the march of hannibal from the rhone to the alps 1000258329
TRANSCRIPT
-
THE
MARCH OF HANNIBAL
FROM THE
RHONE TO THE ALPS.
BY
HENRY LAWES LONG, ESQ.
LONDON:
J. RODWELL, 46, NEW BOND STREET.
1831.
-
DGA47
LONDON :
IBOrSON AND PALMliR, PKINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND,
-
TO
HENRY L. WICKHAM, ESQ.
ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF THE
DISSERTATION UPON THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL
ACROSS THE ALPS."
My DEAR WiCKHAM,
I send you the result of a tour recently
made in Dauphiny, not without the hope that,
as I began with believing in you, you may
end in agreeing with me.
Most truly yours,
HENRY LA WES LONG.
Lausanne, June 1st, 1831.
E"m^
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INTRODUCTION.
Among themany sources
of interest which
engage ourattention in passing through a
foreign country, neither its economy, political
and domestic, its natural curiosities, itsscenery,
norits field sports, more powerfully attract
the traveller, than the sight of places renowned
in history as the scenes where great events
have been transacted. The plains where
battles have been fought"
the fortresses where
sieges have been undertaken"
the mountain
passes which armies have traversed, most for-cibly
arrest the attention, for such events form
the materials of which the annals of the human
race are principally composed. To have, in-stead
ofa map, the identical district laid out
beforeus
"
to tread upon the very ground de-scribed
"
to lookup to
thesame
mountains
that hung over the heads of the warriors of
B
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2 INTRODUCTION.
whom we read j" all this adds immeasurablyto the interest of the story, and tries by a
severe test the accuracy of the author who
records it. Herodotus at Marathon, Thucy-dides at Syracuse, and PolybiusthroughoutItaly,from the Alps to the Aufidus, are read
with increased pleasure when we find the
face of nature, itselfincapableof any material
alteration,givingtestimonyin favour of their
correctness. The taunts of " Grsecorum nu-
gamenta" and "Graecia mendax" have been
thrown upon the historians of that country ;
but satire is not always truth ; and, with the
exception of Julius Caesar, whose rapid but
masterly sketches of a country enable us at
once to recognizeit,the Roman authors them-selves
are more deserving of the reproach.Livy, to say nothing of his portents and pro-digies,
is notoriouslydefective and unintel-ligiblein his geography ; and even Tacitus,
a writer of acknowledged accuracy, aifords usinsufficient lightto follow Agricola throughhis conquest of Britain with any degree of
certainty.The madness of mankind still indulges in
warfare ; but it is humiliatingto be forced toconfess, that the triumphs which are supposedto adorn the page of history,have seldom
produced any visiblybeneficial consequences ;
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INTRODUCTION.
while the horrors that accompanied them must
always,for a time at least,have occasionedincalculable mischief and misery. Modern na-tions,
at the conclusion of hostilities,are usuallyleft much in the same state (except as to theirfinances)as theywere at the beginningof a war.In ancient times, however, this was not so fre-quently
the case. When we stand upon the
barrow of the Greeks at Marathon, where the
occasional looseningof the soil still exposes toour view the fragmentsof the flint arrow-headsof the Persian archers,we are conscious that
those arrows were aimed not only againstthe
rightsand liberties of a free and independentpeople,but againstthe cradle of all the artsand sciences we now enjoy; and the gallantband that drove back the tide of barbarism
from their shores,preservedat the same timeto themselves and to us the rudiments of all
that is useful and honourable to mankind.
Thus, too, the conquest of the world by theRoman was the march of civilization ; a check
in its progress would have influenced the con-dition
ofages yet unborn. The desperate
attack of Hannibal *' ad delendum nomen
Romanum, liberandumque orbem terrarum,"was unsuccessful 5 and as such,its consequencesaffect us even to the present hour. It left
Rome the sovereignmistress of an undisputedB 2
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INTRODUCTION.
world, which she was allowed to fashion after
her own taste ; and, as we are not disposedto objectto our language, our literature, orour laws, the greater portion of which wehave derived from her, we may be presumedto be satisfied with the course she adopted.What effect might have been produced uponour domestic habits and politicalinstitutions,had the Carthaginian triumphed, cannot be
conjectured; but it is very certain, if the des-tiniesof the world had been so reversed, we
should not, in every sentence we utter, find
words of Roman origin. Under these cir-cumstancesthe Carthaginian expedition into
Italyacquires an importance independent ofthe interest excited by the novelty,hardihoodand conduct of the enterprise. Their march
upon Rome is not only the most remarkablefeature in one of the most remarkable
wars ever waged, " helium maxime omnium
memorabile quse unquam gesta sint," but, in
tracingtheir steps, we feel as if we were ap-proachingthe crisis of our own destinies ; and
while we acknowledge the courage and geniusof the African general,it is on the side of
Rome, the common parent of all Europe, that
we lean with a feelingof filialanxiety.To those, therefore, who delightin picturing
to themselves the transactions of distant ages
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INTRODUCTION.
on the very spot where they occurred, the
march of Hannibal across the Alps cannotfail in producing the most livelyinterest. In
visiting"the scenes of this march, the travelleris unusually fortunate in two particulars: "he is led through the rich scenery of Dauphinyand Savoy, some of the most picturesquein
Europe, and he has for his guide an historian
of unrivalled merit. In Polybius we meetwith a distinctness of detail which at once
discovers the soldier, who had thoroughly
investigatedand understood every manoeuvreof the hostile forces " the traveller, perfectly
acquainted with the country in which the
event he describes took place" and the faith-ful
and accomplished writer, who condensedthe materials without affectingthe accuracyof his narrative. Indeed, had the originaldespatches sent by Hannibal to Carthagecome down to us, we could hardlyhave foundin them an account of the leading events ofthe campaign arranged in a more intelligibleand interestingmanner. Gibbon tells us, that
in Polybiusthere is a sterilityof fancy. Thisin an historian cannot surely be deemed afault ; but however true it may be, and
however little his stylemay bend from its
grave and dignifiedflow, his narrative is byno means deficient in the art of addressing
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INTRODUCTION,
itself to our imagination. The events he de-scribes
are so clearlyand vividlydepicted,that in reading him we seem almost to livein the days of the Punic war, in defiance ofthe fine lines of Lucretius, where the poetexclaims
"
iii. 844. Wi^m^ anteacto nil tempore sensimus segri.Ad confligendumvenientibus imdique Paenis ;Omnia cum, belli trepidoconcussa tumultu,Horrida, contremuere sub altis setheris auris;111 dubioque fuere,utrorum ad regna cadundumOmnibus humanis asset, terraque marique.
The nearer an author lives to the times of
which he writes the history,the more likelyhe is to enter with spiritinto the narrative,and to communicate his enthusiasm to his
readers. Polybius lived but one generationonly after Hannibal ; his authorities weremen who had been actors in the very scenes
he describes, while his intimacy with the" Virtus Scipiadseet mitis sapientiaLseli,"must have opened to him the purest sourcesof information. It is possible,perhaps,to de-tect
in the historian an excusable partialityto-wardsthe illustrious race of the Scipios; but,
even if this is the case, no writer during the
lapse of nearlytwenty centuries has yet ven-turedto impugn his veracity; while, of all the
losses that literature has to lament, none are
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INTRODUCTION. 7
more regrettedthan the defective portions of
Polybius.It is well-known to all those whom the
march of Hannibal has at all interested,that
a great controversy exists as to the preciseroad through the Alps traversed by the Car-thaginian
army ; and this has arisen from the
impossibilityof producing any accordance be-tweenthe accounts furnished us by Polybius
and Livy. In the time of Livy himself it wasalreadya subjectof debate, and the additionalconfusion into which it was plunged by thathistorian has continued the dispute down to
our own times. In the account Polybius has
given us of the progress of the Carthaginian
army from Spain to Italy,he glancesrapidlyover that portion of it preceding the passageof the Rhone, as presentingno events worthyof particularnotice ; but the mode of effectingthe passage of that river, as well as the subse-quent
dangers and difficulties experienced bythe Carthaginiansuntil they reached the plainsof the Po, are described with a precisionalmost amounting to the minuteness of a daily
journal. The historian,who dwells with un-usualinterest upon this part of his narrative,
had journeyed through the Alps upon thetrack of the Carthaginian army, to satisfyhim-
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8 INTRODUCTION.
self by a personal investigation of the locali-ties,
previous to recounting- what was then
considered, and is still looked back upon, as
one of the most extraordinary performancesever accomplished. As a proof of the estima-tion
in which Polybius was held even by his
rival Livy, and how much he was preferredasan authority to all other writers, of whom
there must have been several whose very
names are now lost to us, we need only remark
the servile manner in which he is copied bythe Latin author
"
in some placesso closelyasto be little else than merely translated. Itwould have been fortunate, perhaps,had this
been uniformly the case ; but Polybius wroteat least a century before Livy, and the courtof Augustus, for whom Livy undertook hiswork, required a more refined stylethan thatof the Greek author
; accordingly,in Livywe certainlydiscover Polybius,but it is Poly-bius
dressedup, ornamented, and amplified;
very well suited, no doubt, to the taste of the
day, but utterlydestructive of the simplicityand fidelityof the original. In many placesinextricable confusion has been thus produced ;and in no part so much as in the celebrated
descriptionof the passage of the Alps by Han-nibal
; for no more favourable opportunity
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INTRODUCTION.
presenteditself of indulginga fertile imagina-tionin its dispositionto exaggerate.^ We,
however, derive one advantage from Livy'snarrative ; it shows that Polybius alone washis authorityfor the account, as he ought tobe ours. It is from Polybius that all theevents of the march are extracted ; they suc-ceed
each other preciselyin the same order ;but they are immensely dilated, and loadedwith
many unnecessary remarks and extra-neous
matter ; above all,by Livy'sgiving the
names of certain Gallic tribes,through which
he affirms the Carthaginiansto have passed,as well as by positivelydeclaring them tohave crossed the highestridge of the Alps bythe Saltus Taurinus, (the Mont Genevre,)the narrative of Polybius is attempted to befastened
upon a line of country to which nei-
" To show how easilya hvely fancymay unconsciouslyfall into exaggerationupon a subjectof this sort, I needonly quote a sentence from a justlyadmired author, anardent lover of truth :" " It was in this campaign that he
(Bonaparte)proved himself a worthy rival of Hannibal.The energy which conducted an army, with its cavalry,artillery,and supplies,across the Alps, by untried paths,which only the chamois hunter, born and bred amidst gla-ciers
and everlastingsnows, had trodden, gave an impres-sion,which of all others he most desired to spread,of his
superiorityto nature, as well as to human opposition."-
Channing's Character of Bonaparte.
