Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] In parte operis mei licet mihi praefari, quod in principio summae totius professi plerique sunt rerum scriptores, bellum maxime omnium memorabile quae unquam gesta sint me scripturum, quod Hannibale duce Carthaginienses cum populo Romano gessere. Nam neque validiores opibus ullae inter se civitates gentesque contulerunt arma neque his ipsis tantum unquam virium aut roboris fuit; et haud ignotas belli artes inter sese sed expertas primo Punico conferebant bello, et adeo varia fortuna belli ancepsque Mars fuit ut propius periculum fuerint qui vicerunt. Odiis etiam prope maioribus certarunt quam viribus, Romanis indignantibus quod victoribus victi ultro inferrent arma, Poenis quod superbe avareque crederent imperitatum victis esse.

[1] In a part of my work it is permitted me to preface, what at the beginning of the whole summa many writers of events have professed: that I am going to write of the war most memorable of all that have ever been waged, which the Carthaginians, with Hannibal as leader, carried on with the Roman people. For never did any states and peoples bring arms against one another more powerful in resources, nor did these very opponents ever possess so much strength or robustness; and they were matching not unknown but tried arts of war against each other, tested in the First Punic War; and the fortune of war was so various and Mars so doubtful that those who won were nearer to peril. They also contended with hatreds almost greater than with forces: the Romans indignant that the conquered should of their own accord bear arms against victors, the Carthaginians because they believed that rule had been exercised over the conquered arrogantly and avariciously.

Fama est etiam Hannibalem annorum ferme novem, pueriliter blandientem patri Hamilcari ut duceretur in Hispaniam, cum perfecto Africo bello exercitum eo traiecturus sacrificaret, altaribus admotum tactis sacris iure iurando adactum se cum primum posset hostem fore populo Romano. Angebant ingentis spiritus virum Sicilia Sardiniaque amissae: nam et Siciliam nimis celeri desperatione rerum concessam et Sardiniam inter motum Africae fraude Romanorum, stipendio etiam insuper imposito, interceptam.

There is also a report that Hannibal, about nine years old, childishly coaxing his father Hamilcar to be led into Spain, when, with the African war finished, he was sacrificing, being about to ferry the army across thither, was brought to the altars and, after touching the sacred things, was driven by a sworn oath to declare that, as soon as he could, he would be an enemy to the Roman people. The loss of Sicily and Sardinia was vexing the man of immense spirit: for he held that Sicily had been conceded by too swift a despair of affairs, and that Sardinia had been intercepted amid the turmoil of Africa by the fraud of the Romans, with a tribute (stipend) even imposed besides.

[2] His anxius curis ita se Africo bello quod fuit sub recentem Romanam pacem per quinque annos, ita deinde novem annis in Hispania augendo Punico imperio gessit ut appareret maius eum quam quod gereret agitare in animo bellum et, si diutius vixisset, Hamilcare duce Poenos arma Italiae inlaturos fuisse quae Hannibalis ductu intulerunt.

[2] Anxious with these cares, he so conducted himself in the African war—which was under the recent Roman peace—for five years, and then for nine years in Spain in augmenting the Punic imperium, that it appeared he was agitating in his mind a war greater than the one he was waging; and that, if he had lived longer, with Hamilcar as leader the Carthaginians would have brought arms into Italy, which they did bring under Hannibal’s leadership.

Mors Hamilcaris peropportuna et pueritia Hannibalis distulerunt bellum. Medius Hasdrubal inter patrem ac filium octo ferme annos imperium obtinuit, flore aetatis, uti ferunt, primo Hamilcari conciliatus, gener inde ob aliam indolem profecto animi adscitus et, quia gener erat, factionis Barcinae opibus, quae apud milites plebemque plus quam modicae erant, haud sane voluntate principum, in imperio positus. Is plura consilio quam vi gerens, hospitiis magis regulorum conciliandisque per amicitiam principum novis gentibus quam bello aut armis rem Carthaginiensem auxit.

The death of Hamilcar, very opportune, and the boyhood of Hannibal deferred the war. Hasdrubal, in the middle between father and son, held the command for about eight years, in the flower of his age—as they say—at first won over by Hamilcar, thereafter adopted as a son‑in‑law on account of a certainly different disposition of spirit; and, because he was a son‑in‑law, by the resources of the Barcine faction—which among the soldiers and the commons were more than moderate—he was placed in command, scarcely with the goodwill of the leading men. He, conducting more by counsel than by force, augmented the Carthaginian state rather by the guest‑friendships of petty kings and by winning over new peoples through the friendship of their chiefs than by war or arms.

Ceterum nihilo ei pax tutior fuit; barbarus eum quidam palam ob iram interfecti ab eo domini obtruncavit; comprensusque ab circumstantibus haud alio quam si evasisset voltu, tormentis quoque cum laceraretur, eo fuit habitu oris ut superante laetitia dolores ridentis etiam speciem praebuerit. Cum hoc Hasdrubale, quia mirae artis in sollicitandis gentibus imperioque suo iungendis fuerat, foedus renovaverat populus Romanus ut finis utriusque imperii esset amnis Hiberus Saguntinisque mediis inter imperia duorum populorum libertas servaretur.

However, peace was by no means any safer for him; a certain barbarian, openly, in wrath on account of his master slain by him, cut him down; and, apprehended by those standing around, with a countenance no other than as if he had escaped, even when he was being torn by torments, he had such a cast of face that, joy prevailing, he even offered the appearance of one laughing at his pains. With this Hasdrubal—because he had been of wondrous art in soliciting nations and joining them to his imperium—the Roman People had renewed a treaty, that the boundary of each imperium should be the river Hiberus (Ebro), and that, the Saguntines being in the middle between the imperia of the two peoples, liberty should be preserved.

[3] In Hasdrubalis locum haud dubia res fuit quin[am successurus esset;] praerogatiuam militarem qua extemplo iuvenis Hannibal in praetorium delatus imperatorque ingenti omnium clamore atque adsensu appellatus [erat, a senatu comprobaretur. Favor] etiam plebis sequebatur. Hunc vixdum puberem Hasdrubal litteris ad se accersierat, actaque res etiam in senatu fuerat.

[3] In Hasdrubal’s place there was no doubt as to [who would be the successor;] the military prerogative by which the young Hannibal was immediately borne into the praetorium and, with the immense shouting and assent of all, hailed as commander [was, to be ratified by the senate. The favor] also of the plebs followed. Hasdrubal had summoned him to himself by letters when scarcely pubescent, and the matter had also been dealt with in the senate.

Barcinis nitentibus ut adsuesceret militiae Hannibal atque in paternas succederet opes Hanno, alterius factionis princeps, "et aequum postulare videtur" inquit, "Hasdrubal, et ego tamen non censeo quod petit tribuendum." Cum admiratione tam ancipitis sententiae in se omnes convertisset, "florem aetatis" inquit, "Hasdrubal, quem ipse patri Hannibalis fruendum praebuit, iusto iure eum a filio repeti censet; nos tamen minime decet iuventutem nostram pro militari rudimento adsuefacere libidini praetorum. An hoc timemus ne Hamilcaris filius nimis sero imperia immodica et regni paterni speciem videat et, cuius regis genero hereditarii sint relicti exercitus nostri, eius filio parum mature seruiamus? Ego istum iuvenem domi tenendum sub legibus, sub magistratibus, docendum vivere aequo iure cum ceteris censeo, ne quandoque parvus hic ignis incendium ingens exsuscitet."

While the Barcine party were striving that Hannibal should get accustomed to military service and should succeed to his father’s resources, Hanno, chief of the other faction, said, "and it seems that Hasdrubal is asking what is equitable; and yet I do not think that what he seeks should be granted." When, by the wonder at so two-edged an opinion, he had turned all toward himself, he said, "the flower of his age, Hasdrubal— which he himself offered for Hannibal’s father to enjoy— he judges with just right should be demanded back from the son; we, however, are in no way befittingly to accustom our youth, for a military apprenticeship, to the lust of our commanders. Or is this what we fear—lest Hamilcar’s son should too late see immoderate commands and the appearance of his father’s kingship, and that, of him to whose son-in-law, as to a king, our armies were left as hereditary, we should serve the son too early? I judge that that young man must be kept at home under the laws, under the magistrates, taught to live by an equal right with the rest, lest ever this small fire rouse up a vast conflagration."

[4] Pauci ac ferme optimus quisque Hannoni adsentiebantur; sed, ut plerumque fit, maior pars meliorem vicit.

[4] Few, and generally each of the best men, were assenting to Hanno; but, as very often happens, the greater part overcame the better.

Missus Hannibal in Hispaniam primo statim adventu omnem exercitum in se convertit; Hamilcarem iuvenem redditum sibi veteres milites credere; eundem vigorem in voltu vimque in oculis, habitum oris lineamentaque intueri. Dein brevi effecit ut pater in se minimum momentum ad favorem conciliandum esset. Nunquam ingenium idem ad res diversissimas, parendum atque imparandum, habilius fuit.

Sent to Spain, Hannibal at his very first arrival turned the whole army toward himself; the veteran soldiers believed that Hamilcar had been restored to them in the form of a youth; they beheld the same vigor in his countenance and the force in his eyes, his expression and lineaments. Then in a short time he brought it about that, in winning favor toward himself, his father had the least weight. Never was the same genius more adaptable to the most diverse affairs, to obeying and to commanding.

Itaque haud facile discerneres utrum imperatori an exercitui carior esset; neque Hasdrubal alium quemquam praeficere malle ubi quid fortiter ac strenue agendum esset, neque milites alio duce plus confidere aut audere. Plurimum audaciae ad pericula capessenda, plurimum consilii inter ipsa pericula erat. Nullo labore aut corpus fatigari aut animus vinci poterat.

Accordingly, you would not easily discern whether he was dearer to the commander or to the army; nor did Hasdrubal prefer to set anyone else in command wherever something had to be done bravely and strenuously, nor would the soldiers under any other leader trust more or dare more. He had the utmost audacity for undertaking perils, and the utmost counsel in the very midst of perils. By no labor could either his body be wearied or his spirit conquered.

Caloris ac frigoris patientia par; cibi potionisque desiderio naturali, non voluptate modus finitus; vigiliarum somnique nec die nec nocte discriminata tempora; id quod gerendis rebus superesset quieti datum; ea neque molli strato neque silentio accersita; multi saepe militari sagulo opertum humi iacentem inter custodias stationesque militum conspexerunt. Vestitus nihil inter aequales excellens: arma atque equi conspiciebantur. Equitum peditumque idem longe primus erat; princeps in proelium ibat, ultimus conserto proelio excedebat.

Endurance of heat and of cold equal; in the desire for food and drink, a measure bounded by natural desire, not by pleasure; of vigils and of sleep, times distinguished neither by day nor by night; what was left over from the conducting of affairs was given to rest; and that was summoned neither by soft bedding nor by silence; many often saw him, covered with a military cloak, lying on the ground among the guards and outposts of the soldiers. In dress nothing surpassing his peers: his arms and his horses were conspicuous. Of the cavalry and of the infantry he was the same—by far the foremost; he went first into battle, he was the last to withdraw when battle was joined.

Has tantas viri virtutes ingentia vitia aequabant, inhumana crudelitas, perfidia plus quam Punica, nihil veri, nihil sancti, nullus deum metus, nullum ius iurandum, nulla religio. Cum hac indole virtutum atque vitiorum triennio sub Hasdrubale imperatore meruit, nulla re quae agenda videndaque magno futuro duci esset praetermissa.

Enormous vices matched these so great virtues of the man: inhuman cruelty, treachery more than Punic, nothing of truth, nothing of sanctity, no fear of the gods, no oath, no religion. With this disposition of virtues and vices he served for three years under Hasdrubal as general, with nothing omitted which ought to be done and seen by one who was to be a great commander.

[5] Ceterum ex quo die dux est declaratus, velut Italia ei provincia decreta bellumque Romanum mandatum esset, nihil prolatandum ratus ne se quoque, ut patrem Hamilcarem, deinde Hasdrubalem, cunctantem casus aliquis opprimeret, Saguntinis inferre bellum statuit. Quibus oppugnandis quia haud dubie Romana arma movebantur, in Olcadum prius fines—ultra Hiberum ea gens in parte magis quam in dicione Carthaginiensium erat—induxit exercitum, ut non petisse Saguntinos sed rerum serie finitimis domitis gentibus iungendoque tractus ad id bellum videri posset. Cartalam, urbem opulentam, caput gentis eius, expugnat diripitque; quo metu perculsae minores civitates stipendio imposito imperium accepere.

[5] But from the day he was declared leader, as though Italy had been assigned to him as his province and the Roman war mandated to him, thinking that nothing should be deferred lest some chance overwhelm him also, as it had his father Hamilcar and then Hasdrubal while they delayed, he resolved to bring war upon the Saguntines. Because by attacking them Roman arms would without doubt be stirred, he first led his army into the borders of the Olcades—beyond the Ebro that nation was in the region rather than under the dominion of the Carthaginians—so that he might seem not to have sought the Saguntines, but, by a sequence of events, with neighboring peoples subdued and by linking tracts, to have been drawn on to that war. Cartala, a wealthy city, the head of that nation, he storms and sacks; by which fear the lesser communities, a tribute (stipend) being imposed, accepted his imperium.

Victor exercitus opulentusque praeda Carthaginem Novam in hiberna est deductus. Ibi large partiendo praedam stipendioque praeterito cum fide exsolvendo cunctis civium sociorumque animis in se firmatis vere primo in Vaccaeos promotum bellum. Hermandica et Arbocala, eorum urbes, vi captae.

The victorious army, opulent with booty, was brought down to New Carthage into winter quarters. There, by generously apportioning the plunder and by discharging with good faith the past-due stipend, with the minds of all the citizens and allies made firm toward himself, at the first spring the war was advanced against the Vaccaei. Hermandica and Arbocala, their cities, were taken by force.

Arbocala et virtute et multitudine oppidanorum diu defensa; ab Hermandica profugi exsulibus Olcadum, priore aestate domitae gentis, cum se iunxissent, concitant Carpetanos adortique Hannibalem regressum ex Vaccaeis haud procul Tago flumine agmen grave praeda turbauere. Hannibal proelio abstinuit castrisque super ripam positis, cum prima quies silentiumque ab hostibus fuit, amnem vado traiecit valloque ita praeducto ut locum ad transgrediendum hostes haberent invadere eos transeuntes statuit. Equitibus praecepit ut, cum ingressos aquam viderent, adorirentur impeditum agmen; in ripa elephantos—quadraginta autem erant—disponit.

Arbocala was long defended both by the valor and the multitude of its townsmen; when the refugees from Hermandica had joined themselves to the exiles of the Olcades, a nation subdued the previous summer, they roused the Carpetani, and, having assailed Hannibal as he was returning from the Vaccaei not far from the river Tagus, they threw into disorder a column heavy with booty. Hannibal refrained from battle and, with his camp pitched above the bank, when there was first quiet and silence from the enemy, he crossed the stream by a ford; and, with the rampart drawn forward in such a way that the enemies would have a place for crossing, he decided to attack them while they were passing over. He instructed the cavalry that, when they saw them enter the water, they should assail the impeded column; on the bank he arrays the elephants—there were 40—.

Carpetanorum cum appendicibus Olcadum Vaccaeorumque centum milia fuere, invicta acies si aequo dimicaretur campo. Itaque et ingenio feroces et multitudine freti et, quod metu cessisse credebant hostem, id morari victoriam rati quod interesset amnis, clamore sublato passim sine ullius imperio qua cuique proximum est in amnem ruunt. Et ex parte altera ripae vis ingens equitum in flumen immissa, medioque alueo haudquaquam pari certamine concursum, quippe ubi pedes instabilis ac vix vado fidens vel ab inermi equite, equo temere acto, perverti posset, eques corpore armisque liber, equo vel per medios gurgites stabili, comminus eminusque rem gereret.

