But Hannibal had crossed the Rhone while these horsemen were on their way up the river. The point at which he reached it was not far above Avignon, about fifty miles from the coast. The river itself is large, and the rapidity of its stream proverbial. But, besides these natural difficulties, he found the left bank occupied by a large host of Gauls. Upon this, he immediately made preparations for forcing the passage. After two days spent in seizing boats and constructing rafts, he sent Hanno, son of Bomilcar, with a strong detachment of cavalry, to cross the river about twenty miles higher up, so as to come round upon the rear of the Gauls. On the morning of the third day after his departure, Hanno signalled his arrival to Hannibal by a column of smoke; and the Carthaginians immediately pushed their boats and rafts into the stream. The Gauls flocked down to the water’s edge, brandishing their arms and uttering wild yells of defiance. But while the boats were in midstream, a cry arose from the rear; and, looking round, the barbarians beheld their tents in flames. They hastened back, and were charged by Hanno with his cavalry. Meanwhile, the first divisions of the army, forming under the general’s eye, completed the defeat of the Gauls; and for the remainder of the day the Carthaginians lay encamped in the enemy’s late quarters. All the army, except the elephants, had effected the passage. It was on this very day that Scipio sent off his three hundred horse from Marseilles.
On the next morning (the sixth after his arrival on the Rhone) news reached Hannibal that the Romans had landed. Upon this he instantly despatched a body of five hundred Numidian horse to reconnoitre, while he himself spent the day in preparations for bringing over the elephants. At this moment, some Boian and Insubrian chieftains arrived from Italy to inform him of what their people were doing and had done against the Romans, and to describe in glowing colours the richness and beauty of the land which would welcome him after the toils of the Alpine pass. This news had a great effect upon the army, which was somewhat dispirited by the opposition offered by the Gauls upon the Rhone.
Hannibal
In the evening the Numidian horse galloped into camp in great disorder, having lost half their number. At some distance a body of cavalry appeared in pursuit, who reined in their horses on coming in view of the Carthaginian camp, and then turned about and rode off down the river. This was Scipio’s reconnoitring party, which had encountered the Numidians and defeated them.
Hannibal, finding the enemy so near at hand, sent off the whole of his infantry next morning to march up the left bank of the Rhone. He himself only stayed till he saw his elephants, now about thirty in number, safely across the stream; and then, with the elephants and cavalry, he followed the army.
Scipio, on his part, so soon as he heard that the Carthaginians had already crossed the Rhone, proceeded by forced marches up the river. But it was three or four days after Hannibal’s departure that he arrived at the point where the Carthaginians had crossed. It was in vain to pursue the enemy into unknown regions, peopled by barbarous tribes; and Scipio had the mortification to reflect that, if he had marched at once from Marseilles, he might have come in time to assist the Gauls in barring Hannibal’s passage. Not able to undo the past, he provided wisely for the future. He despatched his brother Cneius to Spain with the fleet and the consular army, deeming it of high importance to cut off communication between Hannibal and that country; and himself returned to Pisa, to take command of the army which had been left to suppress the Gallic insurrection. He expected to meet Hannibal’s army shattered by the passage of the Alps, and to gain an easy victory.
Meanwhile, Hannibal continued his march up the Rhone, and crossing the Isère found himself in the plains of Dauphiné, then inhabited by the Allobrogian Gauls. He marched thus far north, about one hundred miles beyond the place where he had crossed the Rhone, at the invitation of a chieftain who was contending for the dominion of the tribe with his younger brother. Hannibal’s veterans put the elder brother in possession; and the grateful chief furnished the army with arms and clothing, entertained them hospitably for some days, and guided them to the verge of his own dominions. This must have brought them to the point at which the Isère issues from the lower range of the Alps into the plain, near the present fortress of Grenoble. To this point there is little doubt as to the route taken by Hannibal; but after this all is doubtful.[c]
Besides the fact that no modern historian can offer any better authority than Polybius for this portion of history, no more brilliant and dramatic account of the crossing of the Alps exists than his. We may then quote it at length.[a]