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10 INTRODUCTION.
ther time, nor space, nor geographicalcharac-ter,nor common sense, can possiblyunite it.
No doubt Livy imagined himself conductingHannibal by the road indicated by Polybius,and that by supplying the names, he wasmaking amends for the deficiencies of thatauthor ; but he had not, like Polybius,visitedthe mountains and ascertained the distances ;
and those who take him as a guide upon the
assurance of the names he furnishes,will soonfind themselves entangled in an inextricable
labyrinth.The first steps towards attainingany thing
like a rational explanationof this march weretaken by M. Deluc, of Geneva,* who, in amost able illustration of a theory made known
to him by the late General Melville, founded
wholly and solelyupon the authorityof Poly-bius,by a diligentcomparison of ancient with
modern topography,and by carefullyattend-ingto the time and distances which are re-corded
with sufficient precision,has at last
pointedout the only true mode of clearingupthe question. M. Deluc's publicationwasalmost immediately followed by that of twomembers of the Universityof Oxford,! who
* Histoire du Passage des Alpes j^ar Annibal. Par J.
A. Delue, filsde feu G. A. Deluc, "c. "c. Geneve, 1818.
t Dissertation on the Passage of the Alps by Hannibal.
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INTRODUCTION. 1 1
had themselves minutely investigatedthewhole country between the Rhone and the
Po. In this excellent performance,after some
very valuable remarks upon the earlyhistoryof the Alps, the claims of the Little St. Ber-nard
to the distinction of being the road ofHannibal are set forth in a manner so clear,
and so convincing,that we feel as sure of thefact as we do of the existence of Hannibal
himself. It is not the intention of the author
of the followingpages to touch, except in a veryslightdegree,upon that part of the topographyof the march which belongs to the Alps them-selves
" consideringthe above-mentioned pub-licationsto have effected nearly as much as
the nature of the subject,or the purposes ofhistory,required. It appears to him, however,that neither General Melville, nor M. Deluc,
nor even the Oxford authors themselves, have
satisfactorilyestablished the line of march be-tween
the Rhone and the foot of the Alps ;on the contrary, that they have not been suc-cessful
in assimilatingthe narrative of Poly-bius with the route they have adopted throughDauphiny, and that these errors materiallyaffect their subsequent calculations during the
By Henry L. Wickham, Esq., and the Rev. J. Cramer,
late Students of Ch. Ch. Oxford. Second Edition. Lon-don,
1828.
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12 INTRODUCTION.
passageof the Alps. Under these impressions,
aftera
close attention toevery
word in the
text of the Greek historian, and aided by an
additional recent examination of the country,
henow
offers the result of his observations,
fully convinced that the road by which he
shows the Carthaginian general to have con-ducted
hisarmy
to the entrance of the valley
of the Little St. Bernard will be admitted to
correspond with that described by Polybius, as
to time, distance, and geographical character,
ina manner so
close and incontrovertibleas
to set this long pending discussion at rest for
ever.
-
PuhHrhed/ hy ^
-
"TA- C.WaHiPr, snap.
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL,
When Hannibal had reached the foot of the ^o\yh. iii.39, 40.
Pyrenees on the Spanish side, half the distance
between New Carthage and the plains of the
Powas accomplished ; but the remaining- por-tion,
in point of difficulty, was by much the
most considerable. He had before him the
formidable obstacles of the Pyrenees, the
Rhone, and the Alps ; and the worst parts of
the country were occupied by the fierce and
fickle tribes of the Transalpine Celts.
This latter half of the march is divided by
Polybius into three portions"
I. From Emporium (Ampurias, on the Bayof Rosas, in Catalonia) to the Rhone.
II. From the Rhone to the commencement
of the ascent of the Alps.
-
14 ':*../,
%THfi''yArRCH OF HANNIBAL.
""""
.
" " ""
'"iHl''-Across''the' Alps to the Plains ofthe Po.
Of these divisions it is the second princi-pallywhich forms the subjectof the present
investigation.The route from Spain to theRhone is sufficientlyevident ; and the passageof the Alps has been alreadyproved satisfac-torily
to be that of the Little St. Bernard. It
will,however, be necessary to examine, to acertain extent, these portionsof the march, inorder to connect them with the extremities of
the intermediate section ; and in so doing, afew remarks upon the passage of the Alps willbe brought forward, tending to complete,if
any thing is needed to complete,the proofthat the Little St. Bernard was the road of
Hannibal.
First, then, with a view to determine the
exact point upon the Rhone where the Car-thaginians
passed that river, we have to takeinto consideration the road across the Pyrenees,and through Languedoc, by which they ad-vanced
to its banks. The notices of this
march, although quite sufficient for our pur-pose,are very scanty. Hannibal is repre-sentedat first as under some apprehensionof
the Celts, on account of the difficult nature of
c. 41. their country ; while Scipio calculated uponthe delayhis enemies would experiencefrom
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 15
the same circumstance, and from the multi-tude
of those barbarous tribes. These were
the Celts, elsewhere described by Polybius as
occupying all the country between the Py- c. sr
renees and the river Narbo, (Aude,) a tractexactlycoincidingwith the limits of the terri-tory
of Roussillon, the modern department of
the Pyrenees Orientales.* The remainingsentences descriptiveof the march, separatedfrom tli" interruptionof other details,stand asfollows
"
'Avvij^ag^E irapa^o^coQ,rovg /j-lv'y^py]fxaaiTrkiaaqc. 41.rwv KfXrwv, rovq ^" ^laaafjuvoq,riKe /Liera rwv^vvajmecjv,^i^iove^wv to ^ap^oviovireXayogyeiri TtjvTov 'Po^avou ^ia(5a"Jiv.
*AvVt/3aC^ ", WpOCT/JLL^aQTOIQ TTSplTOV TTOTafLOV g. 43.TOTTOiq, ev^iiogkv^ykipuiroiua^ai tyiv ^iaj3a(nvKaTaTTiv aTrXrivpvaiv ayj^ovi^^spwv TeTTapwv o^ov airkyjav(TTpaTOTre^if)ttiq ^oXaTTYiQ.
" But Hannibal having,beyond all expecta-
* There is another passage of Polybiusexistingin the Poiyb.shape of a fragment,presented in Athenseus, which con- ^^^\^-^ i^tains some curious particularsrelating to the Roussillon Gallia,
country ; he speaksof certain fossilfish found in the neigh-bourhoodof the modern towns of Elne and Perpignan.
Organic remains of divers sorts are found in an osseousbreccia,common in several placesalong this coast of the
Mediterranean. Polybiusimaginesthese fish to have madetheir
way from the rivers (theTetand the Tech) in search oftheir favourite food,the roots of the Agrostis.
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16 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
tion,persuaded some of the Celts by presents,and compelled others by force, advanced withhis forces towards the passage of the Rhone,
having the Sardinian sea to the right." And
upon reaching the country in the
neighbourhood of the river, he immediatelyprepared to make the passage, at the singlestream, having his army at the distance of
four days'journey from the sea."To these materials must be added a pre-vious,
and more important extract :"Kai /LirjvsvTEv^ev eiri tt^v tov 'Po^avov diaj3a(nvy
c. 38. nepi viXiovg e^a/cocriovc.ravra yap vvv p^pr]fxaTi(JTaiy
Kcii (JiiGrifxkiwTaiKara (jraciovQ oktio cia PiofxaidjveTTijuieXCjg,
** And from thence (Emporium) to the pas-sageof the Rhone, nearly1,600 stadia,(200
M.p.,)for this distance has now been carefullymeasured by the Romans, and marked everyeightstadia."
From these materials we have to trace the
march to the banks of the Rhone ; and as far
as Nismes, we meet with no obstacle to our
progress, for the great Roman way is per-fectly
well known from the Itineraries.
Nismes itself stands at a distance of 177 m.p.
from Emporium, according to the authors of
p. 230. the *' Dissertation."
The remainder of the distance to the Rhone
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18 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
and is noticed by Strabo. The geographeris
speaking of the way from Nismes to AquaeSextise (Aix.)
iv. c. 3. E/c Nf^avcrov^" ^la Ouyt^vou kul Tapa(jK(i)vogeig TO. Seo^avcara ra ^"C,TiaKa\ov/j,Eva,
** From Nismes, through Ugernum and
Tarasco, to the warm waters of Sextius."
And again,speakingof another road "iv. c. 3. TtJv Sia OvoKOVTLijJV Kai tyiq Kottlov. fi^XP* 1^^^
Ovy^pvov, Kai TapaoKtovog Koivrj o^og rj airo
^ejLLav(Tov"** That throughthe Vocontii and the terri-tory
of Cottius,"
the road as far as Ugernumand Tarasco, is the same as that from
Nismes/'
No other Roman way leadingfrom Nismes
to the Rhone, exists even in tradition ; it
follows,therefore,that either at Beaucaire or
Aries, Hannibal must have effected his pas-sage
; and we are at once relieved from all
doubt as to which of the two placeswe are to
choose, by the words of Polybiushimself. He
c. 42. says it was Kara TTiv airXriv pvaiv " at the placewhere the river flowed *' m a singlestream."These words have been thought to mean a
part of the stream iminterruptedby any ofthose islands with which the Rhone abounds,
an explanationin which I cannot at all
concur, for the words are most certainlyap-
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. l9
pliedby Polybiusto the passage at Beaiicaire,in contradistinction to the other passage at
Aries ; for at Aries the bifurcation of the
Rhone begins," at Aries there are two streams,and the passage there would have been Kara
rriv ^iirXnvpvaiv, Poljbius,Speakingof the Po,employsthe same expression, "" c. le.
