Hannibal Crosses the Alps

by Cecil Torr

34. Livy says (xxi. 31) that after getting across the Rhone, Hannibal marched up the other bank towards the interior of Gaul, whereas Polybios says (iii. 47. 1) that he marched eastward (hôs epi tên heô) going along the river up-stream. (His phrase for “up-stream” here is “away from the sea, towards the interior of Europe,” and in iii. 39. 9, speaking of the same march, his phrase is “towards the sources.”) Livy has put Gaul for Europe, and omitted “eastward.” But if Hannibal marched eastward here, he must have marched along the Durance, not the Rhone, as the Durance here runs from east to west and the Rhone from north to south. No doubt, Polybios says (iii. 47. 2, 3) that the Rhone had its sources on the north side of the Alps, its sources facing west (pros tên hesperan), and that its course was south-west (pros tas cheimerinas dyseis) to the sea. And as a general statement, that is true; but if he had imagined that the Rhone was running south-west at the point where Hannibal crossed it, he surely would have said that Hannibal marched north-east—he would not distinguish west and south-west in one sentence and confound east and north-east in the next.

35. According to Polybios (iii. 49. 5, 8–13) Hannibal marched in four days from the crossing of the Rhone to the so-called Island between the Rhone and the Scôras, found a civil-war in progress there, joined one faction in crushing the other, and obtained supplies from the successful faction as the price of his support. He must have crossed the Scôras and marched into the Island, as Polybios says “joined in attacking and expelling”—synepithemenos kai synekbalôn—which certainly implies that he did something more than make a demonstration from the other bank. And if the crossing over was comprised in the four days, the march may have been less than 40 Roman miles at 10 Roman miles a day: see paragraph 3.

36. Suppose that Hannibal marched up from Tarascon, going first along the Rhone and then along the Durance from the confluence of the two: he would reach a point just opposite Cavaillon in 30 Roman miles. The obvious route from Tarascon to Cavaillon is straight across country, on the line of the Roman road; and in saying so emphatically that Hannibal marched along the river (para ton potamon, iii. 47. 1) or close along the river (par’ auton ton potamon, iii. 39. 9) Polybios may be saying it to negative the notion of his marching straight across. Strabo mentions (iv. 1. 3) that Cavaillon was on the Roman road from Tarascon to the Alps; and as it was on the north bank of the Durance, people coming from Tarascon must have crossed. He elsewhere (iv. 1. 11) mentions the ferry (porthmeion) at Cavaillon in speaking of people going from Marseilles to places between the north bank of the Durance and the Rhone. The ferry would not have been established there unless that was the most convenient place for crossing; and when Polybios says that Hannibal reached the Island, he presumably is speaking of the usual point for crossing to it, not the point whence it could first be seen. In fact, whilst Scipio was looking for Hannibal at the crossing of the Rhone, Hannibal had reached the crossing of the Durance and could retire further north if Scipio came on. Scipio, however, went back.

37. Livy’s version (xxi. 31) is that the civil-war in the Island was between two factions of the Allobriges who lived near there; and that after finishing off their war, Hannibal did not take the direct route to the Alps, but turned to the left into the territory of the Tricastini, skirted the territory of the Vocontii, entered the territory of the Tricorii, and met no check until he reached the Durance, but had serious difficulties there. Polybios, however, says nothing of any difficulties at the Durance, nor does he mention any of these tribes except the Allobriges; and he does not mention this tribe here, but only at a later stage of Hannibal’s march. He says (iii. 49. 13) that the successful faction in the Island sent a force with Hannibal to act as rear-guard and keep off attacks by the Allobriges; but if both the factions had been Allobriges, as Livy says, Polybios would have spoken of attacks by the defeated faction only, not attacks by the Allobriges.

38. Strabo says (iv. 1. 11) that in his time, which also was Livy’s time, the Allobriges were merely husbandmen, though in former ages they had armies of tens of thousands in the field. He mentions Vienne, on the Rhone, as their chief town; but Dion Cassius (xlvi. 50) shows clearly that they did not take Vienne till a century and a half after Hannibal’s time—the city of Lyons was founded in 43 B.C. to house the inhabitants of Vienne after the Allobriges had driven them out. And other tribes may likewise have shifted their position between Hannibal’s time and the time of Polybios or Ptolemy or Strabo.

39. In dealing with the part of Provence on the east side of the Rhone, Ptolemy (ii. 10. 7, 8) fixes Vienne as the city of the Allobriges; Valence as the city of the Segallauni; Orange, Avignon and Cavaillon as cities of the Cavari; and Vaison as the city of the Vocontii; and he places the Tricastini east of the Segallauni, north of the Vocontii and south of the Allobriges. He does not mention the Tricorii, but Strabo says (iv. 1. 11, 6. 5) that the Vocontii were “above” the Cavari, and the Tricorii “above” the Vocontii. The Tricorii would thus be east or north-east of Embrun, as he states (iv. 1. 3) that the territory of the Vocontii extended along the Durance up to Embrun.

40. Strabo says here (iv. 1. 3) that the Roman road from Tarascon to the Alps entered the territory of the Vocontii at “the beginning of the ascent,” 63 Roman miles from Tarascon and therefore near Mirabeau, and quitted it again at Embrun, 99 miles further on. And as he says here that the road ran along the Durance, and elsewhere (iv. 1. 11, cf. 6. 3, 4) treats the Durance as the frontier of the Salyes, the road might be described as running along the extreme edge of the territory of the Vocontii—per extremam oram Vocontiorum agri—which is the phrase employed by Livy (xxi. 31) for Hannibal’s line of march. The distances, the 63 and 99 miles, agree with what Polybios says of Hannibal’s march—see paragraph 29—and the digression would not be included in the distances he gives as marched “along the river,” iii. 39. 9, 50. 1. It would thus appear that after Hannibal had turned to the left into the territory of the Tricastini, he came back on to the line of what was afterwards the Roman road, and followed it from a point near Mirabeau to some point near Embrun.

41. Hannibal must have reached the Island the day after Scipio reached the crossing of the Rhone, as Polybios says (iii. 49. 1, 5) that Hannibal was four days on the march and had started from the crossing three days before Scipio got there. Polybios also says (iii. 49. 3, 4) that Scipio went back as fast as he came, re-embarked his forces and sailed off. Thus, by about the fifth day after Hannibal reached the Island, there was nothing to prevent his returning to the direct route to the Alps, supposing that he had quitted it in order to avoid a battle with the Romans. But this deviation, into the territory of the Tricastini, may really have been part of Hannibal’s movements in the civil-war in the Island, for Polybios says (iii. 49. 10) that Hannibal not only joined one faction in attacking the other, but joined in driving it out. As a matter of fact, Livy (xxi. 31) does not exactly say that Hannibal entered the territory of the Tricastini: he merely says in Tricastinos and afterwards says in Tricorios, whereas in the intervening words, already quoted, he speaks of the “territory” of the Vocontii; and the difference may be more than merely verbal.

42. Supposing that the Vocontii had the same boundaries in Hannibal’s time as in Strabo’s time and Livy’s, Hannibal would thus have quitted their territory at Embrun and therefore crossed the Durance higher up. Livy (xxi. 31) mentions that the Durance happened to be swollen by rains; and when in flood, it may be difficult to cross, even in that early portion of its course. But when he says that “of all the rivers of Gaul” it was far the most difficult to cross, he must be thinking of the river a long way further down, nearer to its confluence with the Rhone.

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