The Carpetani, with the appendages of the Olcades and Vaccaei, were 100,000—an unconquered battle-line, if the fight were waged on an even field. And so, fierce by disposition and relying on their multitude, and because they believed the enemy had yielded from fear, thinking that what delayed victory was that a river lay between, with a shout raised they everywhere, without anyone’s command, rush into the river wherever it is nearest to each. And from the other side of the bank a huge force of horsemen was sent into the stream, and in the river’s mid-channel the encounter was by no means an equal struggle: for there the foot-soldier, unsteady and scarcely trusting the ford, could be overturned even by an unarmed horseman, his horse driven headlong, while the horseman, unencumbered in body and arms, with his horse steady even through the very whirlpools, could conduct the action both at close quarters and from afar.

Pars magna flumine absumpta; quidam verticoso amni delati in hostes ab elephantis obtriti sunt. Postremi, quibus regressus in suam ripam tutior fuit, ex varia trepidatione cum in unum colligerentur, priusquam a tanto pavore reciperent animos, Hannibal agmine quadrato amnem ingressus fugam ex ripa fecit vastatisque agris intra paucos dies Carpetanos quoque in deditionem accepit; et iam omnia trans Hiberum praeter Saguntinos Carthaginiensium erant.

A great part was swept away by the river; some, carried by the vortical stream toward the enemy, were crushed by the elephants. The rearmost, for whom return to their own bank was safer, when, out of their various panic, they were being gathered into one, before they could recover their spirits from so great a terror, Hannibal, entering the river in a square formation, drove them in flight from the bank; and, the fields laid waste, within a few days he received the Carpetani too into surrender; and now all things beyond the Hiberus, except the Saguntines, belonged to the Carthaginians.

[6] Cum Saguntinis bellum nondum erat; ceterum iam belli causa certamina cum finitimis serebantur, maxime Turdetanis. Quibus cum adesset idem qui litis erat sator, nec certamen iuris sed vim quaeri appareret, legati a Saguntinis Romam missi auxilium ad bellum iam haud dubie imminens orantes. Consules tunc Romae erant P. Cornelius Scipio et Ti. Sempronius Longus.

[6] There was not yet war with the Saguntines; but already, as a cause and pretext for war, contests with their neighbors were being sown, chiefly with the Turdetanians. And since the same man who was the sower of the lawsuit was present with them, and it became clear that not a contest of right but brute force was being sought, envoys from the Saguntines were sent to Rome, begging help against a war now without doubt imminent. The consuls then at Rome were Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus.

Qui cum legatis in senatum introductis de re publica rettulissent placuissetque mitti legatos in Hispaniam ad res sociorum inspiciendas, quibus si videretur digna causa, et Hannibali denuntiarent ut ab Saguntinis, sociis populi Romani, abstineret et Carthaginem in Africam traicerent ac sociorum populi Romani querimonias deferrent—hac legatione decreta necdum missa, omnium spe celerius Saguntum oppugnari allatum est. Tunc relata de integro res ad senatum est; alii provincias consulibus Hispaniam atque Africam decernentes terra marique rem gerendam censebant, alii totum in Hispaniam Hannibalemque intenderant bellum; erant qui non temere movendam rem tantam exspectandosque ex Hispania legatos censerent. Haec sententia, quae tutissima videbatur, vicit; legatique eo maturius missi, P. Valerius Flaccus et Q. Baebius Tamphilus, Saguntum ad Hannibalem atque inde Carthaginem si non absisteretur bello ad ducem ipsum in poenam foederis rupti deposcendum.

When they had brought the legates into the senate and reported about the commonwealth, and it had been resolved that legates be sent into Spain to inspect the affairs of the allies—who, if the cause seemed worthy, should also give notice to Hannibal to abstain from the Saguntines, allies of the Roman people, and should carry themselves to Carthage in Africa and lay before them the complaints of the allies of the Roman people—while this embassy had been decreed but not yet dispatched, it was reported that Saguntum was being besieged more quickly than anyone expected. Then the matter was brought afresh before the senate: some, assigning Spain and Africa as provinces to the consuls, judged that the affair should be conducted by land and sea; others had directed the whole war toward Spain and Hannibal; there were those who thought that so great a matter ought not to be moved rashly and that the legates from Spain should be awaited. This opinion, which seemed safest, prevailed; and the legates were sent all the quicker—Publius Valerius Flaccus and Quintus Baebius Tamphilus—to Saguntum to Hannibal, and thence to Carthage, if there were no desisting from war, to demand that the leader himself be surrendered in penalty for the treaty broken.

[7] Dum ea Romani parant consultantque, iam Saguntum summa vi oppugnabatur. Civitas ea longe opulentissima ultra Hiberum fuit, sita passus mille ferme a mari. Oriundi a Zacyntho insula dicuntur mixtique etiam ab Ardea Rutulorum quidam generis; ceterum in tantas brevi creverant opes seu maritimis seu terrestribus fructibus seu multitudinis incremento seu disciplinae sanctitate qua fidem socialem usque ad perniciem suam coluerunt.

[7] While the Romans were preparing and deliberating about these things, already Saguntum was being besieged with the utmost force. That city was by far the most opulent beyond the Hiberus, situated nearly a thousand paces from the sea. They are said to have originated from the island Zacynthus, and some also of the Rutulian stock, from Ardea, were mingled with them; moreover, in a short time they had grown to such great wealth whether by maritime or terrestrial fruits, or by the increase of their multitude, or by the sanctity of their discipline, by which they cultivated the faith of alliance (fides socialis) even to their own destruction.

Hannibal infesto exercitu ingressus fines, pervastatis passim agris urbem tripertito adgreditur. Angulus muri erat in planiorem patentioremque quam cetera circa vallem vergens; adversus eum vineas agere instituit per quas aries moenibus admoveri posset. Sed ut locus procul muro satis aequus agendis vineis fuit, ita haudquaquam prospere, postquam ad effectum operis ventum est, coeptis succedebat.

Hannibal, having entered the borders with a hostile army, the fields everywhere laid waste, attacks the city in three divisions. There was an angle of the wall sloping toward a valley flatter and more open than the rest around; opposite this he began to drive forward vineae, by means of which a ram could be brought up to the walls. But although the ground at some distance from the wall was level enough for running the vineae, yet by no means, once it came to the work’s execution, did the undertakings prosper.

Et turris ingens imminebat et murus, ut in suspecto loco, supra ceterae modum altitudinis emunitus erat, et iuventus delecta ubi plurimum periculi ac timoris ostendebatur ibi vi maiore obsistebant. Ac primo missilibus summovere hostem nec quicquam satis tutum munientibus pati; deinde iam non pro moenibus modo atque turri tela micare, sed ad erumpendum etiam in stationes operaque hostium animus erat; quibus tumultuariis certaminibus haud ferme plures Saguntini cadebant quam Poeni. Ut vero Hannibal ipse, dum murum incautius subit, adversum femur tragula graviter ictus cecidit, tanta circa fuga ac trepidatio fuit ut non multum abesset quin opera ac vineae desererentur.

And a huge tower was overhanging, and the wall, as in a suspect spot, had been fortified in height beyond the measure of the rest; and the chosen youth, wherever the greatest show of danger and fear appeared, there with greater force they withstood. At first they sought to drive off the enemy with missiles and to allow nothing sufficiently safe for the builders; then, now, not only did weapons flash from the walls and the tower, but they had the spirit for bursting out even against the enemy’s stations and works; in which tumultuary skirmishes scarcely more Saguntines were falling than Carthaginians. But when Hannibal himself, while he approached the wall too incautiously, was struck heavily by a javelin in the thigh and fell, there was such flight and consternation all around that it was not far from the point that the works and the mantlets (vineae) were abandoned.

[8] Obsidio deinde per paucos dies magis quam oppugnatio fuit dum volnus ducis curaretur; per quod tempus ut quies certaminum erat ita ab apparatu operum ac munitionum nihil cessatum. Itaque acrius de integro coortum est bellum pluribusque partibus, vix accipientibus quibusdam opera locis, vineae coeptae agi admoverique aries. Abundabat multitudine hominum Poenus; ad centum enim quinquaginta milia habuisse in armis satis creditur; oppidani ad omnia tuenda atque obeunda multifariam distineri coepti non sufficiebant.

[8] The siege then for a few days was rather a blockade than an assault while the wound of the commander was being cared for; during which time, as there was a lull of combats, so too there was no cessation from the preparations of works and fortifications. And so the war sprang up afresh more keenly, and in more quarters, with some places scarcely admitting the works; the mantlets (vineae) began to be driven and the battering-ram to be brought up. The Carthaginian abounded in a multitude of men; for he is fairly believed to have had up to 150,000 under arms; the townsmen, being drawn off on many sides to protect and to discharge every task, did not suffice.

Itaque iam feriebantur arietibus muri quassataeque multae partes erant; una continentibus ruinis nudaverat urbem; tres deinceps turres quantumque inter eas muri erat cum fragore ingenti prociderunt. Captum oppidum ea ruina crediderant Poeni, qua, velut si pariter utrosque murus texisset, ita utrimque in pugnam procursum est. Nihil tumultuariae pugnae simile erat, quales in oppugnationibus urbium per occasionem partis alterius conseri solent, sed iustae acies, velut patenti campo, inter ruinas muri tectaque urbis modico distantia intervallo constiterant.

And so the walls were now being struck by battering-rams, and many sections were shattered; one, in a continuous mass of ruins, had laid the city bare; three towers in succession, and all the wall that was between them, fell with a huge crash. The Punic side had believed the town captured by that collapse; whereupon, as though the wall had sheltered both alike, on both sides there was a dash into combat. There was nothing like a tumultuary fight, such as are wont to be joined in assaults on cities by the chance of one side or the other, but proper battle-lines, as on an open field, had taken their stand between the ruins of the wall and the buildings of the city, standing at a modest interval apart.

Hinc spes, hinc desperatio animos inritat, Poeno cepisse iam se urbem si paulum adnitatur credente, Saguntinis pro nudata moenibus patria corpora opponentibus nec ullo pedem referente ne in relictum a se locum hostem immitteret. Itaque quo acrius et confertim magis utrimque pugnabatur, eo plures volnerabantur nullo inter arma corporaque vano intercidente telo. Phalarica erat Saguntinis missile telum hastili abiegno et cetera tereti praeterquam ad extremum unde ferrum exstabat; id, sicut in pilo, quadratum stuppa circumligabant linebantque pice; ferrum autem tres longum habebat pedes ut cum armis transfigere corpus posset.

Hence hope, hence desperation goads their spirits: the Carthaginian, believing that he had already taken the city if he should but strain a little, while the Saguntines, for their fatherland laid bare at the walls, set their bodies in the way, and none drew back a foot, lest he should let the enemy into a place abandoned by himself. Therefore, the more sharply and in closer order fighting was carried on on both sides, the more were wounded, since no missile passed idly between arms and bodies. The phalarica was for the Saguntines a missile weapon with a fir-wood shaft, the rest rounded except at the far end where the iron projected; this, as in a pilum, they bound square with tow and smeared with pitch; and the iron was three feet long, so that it could transfix the body together with the armor.

Sed id maxime, etiamsi haesisset in scuto nec penetrasset in corpus, pavorem faciebat quod, cum medium accensum mitteretur conceptumque ipso motu multo maiorem ignem ferret, arma omitti cogebat nudumque militem ad insequentes ictus praebebat.

But that, most of all—even if it had stuck in the shield and had not penetrated the body—created terror, because, when launched ignited in the middle and, once the fire had taken hold, by its very motion it carried a much greater flame, it compelled the arms to be cast off and exposed the soldier, naked, to the ensuing blows.

[9] Cum diu anceps fuisset certamen et Saguntinis quia praeter spem resisterent creuissent animi, Poenus quia non vicisset pro victo esset, clamorem repente oppidani tollunt hostemque in ruinas muri expellunt, inde impeditum trepidantemque exturbant, postremo fusum fugatumque in castra redigunt.

[9] When the contest had long been in suspense, and among the Saguntines, because they were resisting beyond hope, courage had increased, while the Punic side, because it had not conquered, was as though conquered, suddenly the townsmen raise a shout and drive the enemy into the ruins of the wall; from there they force him out, hampered and panic‑stricken; finally, routed and put to flight, they herd him back into the camp.

Interim ab Roma legatos venisse nuntiatum est; quibus obviam ad mare missi ab Hannibale qui dicerent nec tuto eos adituros inter tot tam effrenatarum gentium arma nec Hannibali in tanto discrimine rerum operae esse legationes audire. Apparebat non admissos protinus Carthaginem ituros. Litteras igitur nuntiosque ad principes factionis Barcinae praemittit ut praepararent suorum animos ne quid pars altera gratificari populo Romano posset.

Meanwhile it was reported that envoys had come from Rome; to meet whom at the sea there were sent by Hannibal men to say that neither would they safely gain access amid the arms of so many so unbridled nations, nor had Hannibal, in so great a crisis of affairs, the leisure to hear embassies. It was apparent that, if not admitted, they would straightway go to Carthage. Therefore he sends letters and messengers ahead to the chiefs of the Barcine faction to prepare the minds of their own men, lest the other party be able to do anything to gratify the Roman people.

[10] Itaque, praeterquam quod admissi auditique sunt, ea quoque vana atque inrita legatio fuit. Hanno unus adversus senatum causam foederis magno silentio propter auctoritatem suam, non cum adsensu audientium egit, per deos foederum arbitros ac testes obtestans ne Romanum cum Saguntino suscitarent bellum; monuisse, praedixisse se ne Hamilcaris progeniem ad exercitum mitterent; non manes, non stirpem eius conquiescere viri, nec unquam donec sanguinis nominisque Barcini quisquam supersit quietura Romana foedera.

[10] And so, although they were admitted and heard, that legation too was vain and void. Hanno alone pleaded the cause of the treaty against the senate—amid great silence on account of his authority, though not with the assent of the hearers—imploring by the gods, arbiters and witnesses of treaties, that they not rouse a Roman war with the Saguntine; that he had warned and foretold they should not send Hamilcar’s progeny to the army; that neither the shades nor the stock of that man are at rest, and that the Roman treaties will never be at rest so long as anyone of the Barcine blood and name survives.

"Iuvenem flagrantem cupidine regni viamque unam ad id cernentem si ex bellis bella serendo succinctus armis legionibusque vivat, velut materiam igni praebentes, ad exercitus misistis. Aluistis ergo hoc incendium quo nunc ardetis. Saguntum vestri circumsedent exercitus unde arcentur foedere; mox Carthaginem circumsedebunt Romanae legiones ducibus iisdem dis per quos priore bello rupta foedera sunt ulti.

"A young man blazing with desire for kingship, and discerning the one way to it—that, by sowing wars out of wars, he should live girded with arms and legions—you sent to the armies, as though supplying fuel to a fire. You have therefore nourished this conflagration with which you now burn. Your armies are besieging Saguntum, from which they are barred by the treaty; soon Roman legions will besiege Carthage, with the same gods as leaders by whom, in the earlier war, they avenged the broken treaties.

Utrum hostem an vos an fortunam utriusque populi ignoratis? Legatos ab sociis et pro sociis venientes bonus imperator vester in castra non admisit; ius gentium sustulit; hi tamen, unde ne hostium quidem legati arcentur, pulsi, ad vos venerunt. Res ex foedere repetuntur; publica fraus absit: auctorem culpae et reum criminis deposcunt.