Triv /JLEV yap irpujTrjve/c twv TTJ^ywv e'^ei PY2IN
AFIAHN^ c^i^erat^'eigBvo fxkpy]Kara tovq 7rpo(T-ayopevofxhovgT piya(56\ovg,
*' The river flows from its sources in a singlestream at first,but it is divided into twobranches in the country of the Trigaboli."
It remains to be shown, that in the distance
of Beaucaire from Emporium there is nothinginconsistent with the " nearly1,600 stadia
(200 M.p.)"of Polybius. From Emporium toNismes there are, as has been alreadystated,about 177 Roman miles ; if to these we add
15, the number, according to the Theodo-sian Table, between Nismes and Beaucaire,
we get a total of 192 miles, which falls short
of the Polybiandistance by eightmiles : thisis too considerable a defalcation to pass with-out
comment"
and on this I have two remarks
to offer.
First"
The Greek historian here makes use
of the word Trept," nearly;" we are not,
therefore,to expect to find an e3:aGt 200 m.p.,c 2
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20 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
particularlyas when he employs this word he
commonly exceeds the real distance in the
number he gives; for instance,he gives thedistance from New Carthage to the plainsofthe Po in this manner "
From New Carthageto the Iberus.
2,600
From the Iberus to Emporium. .
1,600-4,200
From Emporium to the Rhone. .
1,600
From the Rhone to the Alps. . .
1,400
Across the Alps to the Plains of the Po 1,200-4,200
8,400
Making altogethera length of 8,400 stadia ;yet in summing it up he speaksin round num-
numbers, callingit " nearly 9jOOO stadia :"
iii.c. 39. WOT civai Tovg Travraq "K Kaivrjg TToAewc (TTaoiovg
TTEpi evvaKKT'^iXiovQ,Secondly" If it should still be required to
p. 45. approach more closelyto the 200 m.p., we
may remark that M. Deluc, in calculatingthedistance between Emporium and Juncaria, (laJunquera,)does not follow the main roadthrough Figueras,but thinks it probabletheancients had some shorter and more direct line
through Peralada ; upon which suppositionheforms his computation.
Thus, therefore, in point of distance from
Emporium, there is nothingin the situation of
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 21
Beaucaire that militates againstthe accountgivenby Polybius.The three data " the dis-tance,
the Roman road,and the singlestream,by which we thus determine the placeof the
passage, are of themselves,perhaps,sufficient;but there is yet a fourth " the distance from
the foot of the Alps,which is stated by Poly-biusto be 1,400 stadia,or 17*5Roman miles.
Out of these 175 m.p., one hundred have
been hitherto alwaysassignedto that part ofthe march above the Isere,between that river
and the first ascent of the Alps. Accordingto this division of the distance,the remaining7*5 M.p. must of course be allotted to the
march between the passage of the Rhone and
the Isere. In this manner the placeat whichthe Rhone was crossed becomes easilydis-coverable,
since to find it we have onlytomeasure 75 m.p. down the stream from its
confluence with the Isere. Accordingly,M.Deluc fixes the spotat Roquemaure ; and in
so doing he is aided by the support of allother writers upon the subject.*It is not,however, surprisingthat all authorities should
"
agree so cordiallyupon this point,because theabsolute distance of 75 m.p., measured from
* Theanonymous author of
" Hannibal's Passageof the
Alps. By a Member of the Universityof Cambridge,London, 1830," fixes upon Tarascon as the point of
passage." Ed.^
^.^^-^ c-^^.^^^, /^^" '-^-^ -"---/^ ;
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22 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
the Isere southwards, must always terminateat Roquemaure ; and nothing is left to pro-duce
any disunion of opinion. Whether thismode of computingthe distance is the correctone or not, will be considered hereafter ; and
it will be shown, that in the number of miles
between Tarascon, oppositeBeaucaire, andthe foot of the Alps,there is nothingwhichdoes violence to the 175 of Polybius.
There is still another circumstance which
has been called in to assist in determiningthe
placeat which the Rhone was passed,of whichsome notice ought to be taken 5 it is derivedfrom the words of Polybiusalreadyquoted.He is speakingof Hannibal "
TTjg OaXarrrig," Being distant with his army (or camp)
from the sea, a distance of nearlyfour days."This distance has been usuallymeasured
from the wstern mouth of the Rhone, be-cause
Scipiohad arrived there with his army,on his voyage towards Spain; and a'^edovTJiuiptDvTETTaptov o^ov IS supposedto mean four
daysmarch. But as Polybiusdoes not tell usthat the distance is to be reckoned from that
part of the sea-coast, and has not anywhere,that I know of,assigneda definite lengthfor
a day'smarch, any calculations founded uponsuch constructions are very likelyto prove
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 23
erroneous. In another part of his work the
historian uses the same expression: he is
speaking of Clusium, the modern town of
Chiusi, in Tuscany. This town, he says,
three days'journey from Rome." Now thedistance of Clusium from Rome is nearly100Roman miles,which would give upwards of30 M. p. for a day'sjourney" a common dis-tance
for a traveller riding the same horse,but which cannot be understood as the dailymarch of a regulararmy. What Polybiusreallydoes mean by these words is not quite
apparent. It would rather seem (butI speakwith great diffidence)that some placeon thecoast of the Mediterranean is intended, which
Hannibal had alreadyleft behind him in hismarch from Spain" perhaps the Emporium of
Narbonne, which is distant about 110 m. P.,
nearlyfour days'journeyof thirtymiles a-day,strabo.and which, from the importance of its re-sources
in earlyages, is not unlikelyto havedetained Hannibal for a short time after he
had emerged from the difficult country occu-pied
by the Celts ; that is the pointalso atwhich mention had been made of the Sardinian
sea " that it layto his rightas he proceededonhis march.
Be that as it may, the lightafforded us by
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24 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
Polybiusis quite enough to conduct us withsufficient certaintyto Beaucaire, a placewellsuited to the encampment of a largeforce.
itineraire " Sur uuc eminence qui commande la ville,ii. p.
414.'s'elevait le chateau de Beaucaire, ou St. Louis
fit batir, avant son depart pour la TerreSainte, une chapellequ'on y voit encore. Lechateau qui n'existe deja plus, a remplacecelui de I'antiqueUgernum, construit par lesRomains ; de cette hauteur on jouit d'unemagnifiqueperspective.Sur le bord du Rhone
regne une vaste prairie,bord^e de longuesallees d'ormes et de platanes,qui servent de
promenade."Here Hannibal lost no time in preparingto
carry over his army, and Polybiushere beginsa sort of diaryof the operations,which is kept,with but few interruptions,until the passageof the Alps is completed. The days and
nights are not always specified; but when
they are, the Greek text will be found inserted
in the followingarrangement : "
Poiyb.iii. The FIRST night is to be reckoned as suc-ceedingthe day of the arrival of the army
upon the Rhone.
1st day." Preparations for crossing arecommenced ; boats of all sorts are collected,
and rafts constructed.
2. Night.
C.42.
-
26 XHE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
4. Day." 'E/cavryvfilvTTJv Yijuipav^dfiHvav,Hanno and his men, after taking*up a strongposition,*' remained quietfor the day,"restingthemselves after the hardshipstheyhad under-
gone.
c. 43.5. Night." FATnyevojulvrjgTrig Tr^mTriq vvktoq,
** The followingnightbeingthe fifth,"Hannoset out alongthe river towards the barbarians,
VTTO TTjv "(i)9ivriv(^(pvXaKrjv^" about the morningwatch," ^= that is,about 3 A. m.
5th day." As soon as Hanno, by a pre-concertedsignalof smoke, had made known
his approach to Hannibal, the Carthaginians,who were all prepared, dashed across theriver in the face of the barbarians, while
Hanno fellupon them in the rear. They soontook flight,and the passage of the Rhone wasaccomplished.
C.44,6. Night.'" eKavrjv i^ev tyiv vvKTa, ** That
night" Hannibal encamped by the side of theriver. Tarascon, surrounded with fertile mea-dows,
is as favourable a situation for an army
as Beaucaire.
6. Day." Tri ^'eiravpiov," The next morn-
Veget. Re* The ancients divided the night(from surinaeto sunsi^;
Mil. iii.8. jjj^q fQ^j.equalportionsor watches. Hannibal crossed the
B-hone about the time of the autumnal equinox" when, as
the days and nights were of equal length,the morningwatch would commence at 3 a. M.
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 27
ing" Hannibal, having intelligenceof theRomans being at the mouth of the Rhone,despatched500 of his Numidian cavalrytomake a reconnaissance. Preparationsweremade for gettingover the elephants.An as*semby of the troops was also held, at whichthe chieftains from the plainsof the Po wereintroduced ; who, by means of interpreters,boasted of their readiness to make common
cause againstthe Romans " and extolled thegrandeur and fertilityof Italy,to which theyheld out promisesof a safe and speedymarch.The generalhimself next addressed the troops,who manifested the utmost ardour, and he
dismissed the assembly,after givingorders tohold themselves in readiness to march the
followingmorning : wc "C rriv avpiov avaZvyrjg((To/mivrjg,After this,the 500 Numidians weredriven back into the camp by a detachment ofc 47.Roman and Gaulish horse,* who had been
sent out to reconnoitre by Scipio.
* The Gaulish horse were some troops Scipiofound at Polyb. lib,Marseilles. Some allusion to them appears to he made in ^^^i^-a fragmentof Polybius,not uninterestingto the EnglishGeogr.reader. It seems that when Scipioquestionedthem andsome other Gauls from Narbonne and other towns, virep ttjqBperraviKtjq," concerningBritain," ovdetq etj^e Xeyeivo'v^eV fxvriiiYiQa^iov,"not one had any thingto say worth
remembering!" Polybiusmay perhapsbe speakingof ScipioAfricanus, as he calls him "Scipio;" he usuallycalls thefather " Publius."
