the account they gave of the fertility and extent of the country into which they were to arriye, and the zeal of its inhabitants, who would assist them in their battles with the Romans. The Gauls having made this statement, retired. Thai Hannibal himself came forward, and began first by re- minding his troops of their former achievements; in which, thou^ often engaged in difficult and arduous enterprises, they had never once failed, in consequence of their having followed his advice and direction. He then exhorted them to be confident also in this undertaking, seeing that they had already accomplished the most important part of their task, since they had effected the passage of the river, and had behdd with their own eyes the zeal and good will of ih&r allies ; wherefore he conceived that they ought to have no anxiety with respect to the details of their operations, as that would be his concern ; but by their obedience to his commands to shew their worth, and act consistently wkk their former exploits. The troops having testified by their acclamations great ceal and alacrity, he praised their s[»rit, and having oWeted vows to the Gods in behalf of all, he dismissed them, with orders to r^esh themselves, and to get ready with all diligadce, as the departure would tfike place mi the morrow. 212 APPENDIX. they secured also that side which was against the stream, by cables from the land fastened to some trees which grew on the bank, in order that they might not be forced away by the strength of the current Having made this raft in the form of a bridge about two himdred feet in length, they added to the end of it two other larger floats very firmly joined together, but fastened to the rest in such a manner, that the cables by which they were held might easily be cut asunder. They fixed also many rc^pes to these, by means of which the boats that were to tow th^n across might keep them from being carried down the stream ; and thus resisting the current, convey the elephants on them to the other side. They next spread a great quantity of earth upon the rafts, laying it on till they had rendered them level, and similar in colour with the road on the land that led to the passage. The elephants being accustomed to obey the Indians till they approached the water, but never daring to venture in, they first led forward two female elephants along the rafts, when the rest pre- sently followed. Upon reaching the extreme rafts, the cables which fastened them to the rest were cut, and they were instantly towed by the boats towards the other side. At this, the elephants being thrown into great disorder, titfned every way, and rushed to every part of the raft. But being surrounded on all sides by water, 'their fears subsided, and they were constrained to remain where they stood. In this manner were the greater part of the elephants brought over, two rafts being thus continually fitted to the rest. Some, however, through fear, threw themselves into &e stream in the midst of the passage. The Indians who conducted these all perished ; but the beasts themselves escaped ; for owing to the strength and size of their, trunks thiey were able t6 raise these above the water, and breathe through them ; and thus discharging the water as it ett^ APPENDIX. 213 tered their mouUi, they held out, and for the most part walked across the river. Chap. VJ. The elephants having now been brought across, Han- nibal placed them and his cavalry in the rear, and set forward on his march along the river, proceeding from the sea in an easterly direction, as if he were marching towards the central parts of Europe. Now the Rhone takes its source above the Adriatic Gulph, inclining to the west, in that part of the Alps which stretches towards the north : it then flows towards the south-west, and falls into the Sardinian sea ; it runs for a considerable space through a valley, the north side of which is inhaUted by the Ardyes Celtae ;* but on the south it is bounded by the ridge of the Alps, which face the north. The chain here described separates the plains of the Po, concerning which we have already spoken at length, from the valley of the Rhone, beginning at Mar- seilles, and reaching to the extremity of the Adriatic Gulph ; and when Hannibal had crossed over these mountains from tb&£Ountry touching upon the Rhone, he entered into Italy. But some of those who have written an account of this passage, wishing to astonish their readers by marvellous descriptions of these places, are fallen unawares into two defects most