Are you ignorant of the enemy, or of yourselves, or of the fortune of both peoples? Your good imperator did not admit into the camp the legates coming from allies and for allies; he abolished the ius gentium; yet these men, driven from a place whence not even legates of enemies are debarred, have come to you. Restitution is sought under the foedus; let public fraud be absent: they demand the author of the fault and the defendant of the crime.

Quo lenius agunt, segnius incipiunt, eo cum coeperint vereor ne perseverantius saeviant. Aegates insulas Erycemque ante oculos proponite, quae terra marique per quattuor et viginti annos passi sitis. Nec puer hic dux erat sed pater ipse Hamilcar, Mars alter, ut isti volunt.

The more mildly they act, the more sluggishly they begin; but when they have begun, I fear lest they be the more persistently savage. Set before your eyes the Aegates islands and Eryx, what you endured by land and sea for 24 years. Nor was a boy the leader then, but Hamilcar the father himself, another Mars, as those men wish.

Sed Tarento, id est Italia, non abstinueramus ex foedere, sicut nunc Sagunto non abstinemus; vicerunt ergo di hominesque et, id de quo verbis ambigebatur uter populus foedus rupisset, eventus belli velut aequus iudex, unde ius stabat, ei victoriam dedit. Carthagini nunc Hannibal vineas turresque admovet: Carthaginis moenia quatit ariete. Sagunti ruinae—falsus utinam vates sim—nostris capitibus incident, susceptumque cum Saguntinis bellum habendum cum Romanis est.

But from Tarentum—that is, from Italy—we had not, by treaty, been bound to abstain, just as now we do not abstain from Saguntum; therefore gods and men prevailed, and that point about which, in words, it was ambiguous which people had broken the treaty, the outcome of the war, as an impartial judge, gave the victory to that side where the right stood. Upon Carthage now Hannibal is bringing up mantlets and towers: he is shaking Carthage’s walls with the battering-ram. The ruins of Saguntum—would that I be a false prophet—will fall upon our heads, and the war undertaken with the Saguntines must be had with the Romans.

Dedemus ergo Hannibalem? dicet aliquis. Scio meam levem esse in eo auctoritatem propter paternas inimicitias; sed et Hamilcarem eo perisse laetatus sum quod, si ille viveret, bellum iam haberemus cum Romanis, et hunc iuvenem tamquam furiam facemque huius belli odi ac detestor; nec dedendum solum id piaculum rupti foederis, sed si nemo deposcit, devehendum in ultimas maris terrarumque oras, ablegandum eo unde nec ad nos nomen famaque eius accedere neque ille sollicitare quietae civitatis statum possit, ego ita censeo.

Are we then to surrender Hannibal? someone will say. I know that my authority in this matter is light, on account of my father’s enmities; but I was glad that Hamilcar perished for this reason, that, if he were alive, we would already have war with the Romans; and I hate and detest this young man as the Fury and torch of this war; and he must not only be surrendered as that expiation for the broken treaty, but, if no one demands him, he must be conveyed to the uttermost shores of sea and land, and sent away to a place whence neither his name nor his fame can reach us, nor he be able to unsettle the condition of a quiet state—such is my opinion.

Legatos extemplo Romam mittendos qui senatui satisfaciant, alios qui Hannibali nuntient ut exercitum ab Sagunto abducat ipsumque Hannibalem ex foedere Romanis dedant, tertiam legationem ad res Saguntinis reddendas decerno."

Legates must at once be sent to Rome to make satisfaction to the senate, others to announce to Hannibal that he should withdraw the army from Saguntum and surrender Hannibal himself to the Romans under the treaty; I decree a third embassy to restore the property to the Saguntines."

[11] Cum Hanno perorasset, nemini omnium certare oratione cum eo necesse fuit; adeo prope omnis senatus Hannibalis erat, infestiusque locutum arguebant Hannonem quam Flaccum Valerium, legatum Romanum. Responsum inde legatis Romanis est bellum ortum ab Saguntinis, non ab Hannibale esse; populum Romanum iniuste facere, si Saguntinos vetustissimae Carthaginiensium societati praeponat.

[11] When Hanno had finished speaking, it was necessary for none of them all to contend in speech with him; so nearly the whole senate was for Hannibal, and they were accusing Hanno of having spoken more hostilely than Flaccus Valerius, the Roman legate. Then the answer was given to the Roman envoys that the war had arisen from the Saguntines, not from Hannibal; that the Roman people would act unjustly if it should prefer the Saguntines to the most ancient alliance of the Carthaginians.

Dum Romani tempus terunt legationibus mittendis, Hannibal, quia fessum militem proeliis operibusque habebat, paucorum iis dierum quietem dedit stationibus ad custodiam vinearum aliorumque operum dispositis. Interim animos eorum nunc ira in hostes stimulando, nunc spe praemiorum accendit; ut vero pro contione praedam captae urbis edixit militum fore, adeo accensi omnes sunt ut, si extemplo signum datum esset, nulla vi resisti videretur posse. Saguntini ut a proeliis quietem habuerant nec lacessentes nec lacessiti per aliquot dies, ita non nocte, non die unquam cessaverant ab opere, ut novum murum ab ea parte qua patefactum oppidum ruinis erat reficerent.

While the Romans were wasting time in sending embassies, Hannibal, because he had his soldiery wearied by battles and by works, granted them a respite of a few days, posting stations for the guard of the vineae and the other works. Meanwhile he kindled their spirits, now by spurring their wrath against the enemies, now by the hope of rewards; and when, before the assembly, he proclaimed that the booty of the captured city would be the soldiers’, all were so inflamed that, if the signal had been given on the spot, it seemed that no force could resist. The Saguntines, as they had had a lull from battles, neither provoking nor provoked for several days, yet had never ceased by night nor by day from the work, to rebuild a new wall on that side where the town had been laid open by the ruins.

Inde oppugnatio eos aliquanto atrocior quam ante adorta est, nec qua primum aut potissimum parte ferrent opem, cum omnia variis clamoribus streperent, satis scire poterant. Ipse Hannibal qua turris mobilis, omnia munimenta urbis superans altitudine, agebatur hortator aderat. Quae cum admota catapultis ballistisque per omnia tabulata dispositis muros defensoribus nudasset, tum Hannibal occasionem ratus, quingentos ferme Afros cum dolabris ad subruendum ab imo murum mittit; nec erat difficile opus, quod caementa non calce durata erant sed interlita luto, structurae antiquae genere.

From there the assault set upon them somewhat more atrociously than before, nor could they sufficiently know at first or principally to what part they should bring aid, since all quarters were clattering with various outcries. Hannibal himself was present as an exhorter where the mobile tower, surpassing all the fortifications of the city in height, was being driven forward. And when, this having been brought up, with catapults and ballistas arranged through all the stories, it had bared the walls of defenders, then Hannibal, judging the opportunity, sends about 500 Africans with dolabrae to undermine the wall from the base; nor was the task difficult, because the rubble-stones had not been hardened with lime but were smeared between with mud, a kind of ancient construction.

Itaque latius quam qua caederetur ruebat perque patentia ruinis agmina armatorum in urbem vadebant. Locum quoque editum capiunt, conlatisque eo catapultis ballistisque ut castellum in ipsa urbe velut arcem imminentem haberent muro circumdant; et Saguntini murum interiorem ab nondum capta parte urbis ducunt. Utrimque summa vi et muniunt et pugnant; sed interiora tuendo minorem in dies urbem Saguntini faciunt.

Accordingly, it was collapsing more broadly than the spot where it was being cut down, and through the spaces laid open by the ruins columns of armed men were advancing into the city. They also seize an elevated place, and, bringing thither catapults and ballistae, they surround it with a wall, so that in the very city they might have a castle, as it were, looming like a citadel; and the Saguntines draw an inner wall from the part of the city not yet taken. On both sides they both fortify and fight with utmost force; but by defending the inner quarters the Saguntines make the city smaller day by day.

Simul crescit inopia omnium longa obsidione et minuitur exspectatio externae opis, cum tam procul Romani, unica spes, circa omnia hostium essent. Paulisper tamen adfectos animos recreavit repentina profectio Hannibalis in Oretanos Carpetanosque, qui duo populi, dilectus acerbitate consternati, retentis conquisitoribus metum defectionis cum praebuissent, oppressi celeritate Hannibalis omiserunt mota arma.

At the same time the scarcity of everything grew because of the long siege, and the expectation of external aid diminished, since the Romans, the sole hope, were so far away, while on every side there were enemies. For a little while, however, the sudden departure of Hannibal against the Oretani and the Carpetani revived their afflicted spirits; these two peoples, dismayed by the harshness of the levy, having detained the recruiting officers and thus given cause for a fear of defection, when overwhelmed by Hannibal’s speed, laid aside the arms they had taken up.

[12] Nec Sagunti oppugnatio segnior erat Maharbale Himilconis filio—eum praefecerat Hannibal—ita impigre rem agente ut ducem abesse nec cives nec hostes sentirent. Is et proelia aliquot secunda fecit et tribus arietibus aliquantum muri discussit strataque omnia recentibus ruinis advenienti Hannibali ostendit. Itaque ad ipsam arcem extemplo ductus exercitus atroxque proelium cum multorum utrimque caede initum et pars arcis capta est.

[12] Nor was the assault upon Saguntum more sluggish, with Maharbal, son of Himilco—Hannibal had put him in command—so energetically conducting the affair that neither citizens nor enemies felt the leader’s absence. He both fought several engagements with success and, with three battering rams, shattered a considerable portion of the wall, and he showed to Hannibal on his arrival everything strewn with fresh ruins. Therefore the army was straightway led up to the very citadel, and a fierce battle was joined, with great slaughter on both sides, and part of the citadel was taken.

Temptata deinde per duos est exigua pacis spes, Alconem Saguntinum et Alorcum Hispanum. Alco insciis Saguntinis, precibus aliquid moturum ratus, cum ad Hannibalem noctu transisset, postquam nihil lacrimae movebant condicionesque tristes, ut ab irato victore, ferebantur, transfuga ex oratore factus apud hostem mansit, moriturum adfirmans qui sub condicionibus iis de pace ageret. Postulabatur autem, redderent res Turdetanis traditoque omni auro atque argento egressi urbe cum singulis vestimentis ibi habitarent ubi Poenus iussisset.

Then the slight hope of peace was tried through two men, Alco the Saguntine and Alorcus the Spaniard. Alco, the Saguntines unaware, thinking he would move something by entreaties, when he had crossed to Hannibal by night—after neither tears availed nor the grim conditions, as from an irate victor, were softened—turned from envoy into deserter and remained among the enemy, affirming that whoever should negotiate for peace under those terms would die. It was being demanded, moreover, that they restore the property to the Turdetani, and, with all the gold and silver handed over and after leaving the city with a single garment each, they should dwell wherever the Carthaginian ordered.

Has pacis leges abnuente Alcone accepturos Saguntinos, Alorcus, vinci animos ubi alia vincantur adfirmans, se pacis eius interpretem fore pollicetur; erat autem tum miles Hannibalis, ceterum publice Saguntinis amicus atque hospes. Traditio palam telo custodibus hostium transgressus munimenta ad praetorem Saguntinum—et ipse ita iubebat—est deductus. Quo cum extemplo concursus omnis generis hominum esset factus, submota cetera multitudine senatus Alorco datus est, cuius talis oratio fuit:

With Alco refusing these laws of peace, Alorcus—affirming that minds are conquered where other things are conquered—promises that he will be the interpreter of that peace; he was at that time a soldier of Hannibal, but publicly a friend and guest-friend to the Saguntines. Having openly handed over his weapon to the enemy’s guards, he crossed the fortifications and was conducted to the Saguntine praetor—so he himself ordered. When there was at once a concourse of men of every kind made there, the rest of the multitude having been removed, the senate was granted to Alorcus, whose speech was of this sort:

[13] "Si civis vester Alco, sicut ad pacem petendam ad Hannibalem venit, ita pacis condiciones ab Hannibale ad vos rettulisset, supervacaneum hoc mihi fuisset iter, quo nec orator Hannibalis nec transfuga ad vos veni; sed cum ille aut vestra aut sua culpa manserit apud hostem—sua, si metum simulavit: vestra, si periculum est apud vos vera referentibus—ego, ne ignoraretis esse et salutis aliquas et pacis vobis condiciones, pro vetusto hospitio quod mihi vobiscum est ad vos veni. Vestra autem causa me nec ullius alterius loqui quae loquor apud vos vel ea fides sit quod neque dum vestris viribus restitistis neque dum auxilia ab Romanis sperastis pacis unquam apud vos mentionem feci. Postquam nec ab Romanis vobis ulla est spes nec vestra vos iam aut arma aut moenia satis defendunt, pacem adfero ad vos magis necessariam quam aequam.

[13] "If your fellow-citizen Alco, just as he came to Hannibal to seek peace, had in the same way carried back to you the conditions of peace from Hannibal, this journey would have been superfluous for me, on which I have come to you neither as Hannibal’s orator nor as a deserter; but since he has remained with the enemy either by your fault or by his own—by his own, if he simulated fear; by yours, if there is danger among you for those reporting truths—I, lest you be ignorant that there are for you certain terms both of safety and of peace, have come to you on account of the longstanding hospitality which I have with you. Let this be the assurance that I speak what I speak among you for your sake and for no other’s: that neither while you resisted by your own forces, nor while you hoped for auxiliaries from the Romans, did I ever make mention of peace among you. After neither is there any hope for you from the Romans, nor do your own arms or your walls now defend you sufficiently, I bring to you a peace more necessary than equitable."

Cuius ita aliqua spes est, si eam, quemadmodum ut victor fert Hannibal, sic vos ut victi audiatis; si non id quod amittitur in damno, cum omnia victoris sint, sed quidquid relinquitur pro munere habituri estis. Urbem vobis, quam ex magna parte dirutam, captam fere totam habet, adimit: agros relinquit, locum adsignaturus in quo novum oppidum aedificetis. Aurum et argentum omne, publicum privatumque, ad se iubet deferri: corpora vestra coniugum ac liberorum vestrorum servat inviolata, si inermes cum binis vestimentis velitis ab Sagunto exire.

There is some hope of it on these terms, if you listen to it as Hannibal, as victor, puts it forward, and you, as the vanquished, hear it; if you will hold not what is lost to be in loss—since everything is the victor’s—but whatever is left to be a gift. He takes from you the city, which he has in great part torn down and holds almost wholly captured; he leaves the fields, being about to assign a place in which you may build a new town. He orders all the gold and silver, public and private, to be brought to himself; he preserves your persons, and those of your wives and children, inviolate, if unarmed, with two garments each, you are willing to go out from Saguntum.

Haec victor hostis imperat; haec quamquam sunt gravia atque acerba, fortuna vestra vobis suadet. Equidem haud despero, cum omnium potestas ei facta sit, aliquid ex his rebus remissurum; sed vel haec patienda censeo potius quam trucidari corpora vestra, rapi trahique ante ora vestra coniuges ac liberos belli iure sinatis."

These things the victorious enemy commands; though they are grave and bitter, your fortune counsels them to you. For my part, I do not at all despair that, since all power has been given to him, he will remit something of these terms; but I judge that even these must be endured rather than that you allow, by the law of war, your bodies to be butchered, and your wives and children to be seized and dragged before your eyes."

[14] Ad haec audienda cum circumfusa paulatim multitudine permixtum senatui esset populi concilium, repente primores secessione facta priusquam responsum daretur argentum aurumque omne ex publico privatoque in forum conlatum in ignem ad id raptim factum conicientes eodem plerique semet ipsi praecipitaverunt. Cum ex eo pavor ac trepidatio totam urbem pervasisset, alius insuper tumultus ex arce auditur. Turris diu quassata prociderat, perque ruinam eius cohors Poenorum impetu facto cum signum imperatori dedisset nudatam stationibus custodiisque solitis hostium esse urbem, non cunctandum in tali occasione ratus Hannibal, totis viribus adgressus urbem momento cepit, signo dato ut omnes puberes interficerentur.