-
28 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
7. Night.7* ^^J' " ^V /^aTtt TTo^ag Vf^'^^arfJc kKK\r]aiaq,
*' The next day after the assembly,"as soonas it was light,Hannibal postedall his cavalryon guard on the side towards the sea, whilethe infantrycommenced their march. The
elephants,thirty-sevenin number, were then
brought over, and the curious manner inc. 46. which this was contrived is very circumstan-tially
detailed by Polybius.With these animals
c. 47. and his cavalry,Hannibal proceeded alongthe
river, forming the rear guard of his army.It has been supposed that he was occupied awhole day,or even two days,in transportingthe
elephantsacross the Rhone. There is nothingin Polybiusto justifythis conjecture,nor is itlikelythe generalwould have permitted soprolonged a separationof his forces. The
cavalry,so remarkable for their celerity,andthen fresh after several days'repose ; and the
elephants,whose shuffleperformseightmiles
an hour, would soon have overtaken the rest
of the army.
Thus we have Hannibal, with all his army,
fairlyacross the Rhone, and set forth on his
march towards the Alps. It now becomes ne-cessaryto examine the road he took to reach
those mountains.
Three roads leadingacross the Alps into
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 29
Italy,divergefrom Tarascon " all of them fre-quented
by the Romans, and known as earlyasthe time of Polybius,for he speaksof them all.
1. One of them takes a south-easterlydi-rection,
through the territoryof the Ligures,by the maritime Alp " the modern Cornicheroad by Monaco to Genoa. Tliis is cele-brated
in the verses of Virgilas one of theroads by which the legionsof Julius Csesar
poured down upon Italy"
Aggeribus socer Alpinisatque arce Monoeci ^neid. vi,Descendens ; gener adversis instructus Eols.
2. The second bears due east upon leavingTarascon, and then, in a north easterlydirec-tion
by the valleyof the Durance, ascends theCottian Alp, the modern Mont Genevre.
This, of all the passes of the Alps, was themost frequentedby the Romans, as leadingtoa great part of Gaul, to the Province, and to
Spain. The new and magnificentroad acrossthis mountain was the last undertaken byBonaparte.
3. The third road keptalong the left bankof the Rhone, due north from Tarascon, asfar as the territoryof the Allobroges; afterpassingthroughthem, it traversed the GraianAlp, and descended into Italyby the valleyinhabited by the Salassi " that is,in modern
geography,up the Rhone as far as the depart-
-
so THE MARCH OF HANNIBaL,
ment of the Isere,then to the Little St. Ber-nard,
and thence into Italyby the valleyofAosta.*
By one of these routes Hannibal had tomake his way from Tarascon to Italy; andthe words irapa Tov TTora^oi;,
" alongthe river,'*which frequentlyoccur in Polybius,imme-diately
discover that it was by the road upthe Rhone, towards the Graian Alp.
Along this road, then, by the side of the
river,we find Hannibal pressingforward with
Straho, * It is Strabo who informs us that these three passes,
togetherwith one other by the Rhoetian Alps, are men-tioned
by Polybius" his words are important.IloXv[3tOQ Terrapaq ^' virep^daeiqdvofid'Ceijuovoy Btd
Aiyvcjp ^eV, ti]v eyyiffra rw Tvppiji^iKaTreXqyei'lira rr)vSid Tavpiv(t)Vfr]v *Avvi(3aqc)irj\dev'iira ti]v Sid ^dkaaaruiy'T"rdprr]ySe, r^u hd ^Fairwy. If these words are reallythe words of Polybius,and are to be preferredto the wholeof the existinghistory,we may spare ourselves any farther
trouble in seekingfor a road for Hannibal across the Alps ;because he is here decidedlystated to have gone by the
country of the Taurini, which means by the Cottian Alp ;and we must be content to remain for ever dissatisfiedwith
the whole narrative of the march of Hannibal, which is
completelyat variance with this road. But it is evident
that Strabo is not quotingany particularpassage of Poly-bius,but merely enumeratingthe only four roads through
the Alps mentioned by that author in dififerent parts of his
history.The interpolation,therefore,of ^v ^AvvifiaqdirjXdey,h onlya parentheticalcomment, a glossof Strabo's own,
and not to be considered as quotedfrom Polybius.
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. SI
all possibleexpedition;*"and after havingmarched," says Polybius,"for four days in
succession, subsequent to the passage of the
river, he came to a placecalled the Island."
*Avvi(5ag^e irofnaafxtvoQ 1^t)Qeiri T^TTapagr]/uLepagc. 49.rrjvTTopkavairo rfjcdiaj^aaecog,r}Ke irpog rrfV koXov-fiivrjvNritTOV.
The Island,! or " Insula AUobrogum," iswell known, and Polybius'sdescriptionof it
* Ilpo^ye TTopct Toy TrorafidvaVo QaXdrrriq' tjg cVt rrjyeoj c. 47.
iroiovfievoQ Ti)yiropeiavwc etc ttjpfxeaoyaiov Ttjq EvjOwttj/c." He proceededalongthe river away from the sea, " thus
marching first towards the east, then into the midland of
Europe." I have never seen any satisfactoryexplanationof this sentence. Hannibal unquestionablymarched up the
Rhone, that is,northwards, towards the heart of Europe ;but eVi T7}veo), " towards the east,"seems utterlyunintel-ligible.
I have placed the stop which usuallyfollows the
word TTora^oi/, after 6a\c/rrnQ;and if we can understandthe rest of the sentence^tothe march in generalquitefrom
Spain, Hannibal might safelybe said to advance first" towards the east," then, crossingthe Rhone and turning
along the river away from the sea, " towards the centre of
Europe." Some objectionhas been made to any passage ofthe Rhone below its confluence with the Durance, therebyincurringthe necessityof crossingthat river also ; but theDurance in the autumn, at which time of the year Hannibal
reached it,presents no sort of difficulty.f The " Insula" is composed of the first,second, and
almost the whole of the third arrondissement of the depart-mentof the Isere, togetherwith five cantons of the first
aiTondissement of the departmentof the Drome j and the
-
32 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
which follows, is perfectlyapplicableto its
present condition. It lies almost entirelywithin the department of the Isere, and wascalled an Island because the Rhone to the
north and west, the Isere to the south, and
the mountains of the Grande Chartreuse to
the east,completelyinsulate it; and those whohave visited this beautiful country can vouch
for the justnessof the appellation.The distance of this island is about one
hundred Roman miles from Tarascon,* which
may appear an enormous space to be traversed
by the Carthaginianarmy in so short a timeas four days. Twenty-fivemiles per day is
unquestionablya severe march ; but it is in
perfectaccordance with the usual pace ofHannibal, who fell like a thunderbolt uponItaly,with a rapiditythat not only amazedthe conscriptfathers at Rome, who found him
upon the Po almost before they fancied him
upon the Ebro ; but excited the astonish-ment
even of Scipio,who was himself dis.
population,accordingto a recent census, amounts to about
366,000 souls. Some of the richest land in France is to be
met with in this district.
* The distance between the Isere and Roquemaure is
stated by the Oxford authors to be precisely75 miles ; that
between Roquemaure and Tarascon, measured on their map,is about 25
" making altogether100 M. p.
-
"i THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
The arrival of Hannibal at the island was
followed by some remarkable occurrences.He here found two brothers in arms againsteach other, contending for the sovereigntyofsome Celtic tribe, the name of which is not
givenby Polybius.The Carthaginiangeneralturned this quarrel to his own advantage;for, by lending his assistance to the elderbrother, and dispossessingthe younger, he sofar gained the good-will of the successfulchieftain, as to receive from him in return
some very important favours. The Cartha^
giniansobtained from the gratefulbarbarian afresh supplyof provisionsand arms " of clothingand of shoes ; which latter equipment theyfound of infinite use when theyreached the
higherpartsof the mountains ; but the greatestservice of all that he rendered them, was, that
while they were lookingwith anxietytowardsthe march through the country of the Gauls,
c 49. called AllobrogeS" evXa^tJg^ laKei/ULhoigTTpog Trjv^la rvjv 'AXXoj3piy(i)VKaXov/nevcovFaXarajv Tropnav,he protectedthe rear of the army with his
own forces,coveringtheir march, and render-ingtheir passage secure, while they neared
the main ascent of the Alps.But,
''As one who on his journeybates at noon,Though bent on speed/'
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 35
SO must we pause awhile, and take into consi-deration
whereabouts Hannibal had halted,and who these barbarians were, from whom
he received so much assistance.
In the slender materials as yet extracted
from Polybius,we have not sufficient lighttoelucidate these two pointsfully; but we mayfind something"to assist us in the research.
Out of the three expressions,VICE Trpog TT]v k aXov/JiivrivNriaov,
irpoQ r)V a^iKOfXEvoq,
and KaToXafiCjvkv avT^ythe last alone seems to indicate the arrival of
Hannibal in the island. Even that might havethe word x^P^ understood meaning the placewhich Hannibal had reached ; but if it must
be considered as applied to the Nri(Toc,stillitdoes not bear out the conjecturethat he hadmade any progress in that country. On the
contrary,that he had not advanced into it,we
may collect both from the transaction with
the barbarians being described as occurringimmediatelyafter the four days'march, with-out
notice of any subsequentmovement, andfrom the sentence quoted above " " That the
army was under great apprehensionsat the
prospect of the march through the country of
the Gauls, called Allobroges."Now, the
Allobrogesoccupiedthe whole Insula, whichD 2
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36 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
bore the name of the Insula Allobrogum ; andif the army was looking forward with dismaytowards the march through the country of the
Allobroges,it does not appear probablethat
they were further advanced than the mereconfines of that people. The army had justgrounds for its apprehensions.We shall find^as we proceed,that they were on the eve of
entering a very difficult country, and the
Allobrogesare invariablyrepresentedas ene-miesusingevery effort to obstruct the march,
until Hannibal completelyrouted them andsacked their city. Some writers have sup-posed
that these friendlybarbarians were aconciliated portionof the Allobrogiantribe :nothingin Polybiuswarrants this conjecture;he never says so, nor can it even be inferred
from any of his expressions: if they were not
Allobroges,they must have been the distinct
people who occupiedthe adjoiningcountryon the south bank of the Isere,and these were
the Segalauni.** The Segalamiimight,perhaps,have had some lands on
the north hank of the Isere,althoughthat river would seemto form their natural boundary: outlyingpossessionsof asimilar descriptionare recorded as belongingto other Gallictribes. Three instances mentioned by Csesar present them-selves
at this moment : "