contrary to all real history. They are com- pelled to give false accounts, and also to contradict them- selves ; for having presented Hannibal to our view as a general unequalled for his daring and foresight, they at the same time shew him to have been the most inconsiderate of * These are either the iEklui^ brought to such distress as must have ende^ ia their total destnxction. Sucb then ift the dilemmtft into which these writers hare confess* <^y faUen. GujLF, 48. For, in the first place, what general would appear so Toid of counsel or so diestitute of sense as Haimibal, if,, leading so great an army^ and. placing in it all his hope? of success, he had neither adieertaisied by what way or throttgh what coimtries he was- to proceed, nor,^ in shorty, where ov whith^ he was going. If^ finally, he should ap- pear to have attempt«iy not what was baisly practicaUey but absolutely the reverse; and yet when n>' gemesded^ however desperate his^ siifcuatioiiy woidd think of koding^his jbvees ioto ai country of which be had no previous koowu kdge, this is. the conduct wMch these writers. asccSbe to Haanibel, who then, entertained the full and undimioisiied) hope of sucoeeding m his enterprise. In Mke moraief , what they: relate with regard to the desert state of these plaoes^ their steepne» and cEfficulty of access^ equally caamekB IJbem. of falaehood* They indeed seem nerer to hove heard that the Gauls who live near the Rhone had more than oocev and.nnt long befove the passiEige eC Hannibal, crossed the Alps with numerous armies, had engaged widir APPENDIX. 215 tibe Romans, and assisted the Gauls who lire near the Po, as we have before shewn ; and besides, they are not aware that the Alps are inhabited by a numerous race of people ; but from thdr ignorance in these several matters^ they are* obliged to assert that some hero made his appearance anongst the Carthaginians, and pointed out the way to litem. In this circumstance they naturally follow the example of tragic writers, who, in their catastrophes, have tontinuaUy recourse to some god or machine, because they lay down at first plots which are contrary to trufh and iestmm. So these historians are compelled to make use of a similar expedient, and cause both heroes and gods to ap pear, after they have laid down in the beginning facts so impf obaUe aa^ so inconsistent with truth ; for ho^ is it |MDssiUe to adapt a reasonable end to so absurd a beginning. BiiC the truth is, Hannibal did not in anywise act as these writers acffii^m, but conducted his enterprise with consum- Hiate judgment ; lor he had accurately ascertained the ex- cellent nature a! the country in which he was to arrive, ttnd the hostile disposition of its inhabitants towards the Romans ; imd he had for guides and conductors through ihe diflcult passes that lay in the way, natives of th^ country, men who were to partake of the same hopes with himself. But I speak with confidence on this subject, b(^ ^ cause I have made inquiries from persons who lived at the time these transactions took place, and have visited th^ ground, and joumied besides through the Alps, for tAe putpose of inspecting these places and gaining some accu- rate information respecting them. Cra]^. 49. Meanwhile, however, Publius, the Roman general, coming up to the place where the Carthaginians had ckbssed tlie river, three days afbr they had broken up their 216 APPENDIX. camp, and finding the enemy gone, his surprise, as migfat be expected, was extreme, having felt assured that they would never attempt to pass into Italy by that way, on ac- count of the multitude and unsettled dispositiofi^the defiles', they w«re larged by that ei^eusistimce €a make an attack upon them during the mareh. Vfo& iM^ determiiui^ion they assailed the CarthaginiatQ^ dft seVa^ pdnt« at oiK$e^ and caiised AieoSr a sevef«> Ibss^ esj^ially ki horses and beasts of burdien ; ma m iauch indeed from the assailants, s» awimg, %& the nature of the gro«tnd ; twv buir aibo* precipitoiAs many of the beasts ^at were loadKid widi thtf baggage, from the kasi^ock ^A confuaon y»&m carri^ tdge^^ with i^^ toads* diiMim the precipi<^ : afidf tUs disc»d^ was cMefiy caused by the wounded horses^; tut sMie^ nendcared munanageable by the pab, fbU agahist APPENDIX. 