[14] To hear these things, as a crowd gradually gathered around and an assembly of the people, mixed with the senate, was in session, suddenly the leading men, having made a secession before any answer was given, hurled all the silver and gold, public and private, into the forum onto a fire hastily made for that purpose, and many of them threw themselves headlong into the same. When from this fear and alarm had permeated the whole city, another tumult besides is heard from the citadel. A tower long battered had collapsed, and through its ruin a cohort of the Punics, having made an assault, when it had signaled to the commander that the city of the enemy was stripped of its usual posts and guards, Hannibal, thinking that there must be no delay in such an opportunity, attacked the city with all his strength and took it in a moment, the signal having been given that all males of military age be slain.

Quod imperium crudele, ceterum prope necessarium cognitum ipso eventu est; cui enim parci potuit ex iis qui aut inclusi cum coniugibus ac liberis domos super se ipsos concremaverunt aut armati nullum ante finem pugnae quam morientes fecerunt?

That order, cruel yet almost necessary, was known by the very event; for to whom indeed could there be sparing from among those who either, shut in with their wives and children, burned their houses over themselves, or, armed, made no end to the fight except in dying?

[15] Captum oppidum est cum ingenti praeda. Quamquam pleraque ab dominis de industria corrupta erant et in caedibus vix ullum discrimen aetatis ira fecerat et captivi militum praeda fuerant, tamen et ex pretio rerum venditarum aliquantum pecuniae redactum esse constat et multam pretiosam supellectilem vestemque missam Carthaginem.

[15] The town was taken with immense booty. Although most things had been deliberately spoiled by their owners, and in the slaughters wrath had made scarcely any distinction of age, and the captives had been the soldiers’ prey, nevertheless it is agreed that both from the price of the things sold a certain amount of money was realized, and that much precious furniture and clothing were sent to Carthage.

Octavo mense quam coeptum oppugnari captum Saguntum quidam scripsere; inde Carthaginem Novam in hiberna Hannibalem concessisse; quinto deinde mense quam ab Carthagine profectus sit in Italiam pervenisse. Quae si ita sunt, fieri non potuit ut P. Cornelius Ti. Sempronius consules fuerint, ad quos et principio oppugnationis legati Saguntini missi sint et qui in suo magistratu cum Hannibale, alter ad Ticinum amnem, ambo aliquanto post ad Trebiam pugnaverint. Aut omnia breviora aliquanto fuere aut Saguntum principio anni, quo P. Cornelius Ti. Sempronius consules fuerunt, non coeptum oppugnari est sed captum.

Some have written that Saguntum was taken in the eighth month from when the assault began; that from there Hannibal withdrew to New Carthage into winter quarters; then that in the fifth month from when he set out from Carthage he arrived in Italy. If these things are so, it could not be that P. Cornelius and Ti. Sempronius were consuls, to whom both at the beginning of the siege the Saguntine envoys were sent, and who, in their own magistracy, fought with Hannibal—the one at the river Ticinus, both somewhat later at the Trebia. Either all the periods were somewhat shorter, or Saguntum at the beginning of the year in which P. Cornelius and Ti. Sempronius were consuls was not begun to be besieged but was taken.

Nam excessisse pugna ad Trebiam in annum Cn. Servili et C. Flamini non potest, quia C. Flaminius Arimini consulatum iniit, creatus a Ti. Sempronio consule, qui post pugnam ad Trebiam ad creandos consules Romam cum venisset comitiis perfectis ad exercitum in hiberna rediit.

For it cannot be that the battle at the Trebia fell into the year of Gnaeus Servilius and Gaius Flaminius, because Gaius Flaminius entered upon the consulship at Ariminum, having been created by the consul Tiberius Sempronius, who, after the battle at the Trebia, when he had come to Rome to create the consuls, returned to the army into winter quarters once the comitia were completed.

[16] Sub idem fere tempus et legati qui redierant ab Carthagine Romam rettulerunt omnia hostilia esse, et Sagunti excidium nuntiatum est; tantusque simul maeror patres misericordiaque sociorum peremptorum indigne et pudor non lati auxilii et ira in Carthaginienses metusque de summa rerum cepit, velut si iam ad portas hostis esset, ut tot uno tempore motibus animi turbati trepidarent magis quam consulerent: nam neque hostem acriorem bellicosioremque secum congressum nec rem Romanam tam desidem unquam fuisse atque imbellem. Sardos Corsosque et Histros atque Illyrios lacessisse magis quam exercuisse Romana arma et cum Gallis tumultuatum verius quam belligeratum: Poenum hostem veteranum, trium et viginti annorum militia durissima inter Hispanas gentes semper victorem, duci acerrimo adsuetum, recentem ab excidio opulentissimae urbis, Hiberum transire; trahere secum tot excitos Hispanorum populos; conciturum avidas semper armorum Gallicas gentes; cum orbe terrarum bellum gerendum in Italia ac pro moenibus Romanis esse.

[16] At about the same time the envoys who had returned from Carthage reported to Rome that all was hostile, and the destruction of Saguntum was announced; and so great a mourning at once seized the Fathers, together with compassion for allies slain indignantly, and shame at aid not having been brought, and anger against the Carthaginians, and fear concerning the sum total of affairs, as if already the enemy were at the gates, that, disturbed by so many motions of spirit at one time, they were more agitated than they took counsel: for they had never met an enemy more keen and more warlike, nor had the Roman commonwealth ever been so slothful and unwarlike. The Sardinians, Corsicans, and the Histri and Illyrians had provoked Roman arms rather than exercised them, and with the Gauls there had been turmoil rather than true warfare; but now the Carthaginian foe, a veteran, with three and twenty years of most hard military service among the Spanish nations, always a victor, accustomed to a most sharp leader, fresh from the ruin of a most opulent city, was crossing the Iberus; he was drawing with him so many peoples of the Spaniards roused to arms; he would stir up the Gallic nations, always greedy for arms; a war with the whole circle of lands was to be waged in Italy and before the Roman walls.

[17] Nominatae iam antea consulibus provinciae erant; tum sortiri iussi. Cornelio Hispania, Sempronio Africa cum Sicilia evenit. Sex in eum annum decretae legiones et socium quantum ipsis videretur et classis quanta parari posset.

[17] The provinces had already earlier been named for the consuls; then they were ordered to draw lots. Spain fell to Cornelius, Africa with Sicily to Sempronius. Six legions were decreed for that year, and of the allies as much as seemed good to themselves, and a fleet as large as could be prepared.

Quattuor et viginti peditum Romanorum milia scripta et mille octingenti equites, sociorum quadraginta milia peditum, quattuor milia et quadringenti equites; naves ducentae viginti quinqueremes, celoces viginti deducti. Latum inde ad populum vellent iuberent populo Carthaginiensi bellum indici; eiusque belli causa supplicatio per urbem habita atque adorati di, ut bene ac feliciter eveniret quod bellum populus Romanus iussisset. Inter consules ita copiae divisae: Sempronio datae legiones duae—ea quaterna milia erant peditum et treceni equites—et sociorum sedecim milia peditum, equites mille octingenti; naves longae centum sexaginta, celoces duodecim.

24,000 Roman infantry were enrolled and 1,800 cavalry; of the allies, 40,000 infantry and 4,400 cavalry; 220 quinqueremes and 20 celoces were launched. Then it was brought before the people that they should will and order war to be declared upon the Carthaginian people; and for the sake of that war a supplicatio was held throughout the city and the gods were adored, that the war which the Roman people had ordered might turn out well and happily. Between the consuls the forces were divided thus: to Sempronius were given two legions—each of these was 4,000 infantry and 300 cavalry—and of the allies 16,000 infantry, 1,800 cavalry; 160 long ships and 12 celoces.

Cum his terrestribus maritimisque copiis Ti. Sempronius missus in Siciliam, ita in Africam transmissurus si ad arcendum Italia Poenum consul alter satis esset. Cornelio minus copiarum datum, quia L. Manlius praetor et ipse cum haud invalido praesidio in Galliam mittebatur; navium maxime Cornelio numerus deminutus; sexaginta quinqueremes datae—neque enim mari venturum aut ea parte belli dimicaturum hostem credebant—et duae Romanae legiones cum suo iusto equitatu et quattuordecim milibus sociorum peditum, equitibus mille sescentis. Duas legiones Romanas et decem milia sociorum peditum, mille equites socios, sescentos Romanos Gallia provincia eodem versa in Punicum bellum habuit.

With these land and sea forces Tiberius Sempronius was sent into Sicily, to cross over thence into Africa provided the other consul were sufficient to keep the Phoenician away from Italy. Fewer forces were given to Cornelius, because the praetor Lucius Manlius also was being sent into Gaul with a not weak garrison; most of all the number of ships for Cornelius was diminished: 60 quinqueremes were assigned—for they did not believe the enemy would come by sea or fight on that side of the war—and 2 Roman legions with their proper complement of cavalry, and 14,000 allied infantry, with 1,600 horse. The province of Gaul, likewise turned to the Punic war, had 2 Roman legions and 10,000 allied infantry, 1,000 allied cavalry, and 600 Roman cavalry.

[18] His ita comparatis, ut omnia iusta ante bellum fierent, legatos maiores natu, Q. Fabium M. Liuium L. Aemilium C. Licinium Q. Baebium in Africam mittunt ad percontandos Carthaginienses publicone consilio Hannibal Saguntum oppugnasset, et si id quod facturi videbantur faterentur ac defenderent publico consilio factum, ut indicerent populo Carthaginiensi bellum. Romani postquam Carthaginem venerunt, cum senatus datus esset et Q. Fabius nihil ultra quam unum quod mandatum erat percontatus esset, tum ex Carthaginiensibus unus: "Praeceps vestra, Romani, et prior legatio fuit, cum Hannibalem tamquam suo consilio Saguntum oppugnantem deposcebatis; ceterum haec legatio verbis adhuc lenior est, re asperior. Tunc enim Hannibal et insimulabatur et deposcebatur; nunc ab nobis et confessio culpae exprimitur et ut a confessis res extemplo repetuntur.

[18] With things thus arranged, so that all might be lawful before war, they send envoys, elders by age—Q. Fabius, M. Livius, L. Aemilius, C. Licinius, Q. Baebius—into Africa to question the Carthaginians whether Hannibal had attacked Saguntum by public counsel; and if they should confess what they seemed likely to do and should defend that it was done by public counsel, that they might declare war upon the Carthaginian people. After the Romans came to Carthage, when an audience with the senate had been granted and Q. Fabius had inquired nothing beyond the one thing that had been mandated, then one of the Carthaginians said: “Headlong, Romans, was your earlier embassy, when you demanded Hannibal, as though he were attacking Saguntum by his own counsel; but this embassy is milder in words, harsher in reality. Then indeed Hannibal was both accused and demanded for surrender; now from us both a confession of fault is being wrung, and, as from the confessed, demands for restitution are made forthwith.

Ego autem non privato publicone consilio Saguntum oppugnatum sit quaerendum censeam sed utrum iure an iniuria; nostra enim haec quaestio atque animadversio in civem nostrum est quid nostro aut suo fecerit arbitrio: vobiscum una disceptatio est licueritne per foedus fieri. Itaque quoniam discerni placet quid publico consilio, quid sua sponte imperatores faciant, nobis vobiscum foedus est a C. Lutatio consule ictum in quo, cum caveretur utrorumque sociis, nihil de Saguntinis—necdum enim erant socii vestri—cautum est. At enim eo foedere quod cum Hasdrubale ictum est Saguntini excipiuntur.

I, however, would judge that we should not inquire whether Saguntum was assaulted by private or by public counsel, but whether by right or by wrong; for our inquiry and animadversion upon our citizen concerns what he did by our judgment or by his own; with you the single dispute is whether it was permitted by the treaty to be done. And so, since it is pleasing to distinguish what commanders do by public counsel and what of their own accord, there is a treaty between us and you struck by the consul Gaius Lutatius, in which, while provision was made for the allies of both parties, nothing about the Saguntines—for they were not yet your allies—was provided. But indeed by that treaty which was struck with Hasdrubal the Saguntines are excepted.

Adversus quod ego nihil dicturus sum nisi quod a vobis didici. Vos enim, quod C. Lutatius consul primo nobiscum foedus icit, quia neque auctoritate patrum nec populi iussu ictum erat, negastis vos eo teneri; itaque aliud de integro foedus publico consilio ictum est. Si vos non tenent foedera vestra nisi ex auctoritate aut iussu vestro icta, ne nos quidem Hasdrubalis foedus quod nobis insciis icit obligare potuit.

Against which I will say nothing except what I learned from you. For you denied that you were bound by the treaty which Gaius Lutatius, consul, first struck with us, because it had been struck neither by the authority of the Senate nor by the order of the People; and so another treaty afresh was struck by public counsel. If your treaties do not bind you unless struck by your authority or order, then neither could Hasdrubal’s treaty, which he struck without our knowledge, bind us.

Proinde omittite Sagunti atque Hiberi mentionem facere et quod diu parturit animus vester aliquando pariat." Tum Romanus sinu ex toga facto, "hic" inquit, "vobis bellum et pacem portamus; utrum placet sumite." Sub hanc vocem haud minus ferociter, daret utrum vellet, succlamatum est; et cum is iterum sinu effuso bellum dare dixisset, accipere se omnes responderunt et quibus acciperent animis iisdem se gesturos.

Accordingly, stop making mention of Saguntum and the Hiberus, and let that which your spirit has long been laboring with at last bring forth." Then the Roman, with a fold made from his toga, said, "Here we bring you war and peace; take whichever pleases you." At this utterance it was shouted back, no less ferociously, that he should give whichever he wished; and when he, with the fold thrown open again, said that he gave war, they all replied that they accepted it, and that they would carry themselves with the same spirits with which they accepted it.

[19] Haec derecta percontatio ac denuntiatio belli magis ex dignitate populi Romani visa est quam de foederum iure verbis disceptare, cum ante, tum maxime Sagunto excisa. Nam si verborum disceptationis res esset, quid foedus Hasdrubalis cum Lutati priore foedere, quod mutatum est, comparandum erat, cum in Lutati foedere diserte additum esset ita id ratum fore si populus censuisset, in Hasdrubalis foedere nec exceptum tale quicquam fuerit et tot annorum silentio ita vivo eo comprobatum sit foedus ut ne mortuo quidem auctore quicquam mutaretur? Quamquam, etsi priore foedere staretur, satis cautum erat Saguntinis sociis utrorumque exceptis; nam neque additum erat "iis qui tunc essent" nec "ne qui postea adsumerentur". Et cum adsumere novos liceret socios, quis aequum censeret aut ob nulla quemquam merita in amicitiam recipi aut receptos in fidem non defendi, tantum ne Carthaginiensium socii aut sollicitarentur ad defectionem aut sua sponte desciscentes reciperentur?

[19] This straightforward interrogation and denunciation of war seemed more in keeping with the dignity of the Roman people than to dispute in words about the law of treaties, as before, then especially with Saguntum laid waste. For if it were a matter of verbal disputation, what was Hasdrubal’s treaty to be compared with the earlier treaty of Lutatius, which was altered, since in Lutatius’s treaty it was expressly added that it would be ratified thus if the people had decreed it, whereas in Hasdrubal’s treaty nothing of the sort was excepted, and by the silence of so many years the treaty was so confirmed while he lived that not even with the author dead was anything changed? And although, even if one stood by the earlier treaty, sufficient provision had been made for the Saguntines, the allies of either party being excepted; for it had been added neither “those who then existed” nor “that those who should afterwards be taken on were not to be taken on.” And since it was permitted to assume new allies, who would deem it equitable either that someone be received into amity without any merits, or that those received into our faith not be defended—provided only that the allies of the Carthaginians were not either solicited to defection or, if defecting of their own accord, received?