I. The Allobrogesoccupiedcertain lands on the rightbank of the Rhone, (b. g. i. 11.)
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
If we cast our eyes on any map of that partof France which once bore the name of Dau-
phiny, we perceive that the three towns ofValence, (Valentia,)Romans, and Tain,(Tegna,) form a nearlyequilateraltriangle;the Rhone flows on its western side,while the
Isere,running from the eastern angle at Ro-mans,divides the figureinto nearlyequalpor-tions.Somewhere within the limits of this
triangle,at one or other, perhaps, of theabove-mentioned towns, the Carthaginiansmusthave fallen in with their anonymous friends ;
and there, during a few days'halt,preparedthemselves for ulterior and more hazardous
operations.These extended limits are allowedfor the purpose of allayingthe alarms of thosewho, arguingfrom the words ev avry, requireHannibal to be positivelywithin the Insula.In
my own mind, I have not the slightestdoubt but that Valence was the scene of these
operations. Its distance from the placewherethe Rhone was passed is exactly,or almost
exactly,800 stadia, 100 m. p., and it will be
shown that its positionequallywell agreeswith the distance assignedto the first ascent
II. The Rhemi had some establishment north of tlie
Axona (Aisne.) (b. g. ii.6.)III. The Menapii are representedas having possessions
beyond the Rhine, (b. g. iv. 4.)
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38 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL,
of the Alps. Hannibal is dealing*with apeoplewho are evidentlynot the Allobroges,and can therefore be no other than the Se"
g-alauni,of whom Valence was the capital; atValence, too, the high-road turns away fromthe river,and leads directlytowards the Alps.How far this positionagrees with Hannibal's
subsequentproceedingswe shall discover aswe follow him on his march.
Hannibal has now to proceed on his march,and at this point,all the doubts, difficulties,and disputes of all writers who undertaketo trace his progress, have their origin. TheRoman historian,who leads the literaryhost,makes the Carthaginians,after marching con-tinually
to the northward, now turn sharplyround towards the south-east, and pursuetheir way to the Cottian Alp. In this heis followed by several authors, who, in fruit-less
attempts to produce harmony betweenhim and Polybius,conduct Hannibal alongthe south side of the Isere to the Mont
Genevre, or to the Mont Cenis. Others,
again,abandoning Livy,have almost proved,from Polybiusalone, that Hannibal marcheda considerable way alongthe Rhone above itsconfluence with the Isere ; and then, crossingthe " Insula," and the mountains, which form
its eastern side,in the neighbourhoodof Les
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 39
Echelles, found his way to the valleyof theLittle St. Bernard by the town of Chambery,the ancient Lemincum. Above all,the eru-dite
historian of Manchester, who has written
copiouslyon the question, has astonished allthose who have considered the subject,byboldlycarrying Hannibal by an inexplicableroute, to the foot of the Alps at Martigny,and thence across the Great St. Bernard.
The only roads by which Hannibal could
possiblyhave gained the Cottian Alp fromhis positionnear the confluence of the Isereand the Rhone, are the following: "
I. The road by which Livy conducts the
Carthaginians,was one which any Roman
traveller in the days of Livy would probablyhave chosen. It led from Valence up the
valleyof the Druna, (Drome,) the country ofthe Vocontii, and thence by Vapincum, (Gap,)into the valleyof the Durance, occupied bythe Caturiges. The Saltus Taurinus, or AlpisCottia, now the Mont Genevre, is at the
sources of the Durance. By this road we CaesarB.o.i.Tacit.
find Csesar at the head of five legionshurrying Hist. *i.46.from Italyto oppose the Helvetii,* and Fa- xiv.bins Valens from the Rhine leadinga division
* Caesar was opposedby the Centrones, the Garoceli,and
the Caturiges" the inhabitants of the high valleysof the
Isere, the Arc, and the Durance. These mountaineers
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40 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
of Vitellius's army againstOtho. Constan-
tine,too, on his way to seize the empire,and
change the condition of the world. It seemsto have become the most frequentedpassageof the mountains, after the Emilian Way and
other roads on the Italian side had opened amore direct communication with the Cottian
Alp.There is no road of any magnitude from
Valence along the south bank of the Isere,
owing to the impracticablenature of the
country. But,
II. Upon reaching the Drac, which fallsinto the Isere justbelow Grenoble, a roadleads up the valleyof that river,formerlythe
country of the Tricorii,to Gap, and so to theCottian Alp.
III. From this road, another diverges,from the banks of the Drac
up the valleyof atributaryriver,called the Romanche, ancientlyinhabited by the Uceni ; and this road, whichis given in the Theodosian Table, reaches the
would easilyhave communicated by the Col de la Vanoisebetween the Isere and the Arc ; and by the Col de Galibier
between the Arc and the Durance. Both these Cols were
frequentedduringthe wars in the Alps,in the time of LouisXIV. (See the Memoires of Marshall Berwick, vol. ii.)Caesar treats the attacks of these people with great indif-ference,
" Compluribushis pulsispraeliis,''etc.
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4}i THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
writers who have adopted his opinion,con-ductthe Carthaginians; and so ablyhas this
theory been supported,that to disputeit mayappear almost like presumption. Neverthe-less,
after having*been a completeconvert toit myself for a length of time, some recentreflection upon the subjecthas allowed me toperceiveit was not without difficulties,which,added to some further examination of the
country, has led me to its abandonment, and,
finally,to the adoptionof a new line of march,which I now bring forward with a thoroughconviction of its accuracy. The road which
appears to me to be the rightone is,II. A road from Valence, short, obvious,
and direct,up the valleyof the Isere,crossingthat river at Romans into the country of the
Allobroges; and thence, by Grenoble, theancient Gratianopolis,and still more ancientCularo, to the entrance of the valleyof the
Little St. Bernard at Mont Meillan. It may,
perhaps,in limine be objectedto this road,that it was not open in the time of the
Romans, for it is not mentioned in their
Itineraries ; but are we to imagine that soostensible a line of communication, along so
magnificenta valley,containing so antiqueand celebrated a city,and in which we nowfind a great road of unknown origin,could
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 43
ever have been destitute of a way up and
down it, even in the earliest ages ? It cer-tainly
seems strange that no Roman road
through it is upon record 5 but Valence com-municatedwith Italyby the Cottian Alps,
while Vienna and Lyons, on the north,
reached the Graian Alp by the Mont du
Chat. No post road, therefore,would have
been wanted between Valence and Mont
Meillan ; but I shall adduce one proof that
some sort of road existed there as earlyasabout B. c. 40 " ** Consule Planco,''the ma-terials
of which are collected from the 10th
and 11th books of Cicero's Letters.
Lucius Munatius Plancus, at the head of an
army in Gaul, dates a letter to Cicero from
Cularo.* He was there evidentlycommuni-catingboth up and down the valley,because
on the west he had thrown a bridge across the
Isere, near its union with the Rhone ; and on
the east he was expectingto be joinedby theforces of Decimus Brutus, who, at that time,
was at Eporedia,Ivrea in Piedmont, and
consequently intending to pass the Graian
Alp.Up the valleyof the Isere,by way of Gre-
* It is true that this date is commonly written," Civa.-
rone, ex finibus Allobrogum,"which is clearlya mistake for" Culaxone"
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44 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
noble, (thestraightestroad towards the Alps,)I conceive Hannibal to have marched from
the cityof Valence ; whether along a Roman
highway or not is of little consequence, forwe are not now, as we were, between the
Pyreneesand the Rhone, restricted to " a road
measured and marked by the Romans."
Polybiusthus resumes the narrative "c. 50. *Avvif3ag^'ev 7]fJii^aiq^lica" 7ro^^v%uqirapa rov
TTOTa/uLOv elg OKTaKoaiovq ara^iovQ,r]^^aroti]q tt^oqrag' AXtthq avapoXrjg,
" Hannibal, after ten days,having marched
along the Rhone to the distance of 800 stadia,
began the ascent towards the Alps."The historian here sums up the time and
distance passedby Hannibal on the banks ofthe Rhone previousto his strikingaway fromthat river towards the Alps. The 800 stadia,
or 100 M. p., is exactlythe distance between
Tarascon and Valence ; and the ten daysseem to be composed of the four days'marchfrom Tarascon, added to six which we may
safelyassignas the period of his stay amongthe friendlybarbarians.
In common with the other readers of Poly-bius,I had always,until lately,believed that
this distance of 800 stadia along the Rhone,
ought to be measured north of its confluence
with the Isere,apparentlyfor no better reason
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 45
than because it happens to be mentioned afterthe notice of Hannibal's arrival at the Insula.
But there is nothing in Polybiusthat supportssuch a notion ; and two reasons out of many-will be sufficient to allegeagainstit ; perhapsafter the first is stated, the second may be
deemed superfluous.I. In the first place,the thing cannot he
done. There is no possibility,with anyrational result, to produce a march of 100
M. p. along the river,afterHannibal's arrival
upon the Isere. Those who carry the Car-thaginians
to the Cottian Alp, and explain
Trapa tov TrorajuLov as meaning the Isere, the
Drac, the Romanche, or the Arc, are evi-dently
forcinga meaning from the words, ofwhich they will not admit ; while those who
point towards the Graian Alp, allow them-selves
great latitude,in measuring the distance
along the river,for they make Hannibal turn
away from it at Vienne, about fortymiles
only above the Isere, and are satisfied withhis approaching it again at Aouste, near thefoot of the Mont du Chat.
