U. C. 536. iis non esset, temere initæ valles a conjectantibus iter, A. C. 218. faciebant. Biduum in jugo stativa habita: fessisque labore ac pugnando quies data militibus; jumentaque aliquot, quæ prolapsa in rupibus erant, sequendo vestigia agminis in castra pervenere. Fessis tædio tot malorum nivis etiam casus, occidente jam sidere Vergiliarum, ingentem terrorem adjecit. Per omnia nive oppleta quum, signis prima luce motis, segniter agmen incederet, pigritiaque et desperatio1 in omnium vultu emineret; prægressus signa Hannibal in promontorio quodam, unde longe ac late prospectus erat, consistere jussis militibus Italiam ostentat, subjectosque own country. It may be necessary, however, to the probability of Livy's account, to suppose the Carthaginians to have spent some time in losing and recovering their way, and thus making up the "nine days.' 8 Fessis tædio] Of these cases the former is evidently governed by adjecit; and the latter is an abl. The commentators who take tædio after adjecit, lose sight of the Latin idiom. 9 Occidente jam sidere Vergiliarum.] This was about the 26th of October. 1 Pigritiaque et desperatio.] "And when apathy and despair were the expression of every countenance." The effects of long-suffering and privation are well described by General Labaume in his narrative of the retreat from Moscow. The following is a translation. "The line of march was covered with soldiers who no longer retained the human form, and whom the enemy disdained even to make prisoners. Some had lost their hearing; some their speech; and many, by excessive cold and hunger, were reduced to a state of delirious feeling, in which they actually roasted and prepared to eat the dead bodies of their comrades, and gnawed the flesh even from their own hands and arms. Some were so exhausted, that, unable either to bring wood or to move a stone, they seated themselves on the bodies of their brother soldiers, and gazed with fixed and distorted fea. tures upon the burning embers. Presently, when these were reduced to ashes, these livid spectres, unable to rise, fell beside those on whom 2 they had been sitting. Many might have been seen, whose reason was deranged, walking over the embers of the fires: while some, with an insane and convulsive laugh, flung themselves upon the flames, and met their death with frightful screams and horrible contortions." 2 Italiam ostentat subjectosque &c.] Of all passages through the Alps, ancient and modern, it must be remembered, that they run through defiles, and not over the heights; and that, consequently, no extensive view can be obtained from any. Nothing of the plain country below is visible from the Mont Cenis, the Simplon, Mont Genevre, or either St. Bernard. Though such a view might be commanded from some of the higher summits overhanging any of the roads, it would be impossible for an army to march over, and still more so to encamp in, any such position; we cannot therefore understand the assertion of Polybius to this effect in the actual acceptation of the words; much less, the still more picturesque account of Livy. Hannibal might, certainly, have explained to his soldiers, that they had now reached the highest point of their march, and demonstrated the fact by showing them the streams flowing downward on both sides; but this would be all. It is true, that the Col of Mont Viso (Vesulus) does command a very extensive view of the Milanese; and some French authors have founded on this circumstance a theory, which is, however, borne out in no other particular. Alpinis montibus Circumpadanos campos: moniaque eos U. C. 536. tum transcendere non Italiæ modo, sed etiam urbis Ro- A. C. 218. " manæ. Cetera plana, proclivia fore: uno, aut summum 'altero proelio arcem et caput Italiæ in manu ac potestate 'habituros.' Procedere inde agmen coepit; jam nihil ne hostibus quidem3, præter parva furta per occasionem, tentantibus. Ceterum iter multo, quam in ascensu fuerat, (ut pleraque Alpium ab Italia sicut breviora, ita arrectiora sunt) difficilius fuit. Omnis enim ferme via præceps, angusta, lubrica erat: ut neque sustinere se a lapsu possent; nec, qui paullulum titubassent, hærere afflicti vestigio suo'; aliique super alios, et jumenta et homines, occiderent. Ventum deinde ad multo angustiorem rupem, atque ita rectis saxis, ut ægre expeditus miles tentabundus, manibusque retinens virgulta ac stirpes circa eminentes, demittere sese posset. Natura locus jam ante præceps', recenti lapsu terræ in pedum mille admodum altitudinem abruptus erat. Ibi quum, velut ad finem viæ, equites constitissent, miranti Hannibali, quæ res moraretur agmen, nuntiatur, rupem inviam esse. Digressus deinde ipse ad locum visendum. 3 Jam nihilne hostibus quidem &c.] Polybius and Livy both agree in stating, that from the commencement of his descent, Hannibal experienced no further molestation. Ut pleraque Alpium ab Italia &c.] " Though the Alps are for the most part lower on the Italian side, still they are more precipitous." 5 Hærere afflicti vestigio suo.] "Keep their unsteady footing." 