Legati Romani ab Carthagine, sicut iis Romae imperatum erat, in Hispaniam ut adirent civitates ut in societatem perlicerent aut averterent a Poenis traiecerunt. Ad Bargusios primum venerunt, a quibus benigne excepti, quia taedebat imperii Punici, multos trans Hiberum populos ad cupidinem novae fortunae erexerunt. Inde est ventum ad Volcianos, quorum celebre per Hispaniam responsum ceteros populos ab societate Romana avertit.

The Roman envoys, from Carthage, as had been ordered them at Rome, crossed over into Spain to approach the communities, that they might entice them into alliance or turn them away from the Phoenicians. They came first to the Bargusii; being kindly received by them, because they were weary of Punic dominion, they stirred up many peoples beyond the Iberus to a desire for a new fortune. Thence they came to the Volciani, whose response, famous throughout Spain, turned the other peoples away from Roman alliance.

Ita enim maximus natu ex iis in concilio respondit: "Quae verecundia est, Romani, postulare vos uti vestram Carthaginiensium amicitiae praeponamus, cum qui id fecerunt [Saguntini] crudelius quam Poenus hostis perdidit vos socii prodideritis? Ibi quaeratis socios censeo ubi Saguntina clades ignota est; Hispanis populis sicut lugubre, ita insigne documentum Sagunti ruinae erunt ne quis fidei Romanae aut societati confidat." Inde extemplo abire finibus Volcianorum iussi ab nullo deinde concilio Hispaniae benigniora verba tulere. Ita nequiquam peragrata Hispania in Galliam transeunt.

For thus the eldest of them in council replied: "What sense of shame is it, Romans, to demand that we set your friendship before that of the Carthaginians, when those who did this [Saguntini] you, as allies, betrayed more cruelly than the Carthaginian enemy destroyed them? There, I advise, seek allies where the Saguntine disaster is unknown; for the Spanish peoples the ruin of Saguntum will be, as mournful, so a notable document, lest anyone trust in Roman good faith or alliance." Then, ordered at once to depart from the borders of the Volciani, thereafter they received from no council of Spain kinder words. Thus, Spain traversed to no purpose, they pass into Gaul.

[20] In iis nova terribilisque species visa est, quod armati— ita mos gentis erat—in concilium venerunt. Cum verbis extollentes gloriam virtutemque populi Romani ac magnitudinem imperii petissent ne Poeno bellum Italiae inferenti per agros urbesque suas transitum darent, tantus cum fremitu risus dicitur ortus ut vix a magistratibus maioribusque natu iuventus sedaretur; adeo stolida impudensque postulatio visa est censere, ne in Italiam transmittant Galli bellum, ipsos id avertere in se agrosque suos pro alienis populandos obicere. Sedato tandem fremitu responsum legatis est neque Romanorum in se meritum esse neque Carthaginiensium iniuriam ob quae aut pro Romanis aut adversus Poenos sumant arma; contra ea audire sese gentis suae homines agro finibusque Italiae pelli a populo Romano stipendiumque pendere et cetera indigna pati.

[20] Among these a new and terrible spectacle was seen, that armed—as was the custom of the nation—they came into the council. When, in words extolling the glory and virtue of the Roman people and the magnitude of the empire, they asked that they not grant passage to the Carthaginian bringing war into Italy through their fields and cities, such a laughter, with a rumbling murmur, is said to have arisen that the youth could scarcely be calmed by the magistrates and the elders; so foolish and shameless did the demand seem—to decree that the Gauls should not send the war across into Italy, but that they themselves should divert it upon themselves and expose their own fields to be plundered for the sake of others. The muttering at length stilled, answer was given to the legates that there was neither any merit of the Romans toward them nor any injury of the Carthaginians on account of which they should take up arms either for the Romans or against the Carthaginians; on the contrary, they were hearing that men of their own race were being driven by the Roman people from land and from the borders of Italy, and were paying tribute, and were enduring other unworthy things.

Eadem ferme in ceteris Galliae conciliis dicta auditaque, nec hospitale quicquam pacatumve satis prius auditum quam Massiliam venere. Ibi omnia ab sociis inquisita cum cura ac fide cognita: praeoccupatos iam ante ab Hannibale Gallorum animos esse; sed ne illi quidem ipsi satis mitem gentem fore—adeo ferocia atque indomita ingenia esse—ni subinde auro, cuius avidissima gens est, principum animi concilientur. Ita peragratis Hispaniae et Galliae populis legati Romam redeunt haud ita multo post quam consules in provincias profecti erant.

Much the same things were said and heard in the other councils of Gaul, and nothing hospitable or sufficiently peaceable was heard before they came to Massilia. There everything inquired by the allies was learned with care and good faith: that the minds of the Gauls had already beforehand been preoccupied by Hannibal; but not even they themselves would be a sufficiently mild nation—so fierce and indomitable are their dispositions—unless from time to time the minds of the chiefs were conciliated by gold, of which the nation is most avid. Thus, after traversing the peoples of Spain and Gaul, the envoys returned to Rome not very long after the consuls had set out to their provinces.

Civitatem omnem in exspectationem belli erectam invenerunt, satis constante fama iam Hiberum Poenos tramisisse.

They found the entire state roused in expectation of war, with a report quite consistent that the Carthaginians had already crossed the Hiberus (Ebro).

[21] Hannibal Sagunto capto Carthaginem Novam in hiberna concesserat, ibique auditis quae Romae quaeque Carthagine acta decretaque forent, seque non ducem solum sed etiam causam esse belli, partitis divenditisque reliquiis praedae nihil ultra differendum ratus, Hispani generis milites convocat. "Credo ego vos" inquit, "socii, et ipsos cernere pacatis omnibus Hispaniae populis aut finiendam nobis militiam exercitusque dimittendos esse aut in alias terras transferendum bellum; ita enim hae gentes non pacis solum sed etiam victoriae bonis florebunt, si ex aliis gentibus praedam et gloriam quaeremus. itaque cum longinqua ab domo instet militia incertumque sit quando domos vestras et quae cuique ibi cara sunt visuri sitis, si quis vestrum suos invisere volt, commeatum do. Primo vere edico adsitis, ut dis bene iuvantibus bellum ingentis gloriae praedaeque futurum incipiamus." Omnibus fere visendi domos oblata ultro potestas grata erat, et iam desiderantibus suos et longius in futurum providentibus desiderium.

[21] Hannibal, Saguntum having been captured, had withdrawn to New Carthage for winter quarters; and there, having heard what had been done and decreed at Rome and at Carthage, and that he himself was not only the leader but also the cause of the war, the remnants of the booty having been divided and sold off, thinking that nothing further ought to be deferred, he convenes the soldiers of Spanish stock. “I, for my part, believe, comrades,” he says, “that you yourselves see, with all the peoples of Spain pacified, that we must either end our soldiery and disband the army, or transfer the war into other lands; for thus these nations will flourish with the goods not only of peace but also of victory, if we seek booty and glory from other nations. And so, since service far from home is at hand and it is uncertain when you will see your homes and those things there which are dear to each, if any of you wishes to visit his own, I grant furlough. At the beginning of spring I order you to be present, that, with the gods kindly aiding, we may begin a war that will be of immense glory and booty.” To almost all the proffered leave to visit their homes was welcome, both to those already longing for their own and to those foreseeing a more prolonged longing in the future.

Per totum tempus hiemis quies inter labores aut iam exhaustos aut mox exhauriendos renovavit corpora animosque ad omnia de integro patienda; vere primo ad edictum convenere.

Throughout the whole time of winter, repose amid labors either already exhausted or soon to be exhausted renewed bodies and spirits for enduring everything afresh; in early spring, in response to the edict, they convened.

Hannibal cum recensuisset omnium gentium auxilia, Gades profectus Herculi vota exsoluit novisque se obligat votis, si cetera prospera evenissent. Inde partiens curas simul [in] inferendum atque arcendum bellum, ne, dum ipse terrestri per Hispaniam Galliasque itinere Italiam peteret, nuda apertaque Romanis Africa ab Sicilia esset, valido praesidio firmare eam statuit; pro eo supplementum ipse ex Africa maxime iaculatorum levium armis petiit, ut Afri in Hispania, in Africa Hispani, melior procul ab domo futurus uterque miles, velut mutuis pigneribus obligati stipendia facerent. Tredecim milia octingentos quinquaginta pedites caetratos misit in Africam et funditores Baliares octingentos septuaginta, equites mixtos ex multis gentibus mille ducentos.

When Hannibal had reviewed the auxiliaries of all the nations, setting out to Gades he paid his vows to Hercules and bound himself with new vows, if the rest should turn out prosperous. Thence, dividing his cares at once for bringing on and for warding off war, lest, while he himself sought Italy by a terrestrial route through Hispania and the Gauls, Africa should be naked and open to the Romans from Sicily, he resolved to fortify it with a strong garrison; for that purpose he himself sought reinforcement from Africa, chiefly of javelin-men with light arms, so that Africans in Hispania, and in Africa Spaniards, each soldier would be better when far from home, as if bound by mutual pledges, to do service for pay. He sent into Africa thirteen thousand eight hundred fifty caetra-bearing infantry and eight hundred seventy Balearic slingers, and one thousand two hundred cavalry mixed from many nations.

Has copias partim Carthagini praesidio esse, partim distribui per Africam iubet. Simul conquisitoribus in civitates missis quattuor milia conscripta delectae iuventutis, praesidium eosdem et obsides, duci Carthaginem iubet.

He orders these forces partly to be at Carthage as a garrison, partly to be distributed through Africa. At the same time, with recruiters sent into the cities, he orders 4,000 of chosen youth to be conscripted, and the same men, both as a garrison and as hostages, to be led to Carthage.

[22] Neque Hispaniam neglegendam ratus, atque id eo minus quod haud ignarus erat circumitam ab Romanis eam legatis ad sollicitandos principum animos, Hasdrubali fratri, viro impigro, eam provinciam destinat firmatque eum Africis maxime praesidiis, peditum Afrorum undecim milibus octingentis quinquaginta, Liguribus trecentis, Baliaribus [quingentis]. Ad haec peditum auxilia additi equites Libyphoenices, mixtum Punicum Afris genus, quadringenti [quinquaginta] et Numidae Maurique accolae Oceani ad mille octingenti et parva Ilergetum manus ex Hispania, ducenti equites, et, ne quod terrestris deesset auxilii genus, elephanti viginti unus. Classis praeterea data tuendae maritimae orae, quia qua parte belli vicerant ea tum quoque rem gesturos Romanos credi poterat, quinquaginta quinqueremes, quadriremes duae, triremes quinque; sed aptae instructaeque remigio triginta et duae quinqueremes erant et triremes quinque.

[22] Not thinking Spain to be neglected, and all the less because he was not unaware that it had been gone around by Roman envoys to stir up the minds of the chiefs, he assigned to his brother Hasdrubal, a vigorous man, that province and strengthened him with garrisons, chiefly African: of African infantry 11,850, Ligurians 300, Balearics [five hundred]. To these infantry auxiliaries were added cavalry: Libyphoenicians, the Punic race mixed with the Africans, 400 [fifty], and Numidians and Moors, dwellers by the Ocean, about 1,800, and a small band of Ilergetes from Spain, 200 horse; and, so that no kind of land-based aid should be lacking, 21 elephants. A fleet besides was given for guarding the maritime coast, because it could be believed that the Romans too would then conduct operations in that part of the war in which they had previously won: 50 quinqueremes, 2 quadriremes, 5 triremes; but fitted out and equipped with crews there were 32 quinqueremes and 5 triremes.

Ab Gadibus Carthaginem ad hiberna exercitus rediit; atque inde profectus praeter Onussam urbem ad Hiberum maritima ora ducit. Ibi fama est in quiete visum ab eo iuvenem divina specie qui se ab Iove diceret ducem in Italiam Hannibali missum; proinde sequeretur neque usquam a se deflecteret oculos. Pavidum primo, nusquam circumspicientem aut respicientem, secutum; deinde cura ingenii humani cum, quidnam id esset quod respicere vetitus esset, agitaret animo, temperare oculis nequivisse; tum vidisse post sese serpentem mira magnitudine cum ingenti arborum ac virgultorum strage ferri ac post insequi cum fragore caeli nimbum.

From Gades the army returned to Carthage to its winter-quarters; and setting out from there he leads along the maritime shore to the Ebro, past the city Onussa. There the report is that in sleep a youth of divine aspect appeared to him, who said that he had been sent by Jove as a guide into Italy for Hannibal; accordingly he should follow and nowhere turn his eyes aside from him. Fearful at first, looking neither around nor back anywhere, he followed; then, when the concern of the human intellect, as he revolved in mind what that might be which he had been forbidden to look back upon, stirred him, he was unable to restrain his eyes; then he saw behind himself a serpent of wondrous magnitude being borne along with a huge ruin of trees and brushwood, and after it a storm-cloud pursuing with a crash of the sky.

Tum quae moles ea quidue prodigii esset quaerentem, audisse vastitatem Italiae esse; pergeret porro ire nec ultra inquireret sineretque fata in occulto esse.

Then, as he was asking what that mass was and what sort of prodigy, he heard that it was the vastation of Italy; he should proceed to go on and inquire no further, and should allow the fates to remain hidden.

[23] Hoc visu laetus tripertito Hiberum copias traiecit, praemissis qui Gallorum animos, qua traducendus exercitus erat, donis conciliarent Alpiumque transitus specularentur. Nonaginta milia peditum, duodecim milia equitum Hiberum traduxit. Ilergetes inde Bargusiosque et Ausetanos et Lacetaniam, quae subiecta Pyrenaeis montibus est, subegit oraeque huic omni praefecit Hannonem, ut fauces quae Hispanias Galliis iungunt in potestate essent.

[23] Gladdened by this vision, he ferried his forces across the Ebro in three divisions, after sending ahead men to conciliate with gifts the minds of the Gauls in the quarter by which the army was to be led across, and to reconnoiter the passes of the Alps. He led across the Ebro 90,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry. Thence he subdued the Ilergetes and the Bargusii and the Ausetani and Lacetania, which lies beneath the Pyrenean mountains, and he set over this whole coast Hanno, so that the defiles which join Spain to Gaul might be in his power.

Decem milia peditum Hannoni ad praesidium obtinendae regionis data et mille equites. Postquam per Pyrenaeum saltum traduci exercitus est coeptus rumorque per barbaros manavit certior de bello Romano, tria milia inde Carpetanorum peditum iter averterunt. Constabat non tam bello motos quam longinquitate viae insuperabilique Alpium transitu.

10,000 infantry were given to Hanno for a garrison securing the region, and 1,000 cavalry. After the army began to be led through the Pyrenean pass and the rumor spread among the barbarians, more certain about the Roman war, 3,000 Carpetanian infantry turned aside from the march. It was agreed that they were stirred not so much by war as by the long distance of the road and the insuperable crossing of the Alps.

Hannibal quia revocare aut vi retinere eos anceps erat, ne ceterorum etiam feroces animi inritarentur, supra septem milia hominum domos remisit, quos et ipse gravari militia senserat, Carpetanos quoque ab se dimissos simulans.

Hannibal, since it was a hazardous thing to recall them or to restrain them by force, lest the fierce spirits of the rest also be provoked, sent more than seven thousand men home—men whom he himself had perceived to be burdened by military service—feigning that the Carpetani too had been dismissed by him.