219 the beasts of burthen ; others, rushing forwards and over- throwing every thing they encountered in so difficult a road, created the utmost confusion and alarm. Haimibal observing this,, and reflectiHg that even though Ihe troops should escape, the loss of the baggage nmst be attended with the ruin of the army, adrvaccs to tbeir aid widk the detiu;hment which had occupied the he^hti dmnng the night; as he made his attack from higher grouad, he destroyi^ many of the ememy, not, hofwever, widiout 0ui-* ISering eqaatly in rettma ; fmr the disorder o£ the marcb was mudi inccefiised by the conffict and damdur* of ibaae fresh troops. But when, however^ Ae gteater part of ^e Allotnt>ges^had perished in iAae eombatv^ and the rest had 1>een forced to fly for shelter tot thdr homes, iimny enlyy the remainder of the beasts of burtfaea and cwtralxy, wiljt great toil and difficulty, succeedecE xh. emerging from di^ pass. HanMbal having theiidrawm together aU the tnwpff he oo«dd cdleot after the engagement, proceed)^' to ussmrit tile town, from whence the enemy had made their attack,^ and finding it almost deserted, because the inhabitants had been aU induced to go fbrth in quest of booty,^ he easily became master of ft ; find from thence derived mgof important advantiages, bos appear as the citadel of Italy. : Pointing, out, therefore, "to his soldiers the plains ^acent to the Po, and reminding them of the friendly disposition of their inhabitants, the Gauls, towards them, mid shewing them the pk^e where Rome itself was situated, he in some degree revived their courage. On the morrow ihsy decamped, and began the descent, no long^ ^posed to the attack of any enemy, exc^ a few lurking ma- rauders ; but from the nature ci the ground, and die qsantity of faaow, their loss was scarce less than what they hid expericsiced during the accent. JPor the desert was not only narrow and Meep, but the MOW mderbig it impossible to distinguish where. ^diey placed their steps, whenerer they turned out of the proper track, tfa^y were inevitably lost in some precipice. Still, 224 APPENDIX. wedged in, both through their weight, and the firm naturcf of the old snow. Having, therefore, desisted from this attempt, Hannibal encamped near this narrow ledge, and having caused the snow to be cleared away, he set his army about propping up and reconstructing the road ; a task attended with great labour and difficulty. In the space of a day, however, sufficient progress was made to allow a passage for the beasts of burthen and horses ; when these were immediately led down to the plains which were free from snow, and sent to pasture. He then ordered the Numidians to proceed further in the repairs of the road, relieving eacji other during the work ; wh^i, after much labour and toil during three days, they succeeded in making the elephants pass, these animals being now almost worn out with famine ; for the summits and higher points of the Alps are entirely naked and destitute of vegetation, from bdng constantly covered with snow both winter and summer ; but the middle regions on both rides abound in wood and trees, and are altogether habitable. Chap. 56> Hannibal having now collected his whole force, de- scudded, and in three days more from the time that he had passed over the broken way, reached the plain, having lost many of his soldiers, as well from the attacks of the enemy, as in passing rivers, during the course of the march; many likewise in the precipices and defiles of the Alps ; and a still greater number of hc»:ses and beasts of burthen. Finally, having completed his journey in five months fit)m Carthagena, and spent fifteen days in crossing the Alps, he descended boldly into the plains that are near the Po, and the territory of the Insubrians, having saved of his in- &ntry not more than 12,000 Africans, and 8,000 Spaniards ; <^ his cavalry only 6,000; as he himself declares, in an^ i APPENDIX. 225 ax^coimt of the number of his force engraved on a column at Lacinium. Chap. 60* Hannibal havingnow entered Italy with the forces above mentioned, encamped at the foot of the Alps, and turned all his attention at first to recruit and refresh his army. For the troops had jiot only suffered extreme hardships from the difficulties of the way, both in the ascent and descent of the mountains, but they were besides reduced to the utmost distress, from the want of necessary provisions, and neglect of their persons, during their journey. Many, indeed, seemed to have lost all energy and courage from want and continued sufferings. For it was not easy to convey provisions necessary for the support of so many thousands through a country of so difficult an access, and those which they brought with them had been for the most part lost, together with the beasts that carried them. So that his