II. If the 100 M. p. " along the river" aremeasured after Hannibal's arrival at the In-sula,
wherever they terminate, the Alps oughtto begin; because 75 m. p. having already
-
46 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
been calculated between Roquemaure and the
Isere, the whole Polybiandistance (175 m. p.)between the passage of the Rhone and the
Alps would be completed. But instead of
meeting with the Alps,we meet with a battle,and the capture of a town, which is com-pletely
at variance with Polybius,who placesthese events at the interval of two days'marchfrom the foot of the Alps. For we shall findthat a halt of one day at the capturedtown,and a subsequent march of two days, arereckoned
among the eighteendays counted be-tweenthe said town and the plainsof the Po ;
out of which eighteendays,fifteen* only areallotted to the passage of the Alps. It follows,therefore,that the fightwith the Allobroges,and the capture of their town, was at the dis-tance
of two days' march before the com-mencementof the Alps.
I might add, that 100 m. p. in ten days" tenmiles a day only" would have been extraordi-narily
slow marching, and so utterlyunlike
p. 115. * The Oxford authors are of opinion that we ought to
read eighteeninstead of fifteen days,in Polyhius; because
Tit Liv. ^^^^them the fightwith the Allobroges,and the first ascent
^^^- of the Alps, are contemporaneous events. But Livy, who
here translates Polybius, supports the reading,"Quinto
decimo die alpibussuperatis.''
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. #7
the rest of Hannibal's proceedings,that ofitself it is sufficient to create some suspicionof an erroneous interpretation.
It is,then, from the banks of the Rhone, in
the vicinityof its confluence with the Isere,that Hannibal, " after ten days,having march-ed
along the river to the distance of 800
stadia,"began the ascent irpog Tag'^AXireig'' to-wardsthe Alps"" not rwv 'AXttewv *' of the
Alps"" the first day'smarch would have car-riedhim to the banks of the Isere, and the
hostile territoryof the Allobroges,separatedby the stream of that river only,laybefore him.It will now become necessary to watch his
progress with increased vigilance,and to ob-servein what degreethe nature of the country
correspondswith the events recorded by Poly-bius. If this part of the march should be
found treated too much in detail,it must be
remembered that the topography is new asconnected with Hannibal's operations,havingnever yet been compared with the descriptiongiven in history; while the author, convincedof the truth of his theory,pleadsguiltyto the
justnessof the remark,
" To observations we ourselves do make.
We grow more partialfor the observer's sake."
The town of Valence, situated close upon
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48 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
the left bank of the Rhone, laysclahn to an
antiquityas remote as almost any town in
France, but it has preserved scarce a singlerelic of its originalinhabitants ; all that I metwith were two insignificantbas-reliefs insertedin the walls of the convent of the Soeurs
Grises : one of these marbles, probably asepulchralmemorial, represents a male andfemale figure,together with two children.In the other fragment an arch is discoverable,under which stand two men " one clad appa-rently
in the '' weeds of peace^" the other in
the " paludamentum" of war: under an ad-joiningarch is seen the figureof a soldier
seated, and leaning forward on his shield.No inscriptionwhich might have recorded thename of the Segalauniwas to be heard of; but
Notice de as D'Auvillc obscrvcs, " Ptolemee indiquant590^^^'^'T^alentia chez les Segalauni, entre Vienne
des Allohroges et les Tricastin% ne laisse
aucun doute sur I'emplacement de ce
peuple."The distance of Valence from Tarascon
agrees so closelywith the 100 m. p. " alongthe river,"of Polybins,that no objectionto iton that ground can possiblybe raised ; whileits positionin front of the " Insula,"beingthe last town before arrivingin that country,and distant not five miles from the Port de
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50 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
traverses a continued plain,interruptedonlyby two curious winding hollows in its surface,resemblingthe deserted beds of rivers. The
upper soil of this plainis a gravellyclay,con-taininglargeboulders, of which the old bat-
tlemented walls and turrets of Valence are
constructed. The country is far from beauti-ful,
but well cultivated,and produces greatquantitiesof silk. At the Peage de Pizan9on,oppositethe town of Romans, the road comes
upon the Isere, rollinga very considerable
body of water between deep and steep banksof sand and alluvium.
Between these two roads, both conductingus to the " Insula," we have no difficultyin
deciding. The distance of 800 stadia, 100
M. p., Tra^a tov -irorafxov" along the river,"
having expiredat Valence, we must at thattown turn away from the Rhone, and, conse-quently,
take the road leadingtowards Ro-mans,which not onlyquitsthe banks of the
river,but encourages us as presentinga mostobvious and direct approachtowards the Alps.The distance between Valence and Romans is
about ten miles. Hannibal would, therefore,
easilyreach the Peage de Pizan9on from Va-lencein a short day'smarch ; and it probably
cost him but littletime to carry his army over
the Isere. The river is here about 140 yards
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 51
across. Plancus, in his letters to Cicero,
more than once boasts of his expeditionin
throwing a bridgeacross the Isere in a singleday. " Itaque in Isara, flumine maximo, cic. Ep. adquod in finibus est Allobrogum,ponte uno die l-'^i*.facto, exercitum a. d. quartum Idus Maii
traduxi." This was in the month of May, atwhich season the waters of this river are ^"^
at their greatest height. Polybiusdoes notinform us by what means the Carthaginianscontrived to effect their passage : but we may
argue from his silence that they encountered
no obstacle,and reached the oppositeshore ofthe " Insula" in safety.
It was at Romans, therefore,that Hannibal
entered upon the dreaded territoryof the Al-
lobroges"gens,'*as Livy calls them, '* jam Tit. Li v.xxi, 31.
inde nulla gallicagente opibus aut fama in-ferior
;" from whom, when they at last sub-mitted
to the Roman arms, one hundred
years after the time of Hannibal, a Fabius
Maximus did not disdain to receive the
honourable appellationof Allobrogicus.Theymust either have been remarkable for their
ferocity,or have from the beginningdeclaredtheir determination to oppose Hannibal, for
his army began to entertain apprehensionsofthem even before it entered their territories.
Hannibal had now fairlyinvaded the " Insula.^E 2
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52 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
Polyb.in. j^^^(Tvv"J3rjfuLeyiaroig avrov rrepiireaeiv kiv^vvoiq." And it happened that very great dangers
befell him."
But not immediately,for Polybiusgoes onto inform us that,
ecog fiev yap Iv roig ETrtTrcooic vcjav, airUyovroTTavreQ avrCjv ot Kara jjLQpog -nyejULOveg tCjv AXXo-
f^jiyijjv,TO. /idv Tovg linreig^e^ioreg,ra ^e rovgTrapaTTc/HTrovTag (5apf3apovg.
*' As long as they (theCarthaginians)werein the plains,all the chieftains of the Allo-
broges,in succession, kept aloof from them,some fearingthe cavalry,others the barbarianswho accompanied the army."
For some time, therefore, we are not to
expect to meet any mountains 5 and we shall
observe in the sequelhow far an open countryanswering that descriptionwill be found toextend.
Leaving the old walls and battlements ofRomans behind us, we ascend to a wide ele-vated
plain,across which the road, broad,direct,and lined on each side with mulberryand walnut trees, stretches for about seven
miles as straightas an arrow towards the Posteof Les Fauris. On lookingback, the view tothe westward is bounded by the distant hazyhills of the Viverais beyond the Rhone ; onour right,on the oppositeside of the Isere,a
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 53
fine range of limestone mountains takes a
course from south-west to north-east. We
see their sides,which form the boundary ofthe low country in that direction,riven and
splitinto the most fantastic and picturesque
gorges, cliffs,and chasms, one of which, at Pont
en Royans, is a favourite resort of the Parisian
artists. A low range of undulatingsand-hills,
forming a semicircular sweep from Romans toLes Fauris, bounds the plain towards thenorth. These hills,compared with the plain,have a sterile aspect ; they are, nevertheless,
extensivelycultivated,and the vine thrives in
many places along their sides. They are, in
fact,a part of the same range, which, at its
western extremity,near Tain, upon the Rhone,after undergoing a change of soil,producesthe famous Vin de I'Ermitage; and there anacre of its slopesells for a thousand guineas.These hills confine the view on the north, and
by approaching the Isere at Les Fauris, theyobligethe road to descend close to the river,and to continue under their sandstone cliffs
and slopesuntil it emerges again,after passingthe stream of the Furand. We pass this tor-rent,
which, althoughgenerallya mere rivulet,is sometimes a considerable river, by a ford.Its waters, some years ago, carried away a
stone bridge,which has not yet been replaced.
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54 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
The ruins of an ancient chateau, which once
defended the passage, are seen upon the
heightsto the left. Many such old dilapidatedforts are scattered over this country once
tenanted by the powerful and turbulent Seig-neursof Dauphiny, the successors, and pro-bably
no bad representatives,of the Allobro-
gian chieftains of the days of Hannibal.
Risingfrom the bed of the Furand, we findourselves again upon a plainsimilar to thelast ; the sand-hills once more retire to the
left ; they are now more wooded, and manyhouses are visible on their sides. On the
right,the plainthrough which the Isere flows,in a bed too deep to admit of its being visible,reaches to the foot of the lofty limestone
mountains of Sassenage,which we begin to
perceivewe are approaching in an obliquedirection. The road again continues in a
perfectlystraightline for some males, until it
reaches the little town of St. Marcellin, where
the sand-hills,having formed another semi-circular
sweep, again come in contact with it.