[24] Inde, ne mora atque otium animos sollicitaret, cum reliquis copiis Pyrenaeum transgreditur et ad oppidum Iliberrim castra locat.

[24] Thence, lest delay and leisure should stir their spirits, he crosses the Pyrenees with the remaining forces and pitches camp at the town Iliberis.

Galli quamquam Italiae bellum inferri audiebant, tamen, quia vi subactos trans Pyrenaeum Hispanos fama erat praesidiaque valida imposita, metu servitutis ad arma consternati Ruscinonem aliquot populi conveniunt. Quod ubi Hannibali nuntiatum est, moram magis quam bellum metuens, oratores ad regulos eorum misit, conloqui semet ipsum cum iis velle; et vel illi propius Iliberrim accederent vel se Ruscinonem processurum, ut ex propinquo congressus facilior esset; nam et accepturum eos in castra sua se laetum nec cunctanter se ipsum ad eos venturum; hospitem enim se Galliae non hostem advenisse, nec stricturum ante gladium, si per Gallos liceat, quam in Italiam venisset. Et per nuntios quidem haec; ut vero reguli Gallorum castris ad Iliberrim extemplo motis haud gravate ad Poenum venerunt, capti donis cum bona pace exercitum per fines suos praeter Ruscinonem oppidum transmiserunt.

The Gauls, although they were hearing that war was being brought upon Italy, yet, because the report was that the Spaniards beyond the Pyrenees had been subdued by force and strong garrisons imposed, panic-stricken at the fear of servitude, several peoples assemble at Ruscinon. When this was reported to Hannibal, fearing delay rather than war, he sent envoys to their petty kings, saying that he himself wished to confer with them; and either they should come nearer to Iliberris, or he would advance to Ruscinon, so that a meeting from close at hand might be easier; for he would gladly receive them into his camp, nor would he hesitate to come to them himself; for he had come to Gaul as a guest, not an enemy, nor would he draw the sword, if it might be permitted by the Gauls, before he had come into Italy. And this, indeed, through messengers; but when the petty kings of the Gauls, their camp at Iliberris having been moved at once, came not reluctantly to the Carthaginian, captivated by gifts, with good peace they let the army pass through their borders, past the town of Ruscinon.

[25] In Italiam interim nihil ultra quam Hiberum transisse Hannibalem a Massiliensium legatis Romam perlatum erat, cum, perinde ac si Alpes iam transisset, Boii sollicitatis Insubribus defecerunt, nec tam ob veteres in populum Romanum iras quam quod nuper circa Padum Placentiam Cremonamque colonias in agrum Gallicum deductas aegre patiebantur. Itaque armis repente arreptis, in eum ipsum agrum impetu facto tantum terroris ac tumultus fecerunt ut non agrestis modo multitudo sed ipsi triumviri Romani, qui ad agrum venerant adsignandum, diffisi Placentiae moenibus Mutinam confugerint, C. Lutatius, C. Servilius, M. Annius. Lutati nomen haud dubium est; pro Annio Servilioque M'. Acilium et C. Herennium habent quidam annales, alii P. Cornelium Asinam et C. Papirium Masonem.

[25] In the meantime, into Italy nothing more than that Hannibal had crossed the Ebro had been conveyed to Rome by the envoys of the Massilians, when, just as if he had already crossed the Alps, the Boii, the Insubres having been solicited, defected—and not so much on account of their old angers against the Roman People as because they were bearing ill that recently around the Padus (Po) the colonies of Placentia and Cremona had been established in Gallic territory. And so, arms suddenly snatched up, with an attack made into that very district, they created so great a terror and tumult that not only the rustic multitude but the Roman triumvirs themselves, who had come to assign the land, distrusting the walls of Placentia, fled for refuge to Mutina—C. Lutatius, C. Servilius, M. Annius. The name of Lutatius is by no means doubtful; in place of Annius and Servilius some annals have M'. Acilius and C. Herennius, others P. Cornelius Asina and C. Papirius Maso.

Id quoque dubium est legati ad expostulandum missi ad Boios violati sint [incertum] an in triumviros agrum metantes impetus sit factus.

That too is doubtful, whether the legates sent to remonstrate with the Boii were violated [uncertain], or whether an attack was made upon the triumvirs measuring the land.

Mutinae cum obsiderentur et gens ad oppugnandarum urbium artes rudis, pigerrima eadem ad militaria opera, segnis intactis adsideret muris, simulari coeptum de pace agi; evocatique ab Gallorum principibus legati ad conloquium non contra ius modo gentium sed violata etiam quae data in id tempus erat fide comprehenduntur, negantibus Gallis, nisi obsides sibi redderentur, eos dimissuros. Cum haec de legatis nuntiata essent et Mutina praesidiumque in periculo esset, L. Manlius praetor ira accensus effusum agmen ad Mutinam ducit.

At Mutina, while they were being besieged, and the tribe—unskilled in the arts of attacking cities, and most slothful likewise for military works—sat idle before the untouched walls, it began to be pretended that negotiations about peace were afoot; and envoys, called out by the chieftains of the Gauls to a parley, were seized not only contrary to the law of nations but with the pledge which had been given for that occasion also violated, the Gauls declaring that they would not release them unless hostages were returned to them. When these things about the envoys were reported and Mutina and its garrison were in danger, Lucius Manlius the praetor, inflamed with anger, leads a disorderly column straight to Mutina.

Silvae tunc circa viam erant, plerisque incultis. Ibi inexplorato profectus in insidias praecipitat multaque cum caede suorum aegre in apertos campos emersit. Ibi castra communita et, quia Gallis ad temptanda ea defuit spes, refecti sunt militum animi, quamquam ad [quingentos] cecidisse satis constabat.

Then there were woods around the road, most of them uncultivated. There, setting out without reconnaissance, he plunged into ambushes and, with much slaughter of his own men, scarcely emerged into the open fields. There the camp was fortified, and, because the Gauls lacked hope to attempt them, the spirits of the soldiers were restored, although it was well established that up to [five hundred] had fallen.

Iter deinde de integro coeptum nec, dum per patentia loca ducebatur agmen, apparuit hostis; ubi rursus silvae intratae, tum postremos adorti cum magna trepidatione ac pavore omnium septingentos milites occiderunt, sex signa ademere. Finis et Gallis territandi et pavendi fuit Romanis ut ex saltu invio atque impedito evasere. Inde apertis locis facile tutantes agmen Romani Tannetum, vicum propinquum Pado, contendere.

Then the march was begun anew, nor, while the column was being led through patent places, did the enemy appear; when the woods were entered again, then, having assailed the rearmost, with great trepidation and fear of all they slew seven hundred soldiers, and took away six standards. It was the end both for the Gauls of terrifying and for the Romans of fearing, when they had escaped from the pass trackless and impeded. Thence, in open places, easily safeguarding the column, the Romans hastened to Tannetum, a village near the Po.

Ibi se munimento ad tempus commeatibusque fluminis et Brixianorum etiam Gallorum auxilio adversus crescentem in dies multitudinem hostium tutabantur.

There they defended themselves by a fortification for the time being and by provisions of the river, and even with the aid of the Brixian Gauls, against the multitude of enemies growing day by day.

[26] Qui tumultus repens postquam est Romam perlatus et Punicum insuper Gallico bellum auctum patres acceperunt, C. Atilium praetorem cum una legione Romana et quinque milibus sociorum, dilectu novo a consule conscriptis, auxilium ferre Manlio iubent; qui sine ullo certamine—abscesserant enim metu hostes—Tannetum pervenit.

[26] When this sudden tumult had been conveyed to Rome, and the senators learned that the Punic war had moreover been augmented by a Gallic war, they order Gaius Atilius, the praetor, with one Roman legion and five thousand allies—enlisted by a new levy by the consul—to carry aid to Manlius; he reached Tannetum without any engagement—for the enemy had withdrawn in fear.

Et P. Cornelius, in locum eius quae missa cum praetore erat scripta legione nova, profectus ab urbe sexaginta longis navibus praeter oram Etruriae Ligurumque et inde Saluum montes pervenit Massiliam et ad proximum ostium Rhodani—pluribus enim divisus amnis in mare decurrit—castra locat, vixdum satis credens Hannibalem superasse Pyrenaeos montes. Quem ut de Rhodani quoque transitu agitare animadvertit, incertus quonam ei loco occurreret necdum satis refectis ab iactatione maritima militibus trecentos interim delectos equites ducibus Massiliensibus et auxiliaribus Gallis ad exploranda omnia visendosque ex tuto hostes praemittit. Hannibal ceteris metu aut pretio pacatis iam in Volcarum pervenerat agrum, gentis validae.

And Publius Cornelius, with a new levied-and-enrolled legion in place of that which had been sent with the praetor, set out from the city with sixty long ships along the coast of Etruria and of the Ligurians, and then along the Saluvian mountains he reached Massilia and at the nearest mouth of the Rhone—for the river, divided into several channels, runs down into the sea—he pitches camp, scarcely yet believing that Hannibal had surpassed the Pyrenean mountains. When he observed that he was also agitating the crossing of the Rhone, uncertain in what place he should meet him, and with the soldiers not yet sufficiently refreshed from maritime tossing, he sends forward meanwhile three hundred chosen horsemen, with Massiliote guides and Gallic auxiliaries, to reconnoiter everything and to view the enemy from a safe vantage. Hannibal, the rest having been pacified by fear or by price, had already come into the land of the Volcae, a strong nation.

Colunt autem circa utramque ripam Rhodani; sed diffisi citeriore agro arceri Poenum posse, ut flumen pro munimento haberent, omnibus ferme suis trans Rhodanum traiectis ulteriorem ripam [amnis] armis obtinebant. Ceteros accolas fluminis Hannibal et eorum ipsorum quos sedes suae tenuerant simul perlicit donis ad naves undique contrahendas fabricandasque; simul et ipsi traici exercitum levarique quam primum regionem suam tanta hominum urgente turba cupiebant. Itaque ingens coacta vis navium est lintriumque temere ad vicinalem usum paratarum; novasque alias primum Galli incohantes cavabant ex singulis arboribus, deinde et ipsi milites simul copia materiae, simul facilitate operis inducti, alueos informes, nihil dummodo innare aquae et capere onera possent curantes, raptim quibus se suaque transueherent faciebant.

They inhabit, moreover, around both banks of the Rhone; but, distrustful that the Carthaginian could be warded off in the nearer territory, in order to have the river as a bulwark, with almost all their people ferried across the Rhone they were holding the farther bank of the [river] by arms. Hannibal enticed the other inhabitants of the river, and even of those very men whom their own seats had held back, with gifts to gather boats from every quarter and to build them; at the same time they themselves were eager that the army be carried across and that their region be relieved as soon as possible from so great a crowd of men pressing upon it. And so a huge mass of ships was assembled, and of skiffs roughly prepared for neighborhood use; and the Gauls, beginning first, were hollowing out new ones from single trees, then the soldiers themselves too, induced both by the abundance of timber and by the facility of the work, were making formless hulls, caring for nothing provided that they could float on the water and take loads, and in haste they made such craft by which they might convey themselves and their belongings across.

[27] Iamque omnibus satis comparatis ad traiciendum terrebant ex adverso hostes omnem ripam equites virique obtinentes. Quos ut averteret, Hannonem Bomilcaris filium vigilia prima noctis cum parte copiarum, maxime Hispanis, adverso flumine ire iter unius diei iubet et, ubi primum possit quam occultissime traiecto amni, circumducere agmen ut cum opus facto sit adoriatur ab tergo hostes. Ad id dati duces Galli edocent inde milia quinque et viginti ferme supra parvae insulae circumfusum amnem latiore ubi dividebatur eoque minus alto alveo transitum ostendere.

[27] And now, with everything sufficiently prepared for the crossing, the enemies opposite—holding the entire bank with horse and foot—were terrifying them. To divert these, he orders Hanno, son of Bomilcar, at the first watch of the night, with a part of the forces, chiefly Spaniards, to go upstream against the current for a day’s march, and, where he could first, the river having been crossed as secretly as possible, to lead the column around so that, when there was need for action, he might assail the enemy from the rear. For this task the Gallic guides assigned instruct that from there, about 25 miles upstream, above a small island where the river, being split, was broader and therefore in a channel less deep, a crossing could be shown.

Ibi raptim caesa materia ratesque fabricatae in quibus equi virique et alia onera traicerentur. Hispani sine ulla mole in utres vestimentis coniectis ipsi caetris superpositis incubantes flumen tranauere. Et alius exercitus ratibus iunctis traiectus, castris prope flumen positis, nocturno itinere atque operis labore fessus quiete unius diei reficitur, intento duce ad consilium opportune exsequendum.

Ibi, with timber cut down in haste, rafts were fabricated on which horses and men and other burdens might be ferried across. The Spaniards, without any contrivance, having stuffed their garments into skins, themselves, resting on their bucklers laid on top, swam across the river. And the other army was carried over on rafts fastened together; a camp having been pitched near the river, worn out by the night march and the toil of the work, it was refreshed by a rest of one day, the leader intent on executing the plan at an opportune moment.

Postero die profecti, ex loco edito fumo significant transisse et haud procul abesse; quod ubi accepit Hannibal, ne tempori deesset dat signum ad traiciendum.

On the next day, having set out, from a raised place they signal by smoke that they have crossed and are not far away; when Hannibal received this, lest he miss the moment, he gives the signal to cross.

Iam paratas aptatasque habebat pedes lintres, eques fere propter equos naves. Navium agmen ad excipiendum adversi impetum fluminis parte superiore transmittens tranquillitatem infra traicientibus lintribus praebebat; equorum pars magna nantes loris a puppibus trahebantur, praeter eos quos instratos frenatosque ut extemplo egresso in ripam equiti usui essent imposuerant in naves.

Already he had skiffs prepared and fitted out for the infantry; the cavalry for the most part had ships alongside their horses. Sending a column of ships across on the upper (upstream) side to take up and break the opposing force of the river’s current, he provided calm water below for those crossing in skiffs; a great part of the horses, swimming, were towed by reins from the sterns, besides those which, saddled and bridled so that immediately upon disembarking onto the bank they might be for the horseman’s use, they had put aboard the ships.

[28] Galli occursant in ripa cum variis ululatibus cantuque moris sui, quatientes scuta super capita vibrantesque dextris tela, quamquam et ex adverso terrebat tanta vis navium cum ingenti sono fluminis et clamore vario nautarum militumque, et qui nitebantur perrumpere impetum fluminis et qui ex altera ripa traicientes suos hortabantur. Iam satis paventes adverso tumultu terribilior ab tergo adortus clamor, castris ab Hannone captis. Mox et ipse aderat ancepsque terror circumstabat, et e navibus tanta vi armatorum in terram evadente et ab tergo improvisa premente acie.

[28] The Gauls run to meet them on the bank with various ululations and a chant of their custom, shaking their shields over their heads and brandishing missiles in their right hands; yet from the opposite side too they were frightened by the so great mass of ships, with the huge sound of the river and the varied clamor of sailors and soldiers—both of those who were striving to break through the force of the current and of those who from the other bank were urging on their men as they crossed. Already sufficiently panic-struck by the tumult in front, a more terrible shout assailed them from the rear: the camp had been seized by Hanno. Soon he himself was present, and a twofold terror hemmed them in, both with such force of armed men bursting from the ships onto land and with an unexpected line of battle pressing from behind.

Galli postquam utroque vim facere conati pellebantur, qua patere visum maxime iter perrumpunt trepidique in vicos passim suos diffugiunt. Hannibal ceteris copiis per otium traiectis spernens iam Gallicos tumultus castra locat.

