The History of Rome, Books 09 to 26 - Livy

Hannibal ordered the elephants, thus thrown into disorder, and almost driven by their terror against their own party, to be led away from the centre of the line to its extremity against the auxiliary Gauls on the left wing. In an instant they occasioned unequivocal flight; and a new alarm was added to the Romans when they saw their auxiliaries routed. About ten thousand men, therefore, as they now were fighting in a circle, the others being unable to escape, broke through the middle of the line of the Africans, which was supported by the Gallic auxiliaries, with immense slaughter of the enemy: and since they neither could return to the camp, being shut out by the river, nor, on account of the heavy rain, satisfactorily determine in what part they should assist their friends, they proceeded by the direct road to Placentia. After this several irruptions were made in all directions; and those who sought the river were either swallowed up in its eddies, or whilst they hesitated to enter it were cut off by the enemy. Some, who had been scattered abroad through the country in their flight, by following the traces of the retreating army, arrived at Placentia; others, the fear of the enemy inspired with boldness to enter the river, having crossed it, reached the camp. The rain mixed with snow, and the intolerable severity of the cold, destroyed many men and beasts of burden, and almost all the elephants. The river Trebia was the termination of the Carthaginians' pursuit of the enemy; and they returned to the camp so benumbed with cold, that they could scarcely feel joy for the victory. On the following night, therefore, though the guard of the camp and the principal part of the soldiers that remained passed the Trebia on rafts, they either did not perceive it, on account of the beating of the rain, or being unable to bestir themselves, through their fatigue and wounds, pretended that they did not perceive it; and the Carthaginians remaining quiet, the army was silently led by the consul Scipio to Placentia, thence transported across the Po to Cremona, lest one colony should be too much burdened by the winter quarters of two armies.

Such terror on account of this disaster was carried to Rome, that they believed that the enemy was already approaching the city with hostile standards, and that they had neither hope nor aid by which they might repel his attack from the gates and walls. One consul having been defeated at the Ticinus, the other having been recalled from Sicily, and now both consuls and their two consular armies having been vanquished, what other commanders, what other legions were there to be sent for? The consul Sempronius came to them whilst thus dismayed, having passed at great risk through the cavalry of the enemy, scattered in every direction in search of plunder, with courage, rather than with any plan or hope of escaping, or of making resistance if he should not escape it. Having held the assembly for the election of the consuls, the only thing which was particularly wanting at present, he returned to the winter quarters. Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius were elected consuls. But not even the winter quarters of the Romans were undisturbed, the Numidian horse ranging at large, and where the ground was impracticable for these, the Celtiberians and Lusitanians. All supplies, therefore, from every quarter, were cut off, except such as the ships conveyed by the Po. There was a magazine near Placentia, both fortified with great care and secured by a strong garrison. In the hope of taking this fort, Hannibal having set out with the cavalry and the light-armed horse, and having attacked it by night, as he rested his main hope of effecting his enterprise on keeping it concealed, did not escape the notice of the guards. Such a clamour was immediately raised, that it was heard even at Placentia. The consul; therefore, came up with the cavalry about daybreak, having commanded the legions to follow in a square band. In the mean time an engagement of cavalry commenced, in which the enemy being dismayed because Hannibal retired wounded from the fight, the fortress was admirably defended. After this, having taken rest for a few days, and before his wound was hardly as yet sufficiently healed, he sets out to lay siege to Victumviae. This magazine had been fortified by the Romans in the Gallic war; afterwards a mixture of inhabitants from the neighbouring states around had made the place populous; and at this time the terror created by the devastation of the enemy had driven together to it numbers from the country. A multitude of this description, excited by the report of the brave defence of the fortress near Placentia, having snatched up their arms, went out to meet Hannibal. They engaged on the road rather like armies in order of march than in line of battle; and since on the one side there was nothing but a disorderly crowd, and on the other a general confident in his soldiers, and soldiers in their general, as many as thirty-five thousand men were routed by a few. On the following day, a surrender having been made, they received a garrison within their walls; and being ordered to deliver up their arms, as soon as they had obeyed the command, a signal is suddenly given to the victors to pillage the city, as if it had been taken by storm; nor was any outrage, which in such cases is wont to appear to writers worthy of relation, left unperpetrated; such a specimen of every kind of lust, barbarity, and inhuman insolence was exhibited towards that unhappy people. Such were the expeditions of Hannibal during the winter.

For a short time after, while the cold continued intolerable, rest was given to the soldiers; and having set out from his winter quarters on the first and uncertain indications of spring, he leads them into Etruria, intending to gain that nation to his side, like the Gauls and Ligurians, either by force or favour. As he was crossing the Apennines, so furious a storm attacked him, that it almost surpassed the horrors of the Alps. When the rain and wind together were driven directly against their faces, they at first halted, because their arms must either be cast away, or striving to advance against the storm they were whirled round by the hurricane, and dashed to the ground: afterwards, when it now stopped their breath, nor suffered them to respire, they sat down for a little, with their backs to the wind. Then indeed the sky resounded with loud thunder, and the lightnings flashed between its terrific peals; all, bereft of sight and hearing, stood torpid with fear. At length, when the rain had spent itself, and the fury of the wind was on that account the more increased, it seemed necessary to pitch the camp in that very place where they had been overtaken by the storm. But this was the beginning of their labours, as it were, afresh; for neither could they spread out nor fix any tent, nor did that which perchance had been put up remain, the wind tearing through and sweeping every thing away: and soon after, when the water raised aloft by the wind had been frozen above the cold summits of the mountains, it poured down such a torrent of snowy hail, that the men, casting away every thing, fell down upon their faces, rather buried under than sheltered by their coverings; and so extreme an intensity of cold succeeded, that when each wished to raise and lift himself from that wretched heap of men and beasts of burden, he was for a long time unable, because their sinews being stiffened by the cold, they had great difficulty in bending their joints. Afterwards, when, by continually moving themselves to and fro, they succeeded in recovering the power of motion, and regained their spirits, and fires began to be kindled in a few places, every helpless man had recourse to the aid of others. They remained as if blockaded for two days in that place. Many men and beasts of burden, and also seven elephants, of those which had remained from the battle fought at the Trebia, were destroyed.