BOOK XXI.

...and were not greatly hindered by the terrain, he completed a fair amount of the journey in those three days.

XXXIV. They then arrived at another people, who were populous—as far as mountain dwellers go. There, he was nearly circumvented not by open war but by their own arts: deceit and ambush. The elders of the strongholds came to the Carthaginian as envoys. They noted that they had learned from the misfortunes of others—a useful example—that they preferred friendship to experiencing the strength of the Carthaginians. Therefore, they would obediently do what was commanded; he should accept provisions, guides for the journey, and hostages as a pledge of their promises. Hannibal, thinking that one should neither trust rashly nor spurn them—lest they become openly hostile if rejected—responded kindly. He accepted the hostages they offered and used the provisions they had brought to the road. He followed their guides, but with his formation arranged in a way that was by no means like that of marching among peaceful people: the elephants and cavalry were in the van, and he himself followed with the flower of the infantry, looking around and remaining anxious about everything. When they reached a narrower path, commanded on one side by an overhanging ridge, the barbarians attacked from ambushes on all sides—front and rear—striking at close quarters and from a distance, and rolling huge rocks into the column. A massive force of men pressed from the rear. The line of infantry turned to face them, ensuring that if the rear of the column had not been strengthened, a great disaster would have been suffered in that pass. Even then, they reached the brink of danger and near destruction: for while Hannibal hesitated to commit his column into the narrow pass—because he did not have the same support for the infantry in the rear as he did for the cavalry—the mountain dwellers rushed in from the flanks, cut the column in the middle, and occupied the path. Hannibal spent one night without his cavalry and baggage.

XXXV. The next day, as the barbarians attacked more sluggishly, the forces were reunited. The pass was overcome, though not without slaughter, with a greater loss of pack animals than men. From then on, the mountain dwellers, being fewer and acting more in the manner of brigands than a formal army, skirmished now at the head, now at the rear of the column, whenever the terrain offered an opportunity or as they had gained some advantage by advancing or delaying. The elephants, although led through the narrow, steep paths with great delay, provided security for the column wherever they walked, because the unfamiliarity of the enemy gave them a fear of approaching too closely.
On the ninth day, they reached the ridge of the Alps, having gone through many impassable places and errors caused either by the treachery of the guides or by entering valleys blindly when they did not trust them. A two-day rest was held on the ridge, and the soldiers, exhausted by labor and fighting, were given respite. Some pack animals that had slipped on the cliffs reached the camp by following the tracks of the column. To men already weary from so many evils, a snowfall—as the sign of the Pleiades original: "Vergiliae" was now setting—added huge terror. When the column moved out at first light through terrain covered in snow, they moved sluggishly. Lethargy and despair were visible on every face. Hannibal went ahead of the standards to a promontory from which there was a view far and wide. He ordered the soldiers to halt and showed them Italy and the plains of the Po valley original: "Circumpadanos campos" lying beneath the Alpine mountains. He told them that they were then crossing the walls not only of Italy but also of the city of Rome. The rest of the way would be flat and downhill, and after one or at most two battles...