army, which, after the passage of the Rhone, amounted to 38,000 foot, and more than 8,000 horse, was now reduced to nearly half that number, from the losses it had sustained in the passage of the mountains ; and these, from being exposed to such repeated sufferings, both in appearance and condition, were brought to a state more resembling that of wild beasts than human beings. Hannibal^s whole care was therefore directed to the best means of reviving the spirits of his troops, and restoring the men and horses to their former vigour and condition. When, therefore, his troops were sufficiently recovered from their fatigues, he first of all invited the Taiuiai, who dwell' at the foot of the Alps^ to enter into an alliance with him, they being then at war with the Insubrians, and but ill affected towards the Carthaginians : upon their refusal, he surrounded their chief city, and took it after a siege of 226 APPENDIX. three days, putting to the swoird all who had opposed him; by this measure he spread such terror among the neigh^ bouring Barbarians, that they all came immediately and submitted at discretion. Now the remainder of the Gauls who inhabited these plains were desirous, according to their first intention^ of joining the Carthaginians ; but the Roman legions having already passed through most of their country, and thus prevented them, they were forced to remain quiet ; some, indeed, were compelled to join the Romans. Seeing this, therefcnre, Hannibal judged that he ought, without loss of time, to move forward, and achieve some- thing, for the purpose of giving confidence to those who were desirous of making common cause with him. EXTRACT FKOM THE HISTOIBE D£ L^ACADEMIE DES IN- SCRIPTIONS, RELATING TO THE SILVER TABLET FOUND AT "PASSAGE^ IN DAUPHINY, AND NOW PRESERVED IN THE KING^S LIBRARY AT PARIS. En 1714, un fermier de la terre du Passage en Dau- phin^, Diocese de Vienne, faisant ses labours au lever du soleil, eut sa charrue accrochee par une gros6e pierre, dont r^ranlement rendit quelque son ; il employa le reste de la joum^ a Tenlever, et en ^tant venu k bout, il trouva dessous un grand bouclier d^argent, de vingt-sept pouces dediametre, etdu poids de quarante-trois marcs. M. Oal- lien de Ghabons, Seigneur du lieu et Ckmseiller au Parlement de Orenoble, ^toit heureusement alcnrs au chfiteau du Passage ; le fermier lui porta le soir m^me le bouclier, dont il fut si charm^, que sur-le-champ il lui APPENDIX. 227 donna quittance d^une ann^ enti^rede sa ferme, lui recom^ numdant seulaxient le secret de la decouverte et de la recompense ; ensuite il renf^rma pr^ieusement ce bouclier, qu^il appelloit une Table de Sacrifice, dans une armoire de la sacristie de sa chapelle, et Ton n^en eut connoissance qu^apres sa mort. Akxrs ses h^ritiers apprirent toute lliistcMre paar son livre de raison, ou il avoit 6crit que si jamais on se d^faisoit de cette antiquity, il falloit que ce fiit pour avoir en echange un fonds capable d^entretenir bon- nStement un chapelain au diateau du Passage; ils r^solurent de suivre cette vue ; ils envoyferent le bouclier, toujours appell^ Table de Sacrifice, k M. de Boze, pour saYoir s^il conviaidroit au Cabinet du Roi. Sa Majeste Tagrea; EUe Le fit payer le double de sa valeur intrins^que, et il fut plac6 i c6t6 de celui de Scipion. Ce second bouclier votif, qui est tres-aitier et tres-oon- 8ery6, est de la meme fcHme, c^est^^^-dire, exactement rood, 4-peu-{H:^s de la m£me grandeur et du meme poids que le precedent ; mais il n^est pas k beaucoup pr^s aussi charge de figures et d^omements. On y a seulement repr^sent^ au centre, un lion sous un palmi^, et au bas dans une espece d^exergue les membres 6pars de divers animaux, sur-tout de sangliers. De ce centre partent des rayons d^une ciselure simple et noble, qui s^elevant et s'^^largissant dans une juste proportion, viennent aboutir a la circonference de tout le bouclier, et forment en ce genre un tr^s-agr6able coup- d'ceU. « M. de Boze Tayant fait voir it TAcademie, on ne balanga pas k y reconnoitre un ouvrage Carthagincns ; le rapport de la gravure de ce bouclier avec celle des m6dailles de Carthage, Tauroit seul indiqu6, mais le lion et le palmier, sjrmboles ordinaires de cette ville fameuse, achevoient de le determiner. De \k les conjectures prenant leur essor, on alia jv^squ''k soup^onner que le bouclier pourroit bien avoir 228 APPENDIX. appartenu a Annibal, et etre une offirande qu*ii auroit faite apres son passage du Rhone k quelque divinit6 des en- virons comme k celle des Vocontiens, ^' Dea