The Gauls, after they had attempted to use force on both sides and were being driven back, break through where the way seemed most open, and in panic scatter everywhere to their own villages. Hannibal, with the rest of the forces transferred across at leisure, scorning now the Gallic tumults, pitches camp.

Elephantorum traiciendorum varia consilia fuisse credo; certe variata memoria actae rei. Quidam congregatis ad ripam elephantis tradunt ferocissimum ex iis inritatum ab rectore suo, cum refugientem in aquam nantem sequeretur, traxisse gregem, ut quemque timentem altitudinem destitueret vadum, impetu ipso fluminis in alteram ripam rapiente. Ceterum magis constat ratibus traiectos; id ut tutius consilium ante rem foret, ita acta re ad fidem pronius est.

I believe there were various counsels for transporting the elephants; certainly the memory of the deed done has varied. Some relate that, when the elephants had been gathered at the bank, the fiercest of them, provoked by his handler, as he followed him retreating and swimming into the water, drew the herd along, so that, as each feared the depth, the ford failed him, the very rush of the river sweeping them to the opposite bank. But it is more established that they were conveyed across by rafts; and this, just as before the event it would have been the safer counsel, so, with the matter accomplished, is more credible.

Ratem unam ducentos longam pedes, quinquaginta latam a terra in amnem porrexerunt, quam, ne secunda aqua deferretur, pluribus validis retinaculis parte superiore ripae religatam pontis in modum humo iniecta constraverunt ut beluae audacter velut per solum ingrederentur. Altera ratis aeque lata, longa pedes centum, ad traiciendum flumen apta, huic copulata est; tres tum elephanti per stabilem ratem tamquam viam praegredientibus feminis acti ubi in minorem adplicatam transgressi sunt, extemplo resolutis quibus leviter adnexa erat vinculis, ab actuariis aliquot navibus ad alteram ripam pertrahitur; ita primis expositis, alii deinde repetiti ac traiecti sunt. Nihil sane trepidabant, donec continenti velut ponte agerentur; primus erat pavor cum soluta ab ceteris rate in altum raperentur.

They extended one raft 200 feet long and 50 wide from the land out into the river; and, lest it be carried off by the downstream current, they tied it fast by many strong retinacula to the upper part of the bank, and covered it with earth thrown on, in the mode of a bridge, so that the beasts might boldly step upon it as if over solid ground. Another raft, equally wide and 100 feet long, apt for ferrying across the river, was coupled to this; then three elephants, the females going before as if a roadway, were driven over the stable raft, and when they had crossed into the smaller one brought alongside, at once, the bonds by which it had been lightly attached having been loosed, it was hauled to the other bank by several actuariae boats; thus, when the first had been disembarked, others were then fetched and ferried across. They were in no wise alarmed, so long as they were driven as if upon a continuous bridge; their first panic came when, the raft loosed from the rest, they were swept out into deep water.

Ibi urgentes inter se, cedentibus extremis ab aqua, trepidationis aliquantum edebant donec quietem ipse timor circumspectantibus aquam fecisset. Excidere etiam saevientes quidam in flumen; sed pondere ipso stabiles, deiectis rectoribus, quaerendis pedetemptim vadis in terram evasere.

There, pressing upon one another, as those at the edge were giving ground from the water, they exhibited a certain trepidation until fear itself, as they warily eyed the water, had produced quiet. Some too, raging, fell into the river; but, steady by their very weight, their drivers cast down, by seeking the shallows step by step they made their way to land.

[29] Dum elephanti traiciuntur, interim Hannibal Numidas equites quingentos ad castra Romana miserat speculatum ubi et quantae copiae essent et quid pararent. Huic alae equitum missi, ut ante dictum est, ab ostio Rhodani trecenti Romanorum equites occurrunt. Proelium atrocius quam pro numero pugnantium editur; nam praeter multa volnera caedes etiam prope par utrimque fuit, fugaque et pavor Numidarum Romanis iam admodum fessis victoriam dedit.

[29] While the elephants were being ferried across, meanwhile Hannibal had sent five hundred Numidian horsemen to reconnoiter where and how great the forces were and what they were preparing. This wing of cavalry was met by three hundred Roman horsemen, dispatched, as said before, from the mouth of the Rhone. A battle more atrocious than the number of combatants would warrant was fought; for besides many wounds, the slaughter too was nearly equal on both sides, and the flight and panic of the Numidians gave victory to the Romans, now exceedingly weary.

Victores ad centum sexaginta, nec omnes Romani sed pars Gallorum, victi amplius ducenti ceciderunt. Hoc principium simul omenque belli ut summae rerum prosperum eventum, ita haud sane incruentam ancipitisque certaminis victoriam Romanis portendit.

Of the victors about 160 fell, and they were not all Romans but in part Gauls; of the vanquished more than 200 fell. This beginning and at once omen of the war portended for the Romans, while a prosperous outcome of the sum of affairs, yet a victory by no means bloodless and of a doubtful, two-edged contest.

Ut re ita gesta ad utrumque ducem sui redierunt, nec Scipioni stare sententia poterat nisi ut ex consiliis coeptisque hostis et ipse conatus caperet, et Hannibalem, incertum utrum coeptum in Italiam intenderet iter an cum eo qui primus se obtulisset Romanus exercitus manus consereret, avertit a praesenti certamine Boiorum legatorum regulique Magali adventus, qui se duces itinerum, socios periculi fore adfirmantes, integro bello nusquam ante libatis viribus Italiam adgrediendam censent. Multitudo timebat quidem hostem nondum oblitterata memoria superioris belli; sed magis iter immensum Alpesque, rem fama utique inexpertis horrendam, metuebat.

When the matter had thus been done, their men returned to each commander, and Scipio’s plan could not stand except that he too should take his attempts from the counsels and undertakings of the enemy; and Hannibal—uncertain whether to intend his begun march into Italy, or to join battle with whichever Roman army first presented itself—was turned away from a present contest by the arrival of the envoys of the Boii and of the regulus Magalus, who, affirming that they would be guides of the routes and partners in peril, judge that Italy should be attacked with the war intact, the forces nowhere previously “tasted.” The multitude indeed feared the enemy, the memory of the earlier war not yet obliterated; but they feared more the immense march and the Alps, a thing terrible by report, especially to the inexperienced.

[30] Itaque Hannibal, postquam ipsi sententia stetit pergere ire atque Italiam petere, advocata contione varie militum versat animos castigando adhortandoque: mirari se quinam pectora semper impavida repens terror invaserit. Per tot annos vincentes eos stipendia facere neque ante Hispania excessisse quam omnes gentesque et terrae quas duo diversa maria amplectantur Carthaginiensium essent. Indignatos deinde quod quicumque Saguntum obsedissent velut ob noxam sibi dedi postularet populus Romanus, Hiberum traiecisse ad delendum nomen Romanorum liberandumque orbem terrarum.

[30] Therefore Hannibal, after his own decision had stood firm to press on and to make for Italy, with an assembly convened variously turns the spirits of the soldiers by castigating and exhorting: he marvels what sudden terror has invaded breasts always undaunted. For so many years they have done their paid service as victors, nor had they departed from Spain before all the nations and lands which two different seas embrace were the Carthaginians’. Then they were indignant that, whoever had besieged Saguntum, the Roman people should demand be handed over to themselves as though for a crime; they had crossed the Iberus to delete the name of the Romans and to liberate the orb of lands.

Tum nemini visum id longum, cum ab occasu solis ad exortus intenderent iter: nunc, postquam multo maiorem partem itineris emensam cernant, Pyrenaeum saltum inter ferocissimas gentes superatum, Rhodanum, tantum amnem, tot milibus Gallorum prohibentibus, domita etiam ipsius fluminis vi traiectum, in conspectu Alpes habeant quarum alterum latus Italiae sit, in ipsis portis hostium fatigatos subsistere, quid Alpes aliud esse credentes quam montium altitudines? Fingerent altiores Pyrenaei iugis: nullas profecto terras caelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse. Alpes quidem habitari, coli, gignere atque alere animantes; pervias paucis esse, esse et exercitibus.

Then to no one did that seem long, when they were stretching their march from the setting of the sun to the risings; now, after they see that a much greater part of the journey has been measured out, that the Pyrenean pass among the most ferocious tribes has been surmounted, that the Rhone, so great a river, with so many thousands of Gauls hindering, has been crossed with even the force of the river itself subdued, they have the Alps in sight, the other side of which is Italy—at the very gates of the enemy to come to a halt, wearied, believing the Alps to be anything other than heights of mountains? Let them imagine them higher than the ridges of the Pyrenees: assuredly no lands touch the sky, nor are they insuperable to the human race. The Alps indeed are inhabited, cultivated, generate and nourish living creatures; they are passable for a few, and they are passable for armies as well.

Eos ipsos quos cernant legatos non pinnis sublime elatos Alpes transgressos. Ne maiores quidem eorum indigenas sed advenas Italiae cultores has ipsas Alpes ingentibus saepe agminibus cum liberis ac coniugibus migrantium modo tuto transmisisse. Militi quidem armato nihil secum praeter instrumenta belli portanti quid invium aut inexsuperabile esse?

Those very envoys whom they behold crossed the Alps not lifted high on wings. That not even their ancestors were indigenous, but, as newcomers, cultivators of Italy, they have often safely passed these very Alps in huge columns, after the manner of migrants, with children and wives. For a soldier in arms, carrying nothing with him besides the instruments of war, what is trackless or insuperable?

Saguntum ut caperetur, quid per octo menses periculi, quid laboris exhaustum esse? Romam, caput orbis terrarum, petentibus quicquam adeo asperum atque arduum videri quod inceptum moretur? Cepisse quondam Gallos ea quae adiri posse Poenus desperet; proinde aut cederent animo atque virtute genti per eos dies totiens ab se victae aut itineris finem sperent campum interiacentem Tiberi ac moenibus Romanis.

That Saguntum might be taken, what peril, what labor was exhausted over eight months? To men making for Rome, the capital of the world, does anything seem so harsh and arduous as to delay the undertaking? The Gauls once seized those places which the Carthaginian despairs can even be approached; accordingly, either let them yield in spirit and in valor to a nation so many times in these days defeated by themselves, or let them hope for the end of the march—the plain lying between the Tiber and the Roman walls.

[31] His adhortationibus incitatos corpora curare atque ad iter se parare iubet. Postero die profectus adversa ripa Rhodani mediterranea Galliae petit, non quia rectior ad Alpes via esset, sed quantum a mari recessisset minus obvium fore Romanum credens, cum quo priusquam in Italiam ventum foret non erat in animo manus conserere. Quartis castris ad Insulam pervenit.

[31] Having been stirred by these exhortations, he orders them to care for their bodies and to prepare themselves for the march. On the next day, having set out, he makes for the inland parts of Gaul along the opposite bank of the Rhone, not because the way to the Alps was straighter, but believing that the farther he had withdrawn from the sea, the less the Roman would come in his way, with whom he did not intend to join hands in battle before Italy had been reached. At the fourth camp he arrived at the Island.

Ibi Isara Rhodanusque amnes diversis ex Alpibus decurrentes, agri aliquantum amplexi confluunt in unum in mediis campis; Insulae nomen inditum. Incolunt prope Allobroges, gens iam inde nulla Gallica gente opibus aut fama inferior. Tum discors erat.

There the rivers Isara and the Rhone, running down from different parts of the Alps and, after encircling some tract of land, flow together into one in the midst of the plains; the name Insula was bestowed. Near by dwell the Allobroges, a people from that time inferior to no Gallic nation in resources or in fame. Then it was at discord.

Regni certamine ambigebant fratres; maior et qui prius imperitarat, Braneus nomine, minore a fratre et coetu iuniorum qui iure minus, vi plus poterant, pellebatur. Huius seditionis peropportuna disceptatio cum ad Hannibalem delata esset, arbiter regni factus, quod ea senatus principumque sententia fuerat, imperium maiori restituit. Ob id meritum commeatu copiaque rerum omnium, maxime vestis, est adiutus, quam infames frigoribus Alpes praeparari cogebant.

The brothers were wavering in a contest for the kingship; the elder, who had previously held command, by name Braneus, was being driven out by his younger brother and by a cohort of juniors who had less in right, more in force. When a most opportune arbitration of this sedition was referred to Hannibal, he, made arbiter of the kingship—because such was the judgment of the senate and the leading men—restored the rule to the elder. For that service he was assisted with supplies and a plenty of all things, especially clothing, which the Alps, notorious for their cold, compelled to be prepared.

Sedatis certaminibus Allobrogum cum iam Alpes peteret, non recta regione iter instituit sed ad laevam in Tricastinos flexit; inde per extremam oram Vocontiorum agri tendit in Trigorios, haud usquam impedita via priusquam ad Druentiam flumen pervenit. Is et ipse Alpinus amnis longe omnium Galliae fluminum difficillimus transitu est; nam cum aquae vim vehat ingentem, non tamen navium patiens est, quia nullis coercitus ripis, pluribus simul neque iisdem alueis fluens, nova semper [per] vada novosque gurgites—et ob eadem pediti quoque incerta via est—ad hoc saxa glareosa voluens, nihil stabile nec tutum ingredienti praebet; et tum forte imbribus auctus ingentem transgredientibus tumultum fecit, cum super cetera trepidatione ipsi sua atque incertis clamoribus turbarentur.

With the contests of the Allobroges pacified, when now he was aiming for the Alps, he did not set his march in a straight line but bent to the left into the Tricastini; from there he holds on along the far border of the territory of the Vocontii into the Tricorii, the way nowhere impeded before he reached the river Druentia. This too, an Alpine river, is by far the most difficult of all the rivers of Gaul to cross; for although it carries an immense force of water, yet it does not admit ships, because, constrained by no banks, flowing at once in several and not the same channels, always [through] new fords and new whirlpools—and for the same reasons the way is uncertain for the foot-soldier as well—in addition, rolling gravelly stones, it offers nothing stable nor safe to one entering; and then, by chance swollen by rains, it made a vast tumult for those crossing, since, on top of the rest, they themselves were thrown into confusion by their own trepidation and by uncertain shouts.

[32] P. Cornelius consul, triduo fere postquam Hannibal a ripa Rhodani movit, quadrato agmine ad castra hostium venerat, nullam dimicandi moram facturus; ceterum ubi deserta munimenta nec facile se tantum praegressos adsecuturum videt, ad mare ac naves rediit, tutius faciliusque ita descendenti ab Alpibus Hannibali occursurus. Ne tamen nuda auxiliis Romanis Hispania esset, quam provinciam sortitus erat, Cn. Scipionem fratrem cum maxima parte copiarum adversus Hasdrubalem misit, non ad tuendos tantummodo veteres socios conciliandosque novos sed etiam ad pellendum Hispania Hasdrubalem. Ipse cum admodum exiguis copiis Genuam repetit, eo qui circa Padum erat exercitu Italiam defensurus.

[32] Publius Cornelius the consul, about three days after Hannibal moved from the bank of the Rhone, had come in a square formation to the enemy’s camp, intending to make no delay in fighting; but when he sees the fortifications deserted and that he would not easily overtake men who had advanced so far, he returned to the sea and the ships, proposing thus to meet Hannibal as he descended from the Alps more safely and more easily. Yet lest Spain—which province he had drawn by lot—be bare of auxiliaries for the Romans, he sent his brother Gnaeus Scipio with the greatest part of the forces against Hasdrubal, not only to protect the old allies and to conciliate new ones, but also to drive Hasdrubal out of Spain. He himself, with very small forces, made back to Genoa, intending with that army which was around the Po to defend Italy.

