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HAN with the confidence of victory, and its announcement was received by the assembled soldiers with shouts of acclamation. But, ere starting, he was careful to leave firm ground behind him With Austrian policy he had fresh reinforcements draughted over from Africa, and supplied their place by recruits from Spain. Late in May, 218 ., he set out from Carthagena, and crossed the Iberus with an immense force. Having reduced the tribes in the north of the peninsula and stormed their strongholds, Pyrenœum transilit—he leapt the Pyrennees, and pressed on in uninterrupted march towards the Rhone. At the mouth of that river Cneius Scipio was waiting to oppose him with two Roman legions; but Hannibal evaded his vigilance and effected a passage higher up the stream, near its confluence with the Isere. Having secured by negotiation and policy the friendship of the intervening Gallic tribes, he crossed without opposition the district between the Rhone and the Alps; but during their ascent the Alpine barbarians hung like hornets around the skirts of his army. He evaded or repelled their hostilities, and reached the summit of the mountains late in October. Thence, while his soldiers were resting from their fatigues, he looked down on the valley far before him. "Yonder," he said to them, "is Italy, and yonder lies Rome." Their descent was only made difficult by the dangers of the road: they had to cut paths through great piles of snow, and make a way for elephants over gigantic masses of rock.

But we can hardly credit the authority which informs us regarding their method of blasting. Napoleon's passage of the Alps was a great military feat, but it was short and secure in comparison with the march of Hannibal, whose losses on the way were so enormous, that of nearly sixty thousand men who entered Gaul, only twenty-six thousand reached the plains of Italy. When some days had been given to rest and the repression of Liguria, he advanced along the left bank of the Po to meet Scipio, who had sent off his main force to Spain, and returned to take command of an army in Cisalpine Gaul. A cavalry engagement on the Ticinus, in which the Numidian horse were victorious, opened the campaign. Shortly after, a junction of the two Roman armies on the left bank of the Trebia inspired the other consul—Sempronius—with confidence to join battle. His rashness was partly responsible for the event. His soldiers were led across the stream before their morning meal to meet an enemy fresh and ready to receive them; yet the result seemed doubtful, when a body of two thousand choice troops under the command of Mago rushed from ambush upon the Roman rear, and threw the whole army into confusion. The Carthaginians obtained a complete victory, and drove the remnant of their adversaries to take shelter in Placentia. Having wintered in Gaul, Hannibal (217 .) crossed over into Etruria, eluding the new consul who had encamped at Arretium, in the hope of intercepting his passage of the Apennines. Flaminius, at the head of four legions, advanced to attack him, and was marching along the path between the lake Thrasymene and the neighbouring heights, rejoicing in the cloudy morning which seemed to obscure his approach. His van had just begun to emerge from the defile, when the Carthaginian army and the Gauls—who had been from the time of his earliest success flocking around Hannibal's standard—sprang from the mists that circled the hills round the lake, and fell furiously on the Roman flank. Only the van escaped; and the consul himself fell in the utter destruction of his army. Fifteen thousand were made prisoners and brought before Hannibal: the Romans he distributed among his soldiers, but the other Italians were set at liberty, and the corpse of Flaminius sought out to be buried with the honours due to a noble adversary. The consternation at home on the news of this defeat was such as had not been known for many generations. The senate sat all day; the women went wailing through the city offering prayers to the gods;—

Hannibal, after savagely wasting the rich plain which stretches from Tibur to Spoletum, invaded Picenum, scoured Umbria, and came down into Daunia. Disappointed in endeavouring to induce the Apulians to revolt, he next recrossed the Apennines, and, seizing Telesia, descended by Cales into the Falernian plain. While Q. Fabius, who as dictator had command of the Roman armies, was occupying the heights around Campania and endeavouring by a vigorous system of defence to intercept his passage, Hannibal evaded his watchfulness by a skilful stratagem, and again crossing through the territory of the Samnites took Geronium. Another victory, gained over the temerity of Minucius, the master of the horse, brought the campaign of this year to an end. Next spring (216 .) the Carthaginians descended into the plain of Apulia and surprised the magazine of Cannæ. Meanwhile Rome was bracing herself for another trial; and the consuls were sent out at the head of eight legions, together with the allies making up a force of about ninety thousand men. On the morning of the 1st of August the Aufidus lay between the two armies. One of the consuls, Æmilius, was inclined to wait for an opportunity of bringing on an action on ground less favourable to the enemy's cavalry; but whatever prudence there may have been in this counsel was frustrated by the impetuosity of his colleague, who trusted to his numbers as a certain pledge of victory—and victory would have been destruction to the invaders, pent up between the sea and the strong garrison of Canusium. The dawn of the 2nd saw the red flag flying from Varro's tent. He gave orders to his army to ford the Aufidus and occupy the right bank; while Hannibal, who had before crossed, recrossed to meet him. It is said he laughed on the morning of the battle as if he felt, like Cromwell at Dunbar, that his adversaries were given over into his hands. The Carthaginians were fronting the north; a strong south wind was blowing dust into the faces of the enemy, while the sun was slanting along their columns, drawn up to an unusual depth. First the Roman light-armed cavalry were beaten and put to flight by the Gallic, Spanish, and Numidian horse. The infantry meanwhile, who had been advancing against the Carthaginian flank, were pent into a dense wedge. The Africans gave way for a little, and then closed upon its sides at the same time that the victorious cavalry dashed upon its rear. The whole eight legions were jammed together, and soon fell together in a heap, like a mass of snow thawing on every side. The consul Æmilius and eighty senators lay with the dead. The world has hardly ever seen the like of Cannæ. When the day was done there were only about three thousand survivors of the greatest host that Italy had ever gathered into a single field. But if the city was stunned by so terrible a shock she never faltered; there was no talk of peace in the forum; and when Varro, who had escaped with seventy horsemen from the carnage, began to collect the waifs of the army at Canusium, the senate returned him their thanks because he did not despair of Rome. On the evening of the battle Maharbal, the commander of the Carthaginian horse, proposed to the victorious general to advance and storm the capitol. It is hard to tell whether we ought to consider his advice foolhardy or wisely bold. Hannibal adopted another policy, and endeavoured by gradual steps to hem in his prey. The Apulians and a great portion of the Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttians joined him, and Capua, the capital of Campania and second town of Italy, opened its gates to the conqueror; but the surrender of this city marks the limit of his conquests. Thenceforward the war takes on a new aspect, and the campaigns of each year become more complex. Although their interest still centres around Hannibal, the progress of the war no longer runs strictly parallel to the fortunes of its leader. It may be divided into two great epochs. From the year 216 to 207. the Romans were resolutely acting on the defensive, and slowly gaining ground; from the latter of these dates to its close they were making fresh conquests and pressing hard on their enemy. But the biographer must leave it to the historian to record the various steps by which the consummation of the struggle was wrought out; he must be content to catch glimpses of the one great figure appearing and reappearing on the scene of action to assert his supremacy. Rome strained every nerve in the autumn of 216—two dictators were named; enormous taxes were levied; every ally was pressed into service; slaves and criminals were set free, to join in the struggle for the very life of the state. Early in 215 seventy thousand men were in arms. Hannibal, on the other hand, had never been able to shake the fidelity of the old Latin tribes; the veteran forces on which he most relied were dwindling, and the demand for reinforcements which Mago bore to Carthage was feebly answered. One year after Cannæ he was already contending at a disadvantage against his indomitable adversary; the towns which had revolted to his side began to be retaken; and his generals suffered serious