Vocontiorum," si cel^bre dans Thistoire, et dont on trouve un d grand nombre de monuments en Dauphin6. On observa que son Temple etoit pr^cisement dans le canton ou la d6couverte s^etoit faite, et que suivant Tancienne tradition du pays, la terre du Passage avoit retenu ce nom, du passage d^Annibal avec son arm6e, lorsqu^il la menoit en Italie. On ajouta que si les Grecs et les Romains avment coutume d'^offiir aux dieux, des boucliers votifs pour leur demander des succes, ou pour les en remercier, cet usage n^6toit pas moins (Hrdinaire aux Carthaginois, comme on Fa d^jk vu par Texemple d'Asdrubal frere d'Annibal, dans les d6pouilles de qui on trouva ce bouclier d'argent, du poids de cent trente-huit livres, qui Mt mis au Capitole. On remarqua encore que si le lion ^toit un des symboles de Carthage, il ^toit devenu par excellence celui d^Annibal, k qui on en avoit donn6 le sumom, et qu'Amilcar son pere avoit coutume de dire de ses enfans, que c^6toient des lions qu'il nourrissoit pour la destruction de Rome et de ses Allies. (Tom. ix- p. 155.) EXTRACT FROM THE THEATEUM SABAUDIiE. EELATINO TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONVENT ON THE LITTLE ST. BERNARD. NON satis fuit eximio Viro Dei, Bernardo, qua dixi- mus in Monte Jovis* fecisse, nisi id ipsum in supradicto » The Great St Bernard. APPENDIX. 229 monte qui ex Salassis in Centrones sive ex Augustensi Valle in Tarentasiensis ducit, praestitisset. Is cum Mons Columnse Jovis diceretur accepta denominatione a Mannore& Column^ cujus in summo eminebat Lapis Garbunculus seu Pyropus quern ' Jovis oculum dicebant, ut fert veterum traditio,* non modo dejectd colimm&, quod idem in Monte Jovis sequ^ prsestiterat, Dsemones Viatoribus similiter insidientes inde ejecit, verum etiam aliam Hospitalem domum, sub eorundem Regularium ordinis sui Canonicorum regimine, perpetuo ad viatores excipiendos inhabitandam, inibi sedificavit ; quae quia minoris molis est, minoreque Religiosorum numero habi- tatur, Minoris Sancti Bemardi, vulgo, " le Petit St. Ber- nard'^ apud Gallos, ^^ San Bernardo il piccolo*^ apud Italos, nomen obtinuit. ON THE DISTANCES FROM THE PYEENEES TO THE VILLAGE OF ST. MARTIN. It has not been thought necessary to insert a map of the road taken by the army from Ampurias to Nimes, as it appears from the d9th chapter of Polybius that he sup- poses them to have marched in the track of the great Roman road,-|- which formed the communication between those two places. It may, however, be satisfactory to give the Roman stations, and their distances from each other, as marked in the Antonine Itinerary. The distances are * This tradition of the eye still exists on the spot T D'Anville supposes this to have been the Via Dmnitia. See his Notice sur La Oaule^ art Formn Domitii. 930 APPENDIX. prm generally as correeted by D' Anville, nAce, without tlieae correctioiiSy they are in « which is certainly not consi- derable. The Roman road quitted the present post road at Boulon, and went to the eastward to Elne (lUiberis) and Roussillon (Ruscino), a town now destroyed, on the river Tet, a little bdow Perpignan. It then itgoined the great modem road, and went in the same direction till a few miles beyond Beziers, when it turned off to the E. to St. Thybery, on the river Herault, and proceeded in a straight line to Soustantion, which is about three miles to the N. E. of Montpellier. It crossed the Vidoiu-le above the bridge ol Lunel, by a bridge at Ambrussum> the re- mains of whidi are now called Pont Ambrois, tram thefice to Nimes. The distance from Emporium to Juncaria is APPENDIX. 2S1 not in the Itinerary, but we have stated it according to its actual amount. From the passage of the Rhone to the foot of the Alps, or from Roquemaure to St. Jean de Chevelu (Lavisco), there is a distance of 175 miles, according to Polybius. The Antonine Itinerary gives no road be- tween Valence and Orange ; but the Itinerarium Hiero- solymitanum gives thirty^ight miles from Arausione (Orange) to Acuno (Anconne), a small village a little above Montelimatt, and thirty-two miles from Acuno to Valentia (Valence) ; in all, seventy miles from Orange to Valence. The real distance is not quite so great. From Valentia we take up the Antonine Itinerary again, coming from Milan by the Mont Genevre, or Cottian Alps, to Vienne, where we fall in with the road from Milan by the Oraian Alps, or Little St. Bernard. From Orange to Valence . -70 To UrsoUs (St. Vallier ?) . . . .22 Vienna (Vienne) 26 , Bergusia (Bourgoin) .... 20 Augustum "(Aes^ (