6 Tentabundus.] "With desperate (strenuous) efforts." Natura locus jam antè præceps &c.] "The ground, already naturally steep, had been broken away by a recent land-slip to the depth of," &c. In the account of this land-slip, Livy is believed to be guilty of another error: it would appear, according to Polybius, that the length of the land-slip, and not its depth, should be the subject of the statement. "At length," says the Greek historian, "they arrived at a place which neither elephants nor baggage-horses could pass, in consequence of the narrowness of the road, which had been carried away to the length of a stadium and a half. Though this had not been previously an unusual occurrence, the present was an aggravated in stance; so much so that the troops 36. U.C. 536. Haud dubia res visa, quin per invia circa nec trita antea, A. C. 218. quamvis longo ambitu, circumduceret agmen. Ea vero via insuperabilis fuit. Nam quum super veterem nivem intactam nova modicæ altitudinis esset, molli nec præaltæ nivi facile pedes ingredientium insistebant. Ut vero tot hominum jumentorumque incessu dilapsa est, per nudam infra glaciem' fluentemque tabem liquescentis nivis ingredie 8 Haud dubia res visa, quin &c.] “There seemed no doubt that he must bring round the army, however long the deviation, through the surrounding pathless and previously untrodden waste." 9 Pedes insistebant.] "Their steps rested firmly." 1 Per nudam infra glaciem] "They advanced upon the exposed ice beneath it, and the liquid slime of the dissolving snow. The struggle there was desperate; as, in consequence of the slippery ice not holding their footsteps, and frustrating their feet more readily on the declivity, and, whether they helped themselves to rise with hands or knees, if they slipped with these supports and fell again, there were no stems or roots around them, on which an effort could be made with hand or foot: so that they merely rolled themselves on the smooth ice and thawing snow. The cattle indented it, &c." This passage is literally translated by Livy from Polybius. The condition of the French army, when overtaken by the snow on the retreat from Moscow, is thus described by M. Labaume. "We were within twenty leagues of Smolensko, and the prospect of arriving there in three days awakened a sort of intoxication in our hearts; when all on a sudden, the atmosphere, until then so clear, was shrouded in dark and chilly vapours. The sun, obscured by dense clouds, disappeared from our eyes: the snow, descending in large flakes, shut out the daylight, and confounded earth and sky; and the wind, blowing furiously, filled the woods with its frightful roar, and bent to the ground the dark fir-trees laden with icicles. The whole plain became one white and desolate surface. Amid these gloomy horrors, the soldiers, overwhelmed by the snow and wind falling upon them in a whirling storm, were no longer able to distinguish the high road from the dykes; and often fell into the latter, which became their graves. Some, anxious to advance, dragging themselves on with difficulty, badly clothed and bare-footed, having neither food nor drink, groaning and shivering, afforded neither help nor sympathy to those who had fallen through exhaustion, and were expiring all around them. How frightfully did some of these wretched beings struggle against the agonies of death! Some might be heard bidding a tender farewell to brothers and comrades; others, as they heaved their last sigh, murmuring the names of their mothers and the land of their birth. Stretched upon the roads, they were distinguishable only by the ridges of snow that formed their winding-sheets, and presented, all along the march, as it were, the furrows of a graveyard. Lastly, clouds of ravens, flying for refuge to the woods, uttered ill-boding cries, as they passed above our heads; and troops of dogs, coming from Moscow to prey upon our bleeding limbs, came howling round us, as if to hasten the moment when we should become their food." It is remarkable, that the statement respecting the previous year's snow having remained unmelted, is borne out by the experience of tourists who have crossed the particular pass in question, (i. e. supposing the account to be taken from Polybius, and to relate to the Little St. Bernard.) It appears, that from the narrowness of the bed of the river, and the height of the precipitous rocks on both sides, which intercept the rays of the 37. bantur. Tætra ibi luctatio erat, ut a lubrica glacie, non U. C. 536. recipiente vestigium, et in prono citius pedes fallente: et, A. C. 218. seu manibus in assurgendo seu genu se adjuvissent, ipsis adminiculis prolapsissi iterum corruerent, nec stirpes circa radicesve, ad quas pede aut manu quisquam eniti posset, erant; ita in levi tantum glacie tabidaque nive volutabantur. Jumenta secabant interdum etiam tum infimam ingredientia nivem, et prolapsa jactandis gravius in connitendo ungulis penitus perfringebant: ut pleraque, velut pedica capta, hærerent in durata et alte concreta glacie. Tandem, nequicquam jumentis atque hominibus fatigatis, castra in jugo posita, ægerrime ad id ipsum loco purgato: tantum nivis fodiendum atque egerendum fuit. Inde ad rupem muniendam, per