From the terrace above St. Marcellin, on the
north, near the chateau of Bellevue, we com-mand
a magnificentprospect" a plainon eachside of the town, traversed by our road, lies
to the west and east. In front is expandedall the rich valley intermediate between us
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 55
and the Sassenagemountains ; these are nowso near that all their romantic crevices are
perfectlydistinguishable,and are lighted upto great advantage by an evening sun. The
most remarkable are, one towards Pont en
Royans before mentioned, and another at
Iseron, further to the east. Between the two,
overhanging a ravine, we see the ruins of theancient Castle of Beauvoir, once the residence
of the old Dauphins ; where, in 1385, Andre,the infant heir of Humbert II., the last of
the Dauphins, came to some doubtful and un-timelyend. The little inn of St. Marcellin,
Le petitParis,enjoysthe distinction of beingnoticed by the ** Hermite en Provence :"
the talkative old landlord, Vhistorien des
vignes de Vlsere^ appears to have been
gatheredunto his fathers,but his cellar and
good cheer survive in great perfection; andmine hostess makes amends for the unpro-mising
exterior of her mansion by supplyingher guests with excellent beds. After tra-versing
another plainupon quittingSt. Mar-cellin,
we again meet the sand-hills,and are
near enough to the Isere to see it flowingin
a deep channel at their base : their slopesare
a mixture of cultivation and coppicesof
Spanish chesnut. We descend again at the
mill of Tesche \ the plainnow assumes a very
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56 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
luxuriant aspect,and is well protectedon thenorth by the sand-hills,which are here com-pletely
covered with a rich clothingof vines.In the middle of the plain stands Vinay,atthe extremityLalbenc. We now commencean ascent winding between the hills,whichundulate agreeably, and are covered withbrushwood. Among them, in a littleelevated
plain, the village of Chantese is prettilysituated. Ascending again,we find ourselves
considerablyabove the Isere and its plain.Connected with the sand-hills on which we
are, and at no great distance on the right of
our road, we may observe low blocks of lime-stone
appearing in several places,remarkableas beino' detached from the massive ranere of
'to range
that rock on the other side of the Isere. Just
before we commence the descent of these hills,and about a quarter of an hour before reach-ing
Tullins, at the inn of Morette, we come
upon a fine bold "boutdu monde," presentinga magnificentprospect. A plain of extraor-dinary
fertilitylies below us ; the hills onwhich we stand forming a semicircular bendto the north, are connected at their eastern
extremitywith the fine craggy mountains ofthe Grande Chartreuse, which rise imme-diately
in front of us to the eastward. Those
of Sassenageon our rightare nearer and more
-
58 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
d'usage d'ecrire Moirenc." This is the first
town since leaving*Valence that is noticed by
any Roman writer, or in any of the Itinera-
ries. No doubt, however, can be entertained
of a road having-existed from the earliest
periods,and kept the very line we now travel.
Along this line are seated the towns of Ro-mans,St. Marcellin, Vinay, Lalbenc, and
Tullins, and have so existed immemorially ;while the wrecks of numerous old castles,
destined for the defence or plunder of the
country, point out this as the principalline ofcommunication.
At Moirans we are almost at the extremityof the plains. In less than an hour from it wefind ourselves immediately under an abruptescarpment of limestone rocks, which extend-ing
from Voreppe upon the Isere to St. Genix
upon the Rhone, completelyshut up the " In-sula"
on the east with a natural wall of pre-cipices,
well described by Polybiusas
iii.49. ^9V ^vcnrpoaocaKai cvat/j,poXayKai c^eoov, togkireiVfaTTpoGira,
** Mountains hard of approach and ascent,and almost, one might say, inaccessible."
These are the mountains, in the heart of
which, at a great elevation, encircled by
rocks, forests^ and waterfalls of the most
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 59
terrific grandeur,stands the famous monasteryof the Grande Chartreuse.
" Del rigidoBrunon segretastanza."
Those awful mountain solitudes where the
imaginationof Gray discovered the haunt ofthe *' Spiritof the Fell."
" Non leve
Nativa nam certe fluenta
Numen habet, veteresque sylvas,Prsesentiorem et conspicimusDeumPer invias rupes, fera per juga,
Clivosquepreeruptos,sonantesInter aquas, nemorumque noctem."
At the foot of these mountains, the plains,such as I have described them, come to anend. These were the plains traversed bythe Carthaginiansunder the escort of the
friendlybarbarians. It must have been atMoirans that this people took leave of Han-nibal
; by venturingto accompany him fartherinto the narrow valley of the Isere, theymight have compromised the securityof theirmarch homewards. Moirans
may be about
thirty-twomiles from Romans " two easydays'march. St. Marcellin,which is exactlyhalf-way,was perhaps the spot, then someAllobrogianvillage,at which the army haltedduring the night.
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60 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
The chieftains* of the Allobroges Kara
^"^oc,** in detail,"had hitherto offered no in-terruption
to the march of the Carthaginians;but we now find them collectingtogether asufficient force, and projectinga combinedattack
upon Hannibal, to be made at a certain
part of the road farther on, where the nature
of the ground afforded them peculiaradvan-tages.
50. kurelSri^'^Keivoi/ulIvH" ttjv oiKciav aTnyXXayijcav^oi^" irepi Tov AvvijSav rip^avTOTrpoayeiv Eig ragSvcT'^wpiag,Tore (Tvva^poiG^hrcgol rCjv AWofSpiyMvrjyeij.ovegyIkuvov ro TrXiiSfoc,7rpoKarcXa(5ovrorovg kv
Kaipovg roTTOvg, oi wv "0"i rovg Tr^pi rov Avvipav
Kar avayKtjv Troieicr^airi}vavaj3o\riv." But when they (the friendlybarbarians)
turned back to their own country, and Han-nibal's
peoplebegan to approach the difficult
places,then the chieftains of the Allobroges,collectingtogethera sufficient number, pre-
Polyb. ii.* These Allobrogianchieftains were probablythe heads
^' . of separate clans. We find the CisalpineGauls prided15. themselves on the number of followers they could retain,
ch!xi'ii.* CJsesar tells the same of the Gauls in general; and Tacitus
in like manner describes the sort of clanshipthat existed in
Germany. This state of societyis,in fact,common to all
barbarous nations. It is justlyremarked by Gibbon, that*'
many of those institutions,refeiTed by an easy solution
to the feudal system, are derived from the Celtic bar-barians.''
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 6l
occupiedthe advantageous positions,throughwhich it was absolutelynecessary for Han-nibal's
men to make a passage."We shall discover, as we proceed, where
these ^ucr^wjotatand ^vKaipoi TOTToi are to befound ; in the mean time, it is only necessaryto remark, that the words kut dvajKr^vimplybut one singlepass, through which alone themarch could possiblybe effected. This would
clearlybe the case if an army had got into the
valleyof the Isere, on the southern side ofthe ** Insula," by Voreppe ; whereas, fromSt. Genix, at the northern extremityof themountainous range, the Mont du Chat, the
Montague de I'Epine,and the Aiguebellette,each offer roads much alike in point of
practicability,and consequently the words
Kar dvayKTivare inapplicableto any one ofthem.
To proceed" Polybius informs us, that hadthe enemy but kept their intentions secret,they must infalliblyhave destroyed the Car-thaginian
army ; but, as their design became
apparent, although they did great injury toHannibal, they suffered no less severelythem-selves
in return.
TvovQ yap o dTpaTi^yog rtjv Kap-^rjdoviwv,onirpOKare^ovaiv ot (5ap(5apoirovg tvKaipovg roTrovg,
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62 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
avTog /LLev fcaracTTparoTre^eutracirpog tcllq vireppoXaig,
"7r"/X"V"." But the general of the Carthaginians,
knowing that the barbarians were pre-occu-pying the advantageous positions,remainedhimself encamped in front of the heights."
It is quite impossibleto hesitate for a mo-mentin perceivingthat this place of Hanni-bal's
encampment, wpog raig vTrepf^oXaig,was at
Moirans, or in its immediate vicinity. It is so
clearly''justin front of the heights" of theGrande Chartreuse, and so ostensible a situa-tion
for a halt,while the plans of the enemyin advance were investigated,that no doubt
can be entertained upon the subject.Voreppeis almost too much within the entrance of the
valleyto come under the definition of npogTuig v7rep(3o\aigy** in front of," or " before the
heights." Moirans stands upon a knoll, sur-rounded
by a plain of uncommon fertility,with a stream of water flowing by its side,and presents every convenience for the stay
of an army.
Hannibal, therefore, remained himself en-camped
at Moirans.
c. 50. 7r^O"7r"^i//"^e rivag twv Ka^rjyov/uievtJVavToigraXarwv, X^P^^^^^ KaTa(TKe\pa(T^aittiv tljv vir^vavtI(i)Vkirivoiav,kcli ttjv oXrjv vTro^eaiv,
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL." 63
" But he sent forward some of the Gauls,
who acted as their guides,for the purpose of
discoveringthe resolution of the enemy, andthe whole design."
These were the Gauls from the plains of Tit- ^^^'^
XXI. 32.
the Po, who accompanied the army, and aredescribed by Livy as " baud sane multum
lingua moribusque abhorrent es." They musthave had some means of ingratiatingthem-selves
with the Allobroges,for it appears theirmission succeeded.
wv TTpa^avTUJVto avvra'^evykiriyvovqo arpa- Polyb. iii.
TTfyogy OTi rag /iikvrj/uLepag fTrt^eXwcirapevraKTOvaiKai Ttipovcn Tovg Toirovg oi TToXejULioiyrag ^e vvKvagHg Tiva 7rapaKHfxavr}v iroXiv aTraXXarrovrat' npog
TavTr}v Trjv VTTo^etnv apfxoCofiivog^(TvveaTricFaroTToa^ivTOiavTrjv.
'' These men having executed what was
enjoined,the general, informed that theenemy carefullyguarded and watched the
positionsevery day, but retired every night to
an adjacenttown, arranging his plans to meetthis design,determined upon the followingmode of action."
Puttinghis army in motion, 7rpor)yev efKjtavwg^** he advanced openly."
Soon after leaving Moirans, we come in
face of the valley,up which we gain an insightto a considerable distance. The detached and
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64 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
abruptmountain which overhangs the villageof La Buiserade, about a mile from the gatesof Grenoble, forms the last and most conspi-cuous
object on the left. At Voreppe thevalleyis entered, lyingin all its beautyandrichness between arid walls of precipitousmountains. We pass the villageof Fontanils,with its enormous masses of limestone, fallen
in former ages from the cliffs above. We
look up the ravine formed by the torrent ofthe Tenaison ; in the middle of which rises a
mountain peaked with a pinnacleof rock in amost remarkable manner ; through this open-ing
ascends the road to the villageof Sapey,one of the approaches to the Grande Char-treuse.
We now arrive immediately underthe towering precipiceof the mountain aboveLa Buiserade. Winding round the foot ofthis stupendous crag, we meet in both the
country and the road so remarkable a change
as to demand very particularnotice. The
plain now lies entirelyon the opposite,the
leftbank of the Isere,which, while it turns
the angleformed by the southern point of theGrande Chartreuse mountains, flows imme-diately
at their base. A steep talus,composedof the wreck and rubbish of the rocks above,
extends from La Buiserade on the west, to La
Trorche on the east of Grenoble. About the
-
66 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
across Mont Rachais, dailyguarded by the Al-
lobroges; and in Grenoble, the ancient Cularo,we find, beyond all doubt, tlie " adjacenttown" to which theyretired duringthe night.
