Hannibal Crosses the Alps

by Cecil Torr

25. Pompey crossed another pass. He wrote a letter to the Senate after he had gone to Spain—the letter has been preserved by Sallust, and is printed in most editions of his works—and in this letter Pompey says that he has made a new road across the Alps, taking another and more convenient route than Hannibal’s, iter aliud atque Hannibal, nobis opportunius. In mentioning the making of this road Appian says (DE BELLIS CIVILIBUS, i. 109) that it passed near the sources of the Rhone and the Po, which were not far apart. Strabo (iv. 6. 5) calls them the sources of two tributaries of the Rhone and the Po, namely, the Durance and the Dora; and this is enough to show that Pompey’s pass was Mont Genèvre.

26. This was in 76 B.C., therefore in Varro’s lifetime, but after Polybios was dead, and a few years before Strabo and Livy were born. As already mentioned in paragraph 5, Strabo says (iv. 1. 3) that the Roman road from Spain crossed the Rhone at Tarascon and bifurcated there, one branch going through Aix to Antibes on the Mediterranean coast, and the other going through Cavaillon and along the Durance to “the beginning of the ascent of the Alps,” 63 Roman miles from Tarascon, thence to Embrun, 99 miles further on, and thence through the Briançon district in 71 miles to Césanne, the first town in Italy. The road must thus have crossed the Alps by Mont Genèvre, and presumably was Pompey’s.

27. Strabo here speaks of “the beginning of the ascent of the Alps” as a definite point, and reckons distances from there along the Roman road. Polybios (iii. 39. 9, 10) likewise treats “the ascent of the Alps” as a definite point, and reckons distances from there in both directions along Hannibal’s line of march. Up to that point he reckons the distance along the river, iii. 39. 9; and he says that after marching along the river, Hannibal “began the ascent of the Alps,” iii. 50. 1. As he makes no further mention of the river, the inference is that Hannibal quitted the river at that point; and if Polybios put the point where Strabo puts it, this would mean that Hannibal turned off up the Verdon valley. In that case the actual “ascent” would not be on the Roman road, but on an older track diverging from it at the sixty-third milestone, the point which Strabo calls “the beginning of the ascent.”

28. If Hannibal went up the Verdon valley, he would be heading for a pass between Pompey’s and the coast-road; and this is in conformity with Varro’s statements. I imagine that the route would be from Mirabeau to Castellane and Colmars, thence to Barcelonnette and across the Col d’Argentière to Borgo San Dalmazzo near Cuneo. But the distance would exceed the 150 Roman miles (1200 stades) which Polybios has allotted to the march from the “ascent” to Italy. He computes it as 10 miles a day for 15 days, and there is no doubt about the 15 days, as he sets them out in detail: see paragraph 3. But the usual average could hardly be maintained in such wild country amongst hostile tribes, and the distance really covered may have been much less.

29. Polybios (iii. 39. 9, 50. 1) puts the ascent 175 Roman miles (1400 stades) from the crossing of the Rhone, and says that the last 100 of the 175 were marched in 10 days. The first 75 would answer to Strabo’s 63 from the crossing to the point he calls “the beginning of the ascent,” the difference being that Strabo is reckoning along the Roman road whereas Polybios would be reckoning along the river, and the Rhone and Durance make a bend between Tarascon and Cavaillon. The other 100 in Polybios would answer to Strabo’s 99 to Embrun by the road along the Durance from “the beginning of the ascent” near Mirabeau; and Polybios would thus be speaking of some place near Embrun when he says that Hannibal began the ascent after this march of 100 miles along the river.

30. Hannibal might have quitted the Durance at La Bréole, twelve miles below Embrun, gone up the Ubaye valley to Barcelonnette and across the Col d’Argentière to Borgo San Dalmazzo, a distance of about 80 Roman miles; or he might have quitted the Durance at Mont Dauphin, ten miles above Embrun, gone up the Guil valley to Abriès and across the Col de la Traversette to Saluzzo, a distance of about 70 Roman miles. (The Col de la Traversette is known also as the Col de Viso, and the Col d’Argentière as the Col della Maddalena or Col de Larche.) As the Guil is merely a mountain torrent, that route is not open to the objection that Hannibal would still be marching “along the river”—an objection that may be urged against the Ubaye and the Verdon routes. Also, by going on past Embrun to Mont Dauphin, Hannibal would be entering the territory of the Tricorii, as Livy says he did: see paragraph 39.

31. Polybios does not give the river’s name when he says that Hannibal marched up along the river as far as the “ascent.” He often mentions the Rhone, but does not give the name of any other river in those parts except the Scôras, a tributary of the Rhone. There is no mention of a river Scôras in any ancient author but Polybios; and the presumption is that although the name was used in his time, it afterwards went out of use. As the Saône had two names, Arar and Saucona, the Durance might also have two names, Druentia and Scôras. This, of course, is merely a conjecture; but it seems to meet the case.

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32. Apparently, Livy thought the Scôras was the Saône—see paragraph 17—in which case there is no question of Hannibal’s marching up any other river than the Rhone. Livy, however, contradicts himself. He says (xxi. 31) that instead of going straight from the confluence to the Alps, Hannibal turned to the left (ad lævam) into the territory of the Tricastini, skirted the territory of the Vocontii and entered the territory of the Tricorii. Whatever their exact boundaries may have been—see paragraph 39—these territories were east of the Rhone, north of the Durance and south of the Isère. Consequently, Hannibal could not have reached them by turning to the left, unless he was starting from the confluence of the Durance and the Rhone. If he had been as far north as the confluence of the Saône and the Rhone, or even of the Isère and the Rhone, he must have turned to the right. This should have struck the editors who tampered with the text of Livy and changed the Saône to the Isère: they should have changed it to the Durance, or else put “right” for “left.”

33. Livy very often contradicts himself, as he compiled his history out of older histories and did not always take the trouble to reconcile them. Polybios was his usual source for this part of his work, but he quotes Cœlius on one point and Cincius on another, xxi. 38, and when he quotes Polybios, he does not always quote him accurately.