quam unam via esse poterat, milites ducti, quum cædendum esset saxum, arboribus circa immanibus3 dejectis detruncatisque, struem ingentem lignorum faciunt: eamque, quum et vis venti apta faciendo igni coorta esset, succendunt, ardentiaque saxa infuso aceto putrefaciunt. Ita torridam incendio rupem ferro pandunt, molliuntque anfractibus modicis clivos, ut non jumenta solum, sed elephanti etiam, deduci possent. Quatriduum circa rupem consumptum, jumentis prope fame absumptis: nuda enim fere cacumina sunt, et, si quid est pabuli, obruunt nives. summer sun, the snow remains unthawed sometimes during the whole year, and forms a natural bridge over the stream for a considerable distance. "On voit," says a French writer, M. de Saussure, who passed through in 1792, “là sous ses pieds, des amas de niege, qui se sont conservés depuis l'hiver, et qui forment des ponts sur ce torrent." In the arrangement of this sentence, Drakenborch reads pede se fallente, (the Latinity of which is doubtful,) and omits si before iterum corruissent, which must accordingly depend on ut. 2 Castra in jugo posita.] Having failed in his attempt to penetrate this pass, Hannibal was obliged to encamp, probably on the plain upon which the village of Artolica (La Tuille) stands, and to proceed, on the next day, to construct a road in order to turn the ravine, by passing behind the rocks on the right bank of the river. 3 Arboribus circa immanibus, &c.] Livy has been accused of contradicting himself here, in mentioning the tall trees felled for the purpose 5 Molliuntque anfractibus &c.] "Reduced (lowered) the acclivities by easy angles." A. C. 218. U. C. 536. Inferiora valles et apricos quosdam colles habent, rivosque prope silvas, et jam humano cultu digniora loca. Ibi jumenta in pabulum missa, et quies muniendo fessis hominibus data triduo. Inde ad planum descensum, etiam locis mollioribus et accolarum ingeniis. 38. Hoc maxime modo in Italiam perventum est, quinto mense a Carthagine nova, ut quidam auctores sunt, quinto decimo die Alpibus superatis. Quantæ copiæ transgresso in Italiam Hannibali fuerint, nequaquam inter auctores constat. Qui plurimum, centum millia peditum, viginti equitum fuisse scribunt: qui minimum, viginti millia peditum, sex equitum. L. Cincius Alimentus', qui captum se ab Hannibale scribit, maxime auctor me moveret, nisi confunderet numerum, Gallis Liguribusque additis: cum his octoginta millia peditum, decem equitum, adducta in Italiam: (magis 6 Inferiora valles et apricos quosdam colles &c.] This description corresponds exactly with what is known of the village of Arebrigium (Prè St. Didier), at the foot of the mountains: a rich, fertile, and genial valley of meadows, groves, and vineyards, presenting a strong contrast to the naked rocks and glaciers that hang over it. Into this valley, as they were now in a friendly country, it would appear that the surviving horses and elephants, which must have been by this time nearly starved, were sent down to feed. This march (of 200 Roman miles) was completed in five months: Hannibal having left Carthagena early in June, and arrived at the Italian foot of the mountains in the first week in November, A.U.C. 536, and B. C. 218. 7 Hoc maximè modo.] "In this way, most probably, (as nearly as can be ascertained.)" 8 Quinto decimo die.] The actual passage of the mountains occupied thirty-five days, according to Livy and Polybius, with a further addition of three days, if we suppose the final encampment among the Insubres to be the conclusion of the expedition, and make no allowance for the days spent in constructing the road. 9 Quanta copia.] According to Polybius, who refers to an inscription left by the Carthaginians at Lacinium, Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees re with 50,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry: those numbers were duced, after crossing the Rhone, to 38,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry: on his arrival in Italy, he had but 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry: having lost 33,000 men on the whole march. This computation differs but slightly from that quoted by Livy from Cincius Alimentus; but in order to reconcile them, we must take into account, that the 80,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, mentioned in the first instance, are the numbers with which Hannibal crossed the Ebro: and as to the rest, the 36,000 men, said to have been lost in Taurinis, agree sufficiently with the losses enumerated by Polybius. It may be observed, that no Ms. exhibits in before Taurinis. The omission would remove a difficulty; as the translation would then be, "he had lost on his descent into Italy from the Taurini," &c. 1 L. Cincius Alimentus.] This early historian, like Fabius Pictor, wrote in Greek. Like Xenophon and Nævius, who recorded the events of the first Punic war, and Bernal Diaz, who has left an account of the American wars of Cortez, and the several English and French officers who have published reminiscences of modern expeditions, he had the advantage of witnessing, especially in the enemy's camp, the events of his narrative. |