But to return to Hannibal, who from
Moirans " advanced openly.'*c. 50. J^^^ (TVVEyyL"jag raig Sutr^wptatc,ov jxaK^av T(ov
TToXe/uicovKarecTTpaTOTre^evae," And having drawn near to the difficult
places,he encamped at no great distance fromthe enemy."
Whatever security we may have expe-riencedin fixingupon Moirans as the place
of his last encampment, is nothing comparedwith the certaintywith which we now seehim takingup a positionat La Buiserade. At
La Buiserade "the difficultplaces"begin,andLa Buiserade is " at no great distance" from
either ** the advantageouspositions,"or thetown occupiedby the enemy. We derive ad-ditional
evidence from the succeedingsen-tence:"
c. 50. Tiic ^" vvKTog kiriyzvofikvriq,avvTo^ag ra irvpaKaieiv, TO jLiev nXeiov juiapog Trig dvva/metogavTOVKaTeXiTTE* Tovg S* ETTiTrj^uoTciTOvgkv^LJVovgTTOiYiijagy^iriX^eTO. aT^va tyjv vvktu, Kai KaTE(T")(BTOvg viro tu)V
Tro\mi(i)V7rpoKaTaXri(j)^lvTagToirovg, aTTO/ce^w^r^/corwvtu)V j3apf3ap(t)v/car a t^v dwri^Eiavug rrjvttoXiv,
" But the followingnight,having com-
-
THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 67
manded the fires to be lighted,he left thegreater part of his forces there ; and havingcaused the most proper men to arm themselves
lightly,he passed through the narrow placesduringthe night,and seized the positionsde-serted
by the enemy ; the barbarians having,accordingto custom, retired to the city."
From these words it would appear that the
Allobrogeswere not likelyto have descendedfrom the heightsuntil after theyhad observedthe fires burning in Hannibal's camp, andwere persuadedthe Carthaginianswere quietlysettled for the night. The positionof the
encampment must therefore have been visible
from these heights. Now, La Buiserade isthe only situation along the valley,which,without being upon "the difficultplaces""that is,upon the slopebetween the mountainsand the Isere above described " is discernible
from the heights of Mont Rachais. Everything,before arrivingat La Buiserade, is com-pletely
concealed by that loftymountain,already mentioned as overhanging that vil-lage.
No doubt, then, can exist as to the
exact spot of this encampment. It was from
La Buiserade, therefore,that Hannibal with
some choice troops lightlyarmed, passingalong the road, narrow and difficult as it nowbecame, ascended Mont Rachais, and took
F 2
-
68 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
possessionof the heightsof the Bastille,whilethe Allobrogeswere sleepingsecurelyin theirtown below.
Where was this town ? The exact positionof Grenoble, when in its earliest days it borethe name of Cularo, has never been positivelyascertained. It is very certain that it stood
on the right bank of the Isere ; and the
quarter of the modern town still on that side
of the river,althougha mere suburb, is alwayslooked upon as the most ancient portion of
the city. It is composed of one long streetbetween the river and the rock, bearingatone extremitythe name of St. Laurent, at theother that of La Perri^re 5 between the two
is the ** Montee de Chalemont," (ScalaMontis,) by which a road ascended the heightsof Mont Rachais. It is scarcelypossiblethat
so confined and inconvenient a situation,
pressedon one side by the river,on the other
by the rock, and exposed to inundations and*' eboulemens," could ever have been the
scite of the ancient Cularo. La Tronche, alittlefurther eastward, presents a much more
probableposition.At La Tronche there is arisingground,agreeablyplaced between the
plainand the talus of the mountains, chosen
by the citizens of Grenoble for the situationof their villas : here, too, is a stream, and
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 69
here is the " Peage de la Tronche,"* the
ferryacross the Isere,which has existed from
the earliest times. The modern city,with
the exceptionof St. Laurent and La Perriere,is situated entirelyon the left bank of theriver. It was first enlarged on that side bythe Emperors Diocletian and Maximian.
The road from Rome to Vienne passedthroughthe town, and the inscriptionsplacedhj the Emperors over the gateways are stillupon record. That upon the Roman, or
Jovian gate, was thus worded "
DD. NN. IMP. C^S. CAIVS. AVRELIVS. DIO-
CLETIANVS. PIVS. FELIX. INVICTVS. AVG. ET.
IMP. C^S. MARCVS. AVRELIVS. MAXIMIANVS.
PIVS. FELIX. INVICTVS. AVG. MVRIS. CVLARO-
NENSIBVS. CVM. INTERIORIBVS. ^DIFICIIS. PRO-
VIDENTIA. SVA. INSTITVTIS. ATQVE. PERFECTIS.
PORTAM. ROMANAM. lOVIAM. VOCARI. IVSSE-
IIVNT.
* " Ce peage appartenaitancienneinent a lenipire.L'Em-
pereur Henri, par un acte date de Genes, du 16 Fevrier
1312, le ceda a Hiigues,Baron de Faucigny,qui le trans-mit
a Humbert II. Lorsque Humbert dota le convent de
Montfleury,il lui fitcession du peage de la Troncbe. Je
raconterai a ce sujetqu'en 1351, les dames de Montfleurytraiterent avec un marcband de fer de Moirans, nomme
Martin Roux. Elles decbarg^rentlui et ses successeursde tous droits de peage, a condition qu'on leur donnerait
cbaque annee un livre de poivreet un livre de gingembre.""
Hisioire de Grenoble, par M. Pilot, p. 282.
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70 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
The inscriptionover tlie Vienne, or Her-culean
gate, was the same " substituting*onlyJ^iennensem Herculeam for Homanam loviam.
The Porta Romana, which long retained the
corrupt appellationof Porte Traine, waspulleddown in 1591, when the citywas en-larged
by the famous Constable Lesdiguieres,the hero of Dauphiny. The Porta Viennensisexisted as latelyas the year 1804, when thatalso was sacrificed. The road from Rome bythe Mont Genevre entered Grenoble at the
Porta Romana ; that from Vienne, the road
by which we have travelled since leavingMoirans, descendingMont Rachais in frontof the convent of Sainte Marie-d'en-haut,crossed the Isere somewhere near the presentPont de Bois, and entered the town by thePorta Viennensis. At the close of the fourth
century the Emperor Gratian altered the
name of Cularo into that of Gratianopolis,and made it the seat of a bishoprick.Itwould almost seem from the circumstance of
the bishoprickbeing established on the rightbank of the Isere,as if the cityof Diocletian
was looked upon as nothingmore than a meresuburb.* But the most important benefits
* " La paroissede St. Laurent, comme la plusancienne de
la ville,jouissaitanciennement du droit de piimaute. Sonclergeavant la revolution avait encore le pas sur celui des
autres eglises."" Id. p. 13.
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THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL. 71
received by Grenoble were through the handsof the Constable Lesdiguieres.This cele-brated
man first provided for the defence ofthe cityby building the fort of the Bastille,which he connected with the town below bytwo walls ; these, divergingfrom the fort,descend in a zigzagdirection on each side of
Mont Rachais to the river " exactlyin the
styleof the walls of a Greek acropolis.Anold gateway, now blocked up, admitted the
Vienne road ; but this entrance was watched
by a strong guard placedin the adjoiningfortof Rabot.* Near this fort,at the edge of the
cliffs,we may still observe where the rocks
have been worn smooth by the traffic that was
formerly carried on along this road. Itwould be tedious and unnecessary to attempt
an enumeration of the various works of Les-diguieres
at Grenoble, and in its neighbour-hood.Two of them, however, are of im-portance
to our present inquiry,and oughtnot to be omitted. LesdiguieresprotectedGrenoble from an enemy more dangerousthan even man. The cityhad been frequentlya victim to the most dreadful inundations.
The Isere,which traverses the town, and the
impetuous Drac, which ancientlyrolled close
* Fort Rabot was erected before the time of Lesdiguieres,iu the year 1532.
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7^ THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL,
under the western ramparts, committed, onseveral occasions recorded by historyin bothverse and prose, such tremendous havoc as to
give rise to the prophecy of
** Serpenset Draco devorabunt urbem,"
a translation of which, in the patoisof the
country, is stillcurrent "
" Lo Serpeinet lo DragonMettron Grenoblo en savon.''
The Isere is now confined by handsome
quays, and is not more than ninety or onehundred yards in breadth. Time, labour,and art had in vain, before the days of Les-
diguieres,attemptedto controul the fury ofthe Drac. It was he who effectuallycompletedthis great undertaking,and by carryingthetorrent in a new channel, fortified by power-ful
dams, threw it to such a distance from the
town, that it now falls harmless into the Isere,
oppositeLa Buiserade. His other work was
opening the road under the cliffs of MontRachais. '* II y avait,"says M. Pilot,p. 218,**
au pied de ce rocher un passage appelledans
les actes Malum passetum, qui appartenaitau
chapitrede Saint Martin. La grande routetraversait encore a cette 6poque la hauteur de
Rabot. Du cote de la Tronche, il n'y avait
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74 THE MARCH OF HANNIBAL.
I. Cularo stood on the riglitbank of the
Isere, probablyat, or near, La Tronche.II. That the main road to it from La Buis-
erade led along the declivityabove the Isere,
passedalong*Mont Rachais near Fort Rabot,descended near the convent of Sainte Marie-
d'en-haut, and continued along the declivityon the other side as far as the " Peage de la
Tronche."
III. That the united currents of the Isere
and the Drac, then unrestrained as they wereafterwards by dams and quays, prevented theexistence of
any safe path,perhaps of even the
Malum passetum^ below Mont Rachais.
IV. That the state of the plainat the con-fluenceof these two furious streams would
have frustrated any attempt on the part of
the Carthaginiansto turn the positionsofMont Rachais by crossingthe rivers.