Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/464

Rh 442 questions, has conveyed to most modern students and scholars the impression that Hannibal crossed by the pass of the Little St Bernard. If so, he must have entered Italy by the valley of Aosta. The subject has had a literature of its own devoted to it. The result is that the Little St Bernard Pass may be almost said to have made good its claims to the honour of Hannibal s memorable march. It was familiar to the ancients, and more than once Gauls had passed through it into the plains of Italy. Such high authorities as Arnold, Niebuhr, and Mommsen regard the question as settled in its favour. Fifteen days in all were occupied in the passage. If the view above indicated is correct, Hannibal at first made his way over Mont du Chat through the Chevelu Pass, then continued his march up the valley of the Isere, and mounted the St Bernard. He must have descended the mountain by the valley of the Doria. Part of his route, that by which he climbed to the summit, was a narrow defile, and there he was threatened by the mountain tribes which appeared on the heights. At the white rock,&quot; la roche blanche, as it is still called, he halted his infantry 7, while the cavalry and beasts of burden were making their way during the night to the top of the pass, Next day, the ninth day, he stood with his whole army on the highest point and spoke, it is said, some cheering words to his half-frozen Africans and Spaniards. The descent proved trying and dangerous. From the mountain tribes he had little to fear ; it was the mountain slope, covered with recent snow, which caused delay and anxiety. The Italian side of the Alps is considerably steeper than the French side, and a road had to be constructed for the passage of the elephants and horses. This was a work of three days. In three more days they arrived in the valley of Aosta, and were welcomed by the Salassi, a friendly trib3 of the Insubrian Gauls. The October of the year 218 B.C. saw ths passage of the Alps accomplished and Hannibal with his army encamped in northern Italy. Thus far he had been successful,, but at a tremendous cost. His army was shrunk to a force of 20,000 infantry and GOOO cavalry, the former being composed of Libyans and Spaniards in about the proportion of three to two, and the latter being chiefly Numidians, and admirably efficient. It was now five months since he had set out from New Carthage. His men of course sorely needed rest, and this they had for a brief space amid the friendly tribes of Cisalpine Gaul. One tribe indeed, the Taurini, was hostile, but he soon captured their chief city, thus overawing the remaining tribes in the upper valley of the Po. It was now high time for the Romans to exert themselves. Scipio after quitting Marseilles, whence he had sent on his army into Spain, had hurried back to Italy, and on reaching Placentia took command of the Roman army quartered there. He was indeed numerically weaker than Hannibal, and was deficient in cavalry. Still he advanced up the Po to meet him, and on the Ticino, somewhere, it would seem, near Vercelli, was fought the first engagement of the Second Punic War. It was a cavalry action, and the inferiority of the Romans in this arm was decisively proved. They were driven back with heavy loss, and Scipio himself was severely wounded, being rescued, it is said, by his son, a lad of seventeen, who subsequently became as famous as Hannibal himself, and had the good fortune to be his con queror. He has gone down to posterity as Scipio Africanus. The defeated general fell back to the walls of Placentia. The Trebia, a southern tributary of the Po, was between him and the enemy, and he was soon joined by the other consul, Sempronius. Their united armies numbered not less than 40,000 men. Sempronius was for instantly giving battle ; Scipio was still disabled by his wound. Sempronius had his way, and on a bitterly cold December day the Romans plunged into the swollen waters of the Trebia in the face of a sleet storm and a cutting wind. They fought well, but when taken in flank by Hannibal s brother Mago, who was lying in ambush amid brambles and bushes in a watercourse, they broke and fled in utter rout. This decisive victory gave nearly all northern Italy to Hannibal, He let his troops rest during the winter, and added to them a number of Gauls. Early in the spring of 217 B.C. he decided to cross the Apennines and to pene trate into the heart of Italy. The route which he took brought him into the marshy lowlands of the Arno near Lucca and Pisa, and here he and his men had to wade through water for four days. Many of them perished miserably, and Hannibal himself lost an eye from oph thalmia. At last he encamped at Fiesole on high ground. The two consuls Flaminius and Servilius were, with their armies, respectively at Arezzo and Rimini. Flaminius was an impetuous man, and eager to win the glory of settling the war once for all. Hannibal, quitting the valley of the upper Arno, marched past him towards Perugia, ravaging the country and so provoking the Roman general to pursue him. The road from Cortona to Perugia skirts the northern shore of Lake Trasimene, and into this road, which is in fact a mountain defile, the Roman column un warily entered. They were caught in a trap. Hannibal had posted his light troops on the hills on either side, while he himself blocked the outlet near Passignano with the best of his infantry. As soon as the Romans were in the pass they were assailed on all sides, and the battle soon became a mere massacre. The Roman army was in fact destroyed, and Flaminius was among the slain. We might suppose that Hannibal would have now done well to have marched straight on Rome, and this the Romans expected. But he may well have thought that it would be better to wait the chance of insurrection among the Italian com munities. So he marched through Umbria, and again crossed the Apennines into Picenurn. He then marched southwards along the coast into Apulia and encamped at Arpi. Meanwhile the Romans had made the famous Fabius Maximus their dictator. After levying an army of four legions, Fabius marched in pursuit of the enemy having first effected a junction with the army under Servilius at Rimini. From the first Fabius had decided on the policy which earned for him the name of the Cunctator, the Delayer. He dogged his enemy s steps, but would never risk an engage ment. The richest districts of southern Italy were laid waste under his very eyes. But he could not be provoked into any rash movement. Once indeed it seemed as. if Hannibal was himself entrapped. He had been ravaging Campania, and was on the point of retreating into Sammum, when Fabius posted a force at the head of the pass which afforded the only available means for his retreat. Hannibal is said to have driven a multitude of oxen with lighted faggots on their horns up the hills overhanging the road, so as to give the impression that he and his army were retreat ing over the heights. Fabius s detachment quitted its position to check the supposed movement, and thus gave Hannibal an opportunity of escaping through the pass. The tactics of Fabius disgusted his men, and when he had to leave them for a time, he found on his return that his master of the horse, Minucius, on the strength of a small success won in his absence, was eager to bring on a general engagement. Fabius gave him a part of the army, with which Minucius ventured on an attack. He was on the brink of destruction when he was rescued by the dictator s timely interposition. After this Hannibal went into winter quarters at Geronium in the north of Apulia.