Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/687

677 HannibaVs Passage over the Alps. 677 the whole controversy depends. 1. The passage of the Rhone. 2. The position of the Island and HannibaFs movements in it. 3. His march to the foot of the mountains. 4. The passao-e oi the Alps. These we will consider in their order. We must however premise that Uckert takes a different view of the relative authority of Polybius and Livy from that which has been adopted by many, perhaps by most, preceding writers, and particularly by the advocates of General Melville's hypothesis. He observes that though the zeal with which Polybius laboured to ascertain the truth is indisputable, his means were not exactly proportioned to his good will. As the Alps in his time were inhabited by fierce and unconquered tribes, it was not in his power to explore them with the same calmness and undivided attention as the modern tra- vellers who have visited them with his book in their hands. The dangers and difficulties which these regions opposed to such researches in early times are alluded to by Polybius himself, iii. 59, and are indicated by Strabo, iv. c. 6, where he mentions repeatedly the ferocious character and predatory habits of the Alpine tribes. Amongst the rest he says of the Salassi, who inhabited the valley of Aosta, that till lately they had maintained their independence against the Romans, and had been in the habit of doino; much harm to those who crossed the mountains through their country. HoXXa /caxe- pXaTTTOv Tov^ CL avTcou VTrepfiaWovTa^ ra bprj, Kwra to XrjcTTpLKov eQo^. Notwithstanding his travels, the geographical knowledge which Polybius had acquired was very imperfect : his conception of the direction of the Alps, and the course of the Rhone, erroneous : and his errors in this respect led him to say, that Hannibal after crossing the Rhone marched away from the sea eastward, as if he had been making for the midland parts of Europe (iii. 47.); when, if he had been correctly informed, he would have spoken of the north. With regard to Livy's relation to Polybius, Uckert observes, that though the Roman frequently took the Greek author's descrip- tion as the foundation of his own, yet, as the countries of which Polybius wrote were much better known in the time of Augustus, he also drew more accurate accounts from other sources, with which he supplied the defects of his predecessor, but sometimes without perceiving that he was framing his