52. The complete skeleton of an elephant was found on the Little St Bernard two centuries ago. It is mentioned by Saint-Simon in the preface to his HISTOIRE DE LA GUERRE DES ALPES. (This was the campaign of 1744, in which he himself took part, and his book came out in 1770.) He says, “On s’est encore plus attaché de nos jours à soutenir qu’Annibal a dû passer par le Petit St Bernard depuis qu’on assure qu’on a trouvé dans cette montagne tous les ossemens d’un éléphant ... dans un pays qu’on appelle dans plusieurs cartes La Grande Route des Romains.” But Hannibal was not the only person who used elephants. For instance, Suetonius mentions (NERO, 2) that Nero’s great-great-great-grandfather went riding about Provence on an elephant when he was there in 121 B.C.
53. The landslip that stopped the animals, did not stop the men: the infantry went on and reached the plain in three days’ march from there. Polybios reckons (iii. 53. 9, 54. 4, 55. 6, 56. 1) that Hannibal reached the summit on the ninth day, camped there for two days, that is, the tenth and eleventh, came to the landslip the next day, that is the twelfth, and reached the plain on the third day from there, that is, the fifteenth day: which agrees with his statement (iii. 56. 3) that Hannibal took fifteen days to cross the Alps. The cavalry were left behind to repair the track for the elephants, Polybios saying (iii. 55. 8) that it was repaired by the Numidians, which is his usual name for Carthaginian cavalry.
54. A landslip might occur on any pass, and almost every pass has places where the track is steep and narrow and running along a cliff, just as Polybios (iii. 54. 5–7) describes the track here. But there are exceptionally bad places just below the summits of the Col du Clapier and of the Col de la Traversette—the Clapier is also known as l’Escalier, the descent being as steep as a staircase for the first 4000 feet, and the Traversette takes its name from a tunnel built in 1480 to avoid a precipitous bit near the top. And both these summits command a wide view of the plain. From each of these two summits the distance to the plain is about 30 English (or 33 Roman) miles—measuring to Avigliana in the one case and to Saluzzo in the other—and this would fully occupy four days, as there was a landslip to be passed and in the earlier part of the descent there was the snow. Polybios says (iii. 54. 5, 55. 1–5) that the new autumn snow was lying loose on the old winter snow which now was frozen hard; and men and animals slipped and fell, when they trod through the new snow on to the icy surface of the old.
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55. From the summits of the other passes the distance to the plain is about 40 English miles for the Argentière, measuring to Borgo San Dalmazzo; about 45 for the Genèvre, to Avigliana; about 55 for the Simplon, to Arona; about 60 for the Great St Bernard, to Ivrea; and about 75 for the Little St Bernard, also to Ivrea. These 75 miles (more than 80 Roman miles) would not be marched in the four days; and even if the 55 or 60 could be marched in that time, there would be a difficulty about the total distance marched. Polybios makes it 2600 stades from the crossing of the Rhone to Italy, and he reckons 8 stades to the mile, thus arriving at a total of 325 Roman miles, or 300 English: see paragraphs 2, 3. Subtracting the 55 or 60, this leaves only 240 or 245 English miles from the crossing of the Rhone to the summits of the Great St Bernard and the Simplon, or roughly 100 and 150 miles too little. And to reach either of those passes, Hannibal would have to march along the lake of Geneva from one end to the other, a distance of 45 miles. Polybios says repeatedly (iii. 39. 9, 47. 1, 50. 1) that Hannibal marched along a river, but says nothing of his marching along a lake.
56. According to Livy, xxi. 38, most people thought (vulgo credere) that Hannibal had crossed the Great St Bernard. But this was not unreasonable if they thought that he was coming from Lyons, as Livy and Silius say: see paragraph 14. And if Polybios had not specified the distances, it might be argued that the tributary which he calls the Scôras really was the Saucona, or Saône; and that when he speaks of Hannibal’s marching along a river, he means the Rhone all through. But if Hannibal had got as far as that, he surely would have crossed the Simplon rather than the Great St Bernard, as the Simplon would bring him down into the territory of the Insubres, his allies against Rome.
57. Livy rejects the Little St Bernard as well as the Great on the ground that it would likewise bring Hannibal down into the territory of the Libici; and it cannot be the pass of which Polybios speaks, as the summit has no view towards the plain, and is too far away for Hannibal to reach the plain in four days’ march from there. But Livy (xxi. 38) quotes Cœlius as saying that Hannibal went that way. Cœlius was a contemporary of Polybios, though perhaps a younger man; and Cicero remarks (DE DIVINATIONE, i. 24) that Cœlius copied from the writings of Silenos, a Greek who was with Hannibal. That being so, Cœlius should be as trustworthy as Polybios himself, yet contradicts him here. Livy, however, may be quoting Cœlius quite correctly as saying that Hannibal crossed the Alps per Cremonis jugum—an expression that does not occur elsewhere—but may be wrong in thinking that Cœlius thereby meant the Little St Bernard. He may be making a mistake that Strabo made. There were two rivers called Duria in that part of Italy—Pliny, iii. 16 (20), 118, Durias duas—now distinguished as the Dora Riparia, which rises on the Mont Genèvre pass and joins the Po near Turin, and the Dora Baltea, which rises on the Little St Bernard pass, and joins the Po five-and-twenty miles below Turin. Strabo (iv. 6. 5) makes these two rivers into one, with the source of the Dora Riparia and the course of the Dora Baltea. Livy may have made the same mistake and fancied that Hannibal would go down the Dora Baltea into the territory of the Libici, when Cœlius really meant the pass at the source of the Dora Riparia.
58. There is also an ambiguity in the statement of Nepos (HANNIBAL, 3) that Hannibal crossed the Graian Alps. This normally would mean crossing by the Little St Bernard; but it might also mean crossing by the Mont Genèvre, as Ptolemy (iii. i. 35, 36) makes the Graian Alps include Briançon and Embrun. Tacitus (HISTORIÆ, ii. 66) speaks of a legion marching from Turin across the Graian Alps, clearly meaning the Genèvre or Cenis passes, as the Little St Bernard is not accessible from Turin.
59. Servius quotes Varro as mentioning five passes through the Alps, the coast-road, Hannibal’s road, Pompey’s road, Hasdrubal’s road, and the road through the Graian Alps; thus making Hasdrubal and Hannibal cross different passes, though other writers make them cross the same pass: see paragraph 62. Thus, if Servius quotes correctly, Varro seems to have assigned the Cenis route to Hasdrubal. This route, or the St Bernard routes, would suit an army coming from Lyons; and Hasdrubal most probably came from that direction. According to Appian (HISPANIA, 28) Hasdrubal came round the north-west corner of the Pyrenees—Hannibal came round the south-east corner and marched along the coast: see Polybios, iii. 39. 7, 8, 41. 7—and Hasdrubal must have kept a long way from the coast, as Livy (xxvii. 39) speaks of his meeting the Arverni, whose territory answered roughly to Auvergne.
60. Possibly, and I think probably, some of the ancients confused the routes of these two Carthaginian armies, and thus made Hannibal go to Lyons when in reality it was only Hasdrubal who went there. And such confusion might easily arise, as Hannibal’s march was celebrated, whilst Hasdrubal’s was forgotten or ignored: which is not surprising, as his march had no results. It was Trasimene and Cannæ and their other disasters that made the Romans remember Hannibal’s march so well, whereas they might nearly have forgotten it, if he had been defeated and killed at the Trebia, as Hasdrubal was at the Metaurus, immediately on entering Italy.