Hannibal ab Druentia campestri maxime itinere ad Alpes cum bona pace incolentium ea loca Gallorum pervenit. Tum, quamquam fama prius, qua incerta in maius vero ferri solent, praecepta res erat, tamen ex propinquo visa montium altitudo nivesque caelo prope immixtae, tecta informia imposita rupibus, pecora iumentaque torrida frigore, homines intonsi et inculti, animalia inanimaque omnia rigentia gelu, cetera visu quam dictu foediora terrorem renovarunt. Erigentibus in primos agmen clivos apparuerunt imminentes tumulos insidentes montani, qui, si valles occultiores insedissent, coorti ad pugnam repente ingentem fugam stragemque dedissent.

Hannibal, from the Druentia, by a mostly level march, came to the Alps with the good peace of the Gauls inhabiting those places. Then, although earlier the matter had been anticipated by report—by which uncertain things are wont to be borne beyond the truth into the greater—yet, seen from close at hand, the height of the mountains and the snows almost commingled with the sky, misshapen dwellings set upon crags, herds and beasts of burden parched by the cold, men unshorn and uncultivated, all things animate and inanimate stiff with frost, and other sights more foul to see than to tell, renewed their terror. As the column was mounting the first slopes, mountaineers appeared occupying hillocks that overhung, who, if they had occupied the more hidden valleys, rising to battle would have suddenly caused an immense rout and carnage.

Hannibal consistere signa iussit; Gallisque ad visenda loca praemissis, postquam comperit transitum ea non esse, castra inter confragosa omnia praeruptaque quam extentissima potest valle locat. Tum per eosdem Gallos, haud sane multum lingua moribusque abhorrentes, cum se immiscuissent conloquiis montanorum, edoctus interdiu tantum obsideri saltum, nocte in sua quemque dilabi tecta, luce prima subiit tumulos, ut ex aperto atque interdiu vim per angustias facturus. Die deinde simulando aliud quam quod parabatur consumpto, cum eodem quo constiterant loco castra communissent, ubi primum degressos tumulis montanos laxatasque sensit custodias, pluribus ignibus quam pro numero manentium in speciem factis impedimentisque cum equite relictis et maxima parte peditum, ipse cum expeditis, acerrimo quoque viro, raptim angustias evadit iisque ipsis tumulis quos hostes tenuerant consedit.

Hannibal ordered the standards to halt; and, with Gauls sent ahead to view the places, after he discovered that there was no passage there, he pitched camp in the widest valley he could, amid all the rugged and precipitous ground. Then, through those same Gauls—by no means much differing in language and customs—since they had mingled in the colloquies of the mountaineers, he was taught that the pass was beset only by day, while at night each man slipped away to his own dwelling; at first light he approached the hillocks, as if about to force a way through the narrows openly and by daylight. Then, the day having been consumed by simulating something other than what was being prepared, when they had fortified the camp in the same place where they had halted, as soon as he perceived that the mountaineers had come down from the hillocks and that the watches were relaxed, with more fires set for show than suited the number of those remaining, and leaving the baggage with the cavalry and the greater part of the infantry, he himself, with the light-armed, and every keenest man, swiftly made his way through the defiles and took position on those very hillocks which the enemy had held.

[33] Prima deinde luce castra mota et agmen reliquum incedere coepit. Iam montani signo dato ex castellis ad stationem solitam conveniebant, cum repente conspiciunt alios arce occupata sua super caput imminentes, alios via transire hostes. Utraque simul obiecta res oculis animisque immobiles parumper eos defixit; deinde, ut trepidationem in angustiis suoque ipsum tumultu misceri agmen videre, equis maxime consternatis, quidquid adiecissent ipsi terroris satis ad perniciem fore rati, perversis rupibus iuxta, invia ac devia adsueti decurrunt.

[33] Then at first light the camp was moved and the remaining column began to march. Now the mountaineers, the signal having been given, were assembling from the forts at their accustomed station, when suddenly they see some, their own citadel having been seized, looming imminent over their heads, others—the enemies—crossing the road. Both matters, presented at once to eyes and minds, fixed them motionless for a little while; then, when they saw panic in the narrows and the column itself thrown into confusion by its own tumult, the horses being especially consternated, thinking that whatever terror they themselves added would suffice for perdition, along the crags close by, steep and awry, being accustomed to pathless and devious places, they run down.

Tum vero simul ab hostibus, simul ab iniquitate locorum Poeni oppugnabantur plusque inter ipsos, sibi quoque tendente ut periculo primus evaderet, quam cum hostibus certaminis erat. Et equi maxime infestum agmen faciebant, qui et clamoribus dissonis quos nemora etiam repercussaeque valles augebant territi trepidabant, et icti forte aut volnerati adeo consternabantur, ut stragem ingentem simul hominum ac sarcinarum omnis generis facerent; multosque turba, cum praecipites deruptaeque utrimque angustiae essent, in immensum altitudinis deiecit, quosdam et armatos; et ruinae maxime modo iumenta cum oneribus devoluebantur. Quae quamquam foeda visu erant, stetit parumper tamen Hannibal ac suos continuit, ne tumultum ac trepidationem augeret; deinde, postquam interrumpi agmen vidit periculumque esse, ne exutum impedimentis exercitum nequiquam incolumem traduxisset, decurrit ex superiore loco et, cum impetu ipso fudisset hostem, suis quoque tumultum auxit.

Then indeed at once by the enemies and by the iniquity of the places the Carthaginians were being assailed, and there was more of contest among themselves—each also striving that he might first escape the danger—than there was with the enemies. And the horses were making the column especially beleaguered, for, terrified by dissonant shouts which the woods and the reverberating valleys too were amplifying, they were in a panic; and, struck by chance or wounded, they were so dismayed that they made an immense carnage at once of men and of baggage of every kind; and the crowd, since on both sides the narrows were precipitous and broken, cast down many into an immeasurable depth, some even under arms; and in the collapses especially the pack-animals with their loads were being rolled headlong. Although these things were foul to see, nevertheless Hannibal stood for a little while and held his men in check, lest he should augment the tumult and trepidation; then, after he saw the column being broken and that there was danger lest, the army stripped of its impedimenta, he should have led it safely across to no purpose, he ran down from the higher ground and, when by his very onset he had routed the enemy, he also increased the tumult among his own.

Sed is tumultus momento temporis, postquam liberata itinera fuga montanorum erant, sedatur, nec per otium modo sed prope silentio mox omnes traducti. Castellum inde, quod caput eius regionis erat, viculosque circumiectos capit et capt[o c]ibo ac pecoribus per triduum exercitum aluit; et, quia nec montanis primo perculsis nec loco magno opere impediebantur, aliquantum eo triduo viae confecit.

But that tumult, in a moment of time, after the routes had been liberated by the flight of the mountaineers, subsided, and soon all were conducted across not only in leisure but almost in silence. Thence he seizes the castellum, which was the head of that region, and the surrounding hamlets, and with captured food and herds he nourished the army for three days; and, because they were hindered not greatly either by the mountaineers—struck at the outset—or by the place, he accomplished a fair amount of road in that three-day span.

[34] Perventum inde ad frequentem cultoribus alium, ut inter montanos, populum. Ibi non bello aperto sed suis artibus, fraude et insidiis, est prope circumventus. Magno natu principes castellorum oratores ad Poenum veniunt, alienis malis, utili exemplo, doctos memorantes amicitiam malle quam vim experiri Poenorum; itaque oboedienter imperata facturos; commeatum itinerisque duces et ad fidem promissorum obsides acciperet.

[34] Thence they came to another people, crowded with cultivators, as among mountaineers. There, not by open war but by their own arts—by fraud and ambushes—he was nearly circumvented. Chiefs of the forts, men of great age, come as spokesmen to the Carthaginian, recalling that, taught by others’ misfortunes, a useful example, they prefer friendship to experiencing the force of the Carthaginians; and so they would obediently do what was commanded; he should receive provisions and guides for the journey, and hostages for the fidelity of the promises.

Hannibal nec temere credendo nec asperando, ne repudiati aperte hostes fierent, benigne cum respondisset, obsidibus quos dabant acceptis et commeatu quem in viam ipsi detulerant usus, nequaquam ut inter pacatos composito agmine duces eorum sequitur. Primum agmen elephanti et equites erant; ipse post cum robore peditum circumspectans sollicitus omnia incedebat. Ubi in angustiorem viam et ex parte altera subiectam iugo insuper imminenti ventum est, undique ex insidiis barbari a fronte ab tergo coorti, comminus eminus petunt, saxa ingentia in agmen devoluunt.

Hannibal, neither by trusting rashly nor by rebuffing harshly, lest, if rejected, they become open enemies, when he had replied benignly, after receiving the hostages they gave and making use of the supply which they themselves had brought for the road, by no means, as among pacified peoples, with a composed column, does he follow their guides. The vanguard was elephants and cavalry; he himself thereafter, with the strength of the infantry, advanced, looking around, solicitous about everything. When they came into a narrower road and, on the other side, into one lying beneath a ridge looming from above, from all sides out of ambush the barbarians, rising up at front and at rear, assail at close quarters and from afar, and roll down huge rocks upon the column.

Maxima ab tergo vis hominum urgebat. In eos versa peditum acies haud dubium fecit quin, nisi firmata extrema agminis fuissent, ingens in eo saltu accipienda clades fuerit. Tunc quoque ad extremum periculi ac prope perniciem ventum est; nam dum cunctatur Hannibal demittere agmen in angustias, quia non, ut ipse equitibus praesidio erat, ita peditibus quicquam ab tergo auxilii reliquerat, occursantes per obliqua montani interrupto medio agmine viam insedere, noxque una Hannibali sine equitibus atque impedimentis acta est.

A very great mass of men was pressing from the rear. The infantry battle-line, turned against them, made it no doubt that, unless the extremities of the column had been firmed, a huge disaster would have had to be incurred in that pass. Then too it came to the extremity of danger and almost to perdition; for while Hannibal was delaying to send the column down into the narrows, because, whereas he himself was a guard for the horsemen, he had left no aid at the rear for the foot-soldiers, the mountaineers, meeting them along oblique slopes, with the middle of the column broken, occupied the road, and one night was passed by Hannibal without cavalry and without the baggage-train.

[35] Postero die iam segnius intercursantibus barbaris iunctae copiae saltusque haud sine clade, maiore tamen iumentorum quam hominum pernicie, superatus. Inde montani pauciores iam et latrocinii magis quam belli more concursabant modo in primum, modo in novissimum agmen, utcumque aut locus opportunitatem daret aut progressi morative aliquam occasionem fecissent. Elephanti sicut per artas [praecipites] vias magna mora agebantur, ita tutum ab hostibus qvacumque incederent, quia insuetis adeundi propius metus erat, agmen praebebant.

[35] On the next day, with the barbarians now inter-running more sluggishly, the troops were joined, and the pass was overcome not without a disaster, yet with a greater destruction of draft-animals than of men. From there the mountaineers, now fewer and in the manner of brigandage rather than of war, would rush together sometimes at the vanguard, sometimes at the rearguard, whenever either the place gave opportunity or those who had gone ahead or delayed had made some occasion. The elephants, though they were driven with great delay along the narrow [steep] ways, nevertheless made the column safe from the enemy wherever they advanced, since there was a fear, in the unaccustomed, of approaching nearer.

Nono die in iugum Alpium perventum est per invia pleraque et errores, quos aut ducentium fraus aut, ubi fides iis non esset, temere initae valles a coniectantibus iter faciebant. Biduum in iugo stativa habita fessisque labore ac pugnando quies data militibus; iumentaque aliquot, quae prolapsa in rupibus erant, sequendo vestigia agminis in castra pervenere. Fessis taedio tot malorum nivis etiam casus, occidente iam sidere Vergiliarum, ingentem terrorem adiecit.

On the ninth day the ridge of the Alps was reached through mostly trackless places and the wanderings which either the fraud of the guides, or—when there was no trust in them—valleys rashly entered by those conjecturing the route, produced. For two days fixed quarters were held on the ridge, and rest was given to the soldiers wearied by toil and fighting; and several beasts of burden, which had slipped on the cliffs, by following the tracks of the column came into the camp. For men wearied by the tedium of so many hardships, a fall of snow also, with the star of the Vergiliae now setting, added immense terror.

Per omnia nive oppleta cum signis prima luce motis segniter agmen incederet pigritiaque et desperatio in omnium voltu emineret, praegressus signa Hannibal in promunturio quodam, unde longe ac late prospectus erat, consistere iussis militibus Italiam ostentat subiectosque Alpinis montibus Circumpadanos campos, moeniaque eos tum transcendere non Italiae modo sed etiam urbis Romanae; cetera plana, proclivia fore; uno aut summum altero proelio arcem et caput Italiae in manu ac potestate habituros. Procedere inde agmen coepit iam nihil ne hostibus quidem praetersfurta per occasionem temptantibus. Ceterum iter multo quam in adscensu fuerat—ut pleraque Alpium ab Italia sicut breviora ita arrectiora sunt—difficilius fuit; omnis enim ferme via praeceps, angusta, lubrica erat, ut neque sustinere se ab lapsu possent nec qui paulum titubassent haerere adflicti vestigio suo, aliique super alios et iumenta in homines occiderent.

With everything covered in snow, when at first light the standards were set in motion and the column advanced sluggishly and sluggishness and desperation stood out on the face of all, Hannibal, having gone on before the standards onto a certain promontory whence there was a prospect far and wide, with the soldiers ordered to halt, displays Italy and the Circum-Padan plains lying under the Alpine mountains, and declares that they were now overpassing the ramparts not only of Italy but even of the Roman city; that the rest would be level, downhill; that with one, or at most a second, battle they would have the citadel and head of Italy in hand and power. From there the column began to proceed, now with the enemy attempting nothing, not even anything beyond furtive strikes as opportunity offered. But the march was much more difficult than it had been in the ascent—for most parts of the Alps on the Italian side, as they are shorter, so they are steeper—; for nearly every path was precipitous, narrow, slippery, so that they could neither hold themselves back from a fall, nor could those who had stumbled a little, once thrown down, cling to their own footing, and men fell one atop another, and the pack-animals fell upon men.

[36] Ventum deinde ad multo angustiorem rupem atque ita rectis saxis ut aegre expeditus miles temptabundus manibusque retinens virgulta ac stirpes circa eminentes demittere sese posset. Natura locus iam ante praeceps recenti lapsu terrae in pedum mille admodum altitudinem abruptus erat. Ibi cum velut ad finem viae equites constitissent, miranti Hannibali quae res moraretur agmen nuntiatur rupem inviam esse.

[36] Then they came to a much narrower crag, with rocks so sheer that an unencumbered soldier, feeling his way and with his hands grasping the brushwood and roots jutting around, could scarcely let himself down. By nature the place was already precipitous; by a recent lapse of earth it had been broken off to a sheer depth of fully 1000 feet. There, when the horsemen had halted as though at the end of the road, it was reported to Hannibal—wondering what was delaying the column—that the cliff was impassable.

Digressus deinde ipse ad locum visendum. Haud dubia res visa quin per invia circa nec trita antea, quamvis longo ambitu, circumduceret agmen. Ea vero via insuperabilis fuit; nam cum super veterem nivem intactam nova modicae altitudinis esset, molli nec praealtae facile pedes ingredientium insistebant; ut vero tot hominum iumentorumque incessu dilapsa est, per nudam infra glaciem fluentemque tabem liquescentis nivis ingrediebantur.

Then he himself turned aside to view the place. The matter seemed not in doubt that he could lead the column around by ways pathless and not trodden before, although with a long circuit. But that route proved in truth insurmountable; for, since above the old untouched snow there lay a new snow of moderate height, the feet of those stepping easily found footing on what was soft and not very deep; but when, under the tread of so many men and pack-animals, it collapsed, they were advancing over the bare ice beneath and the flowing slush of melting snow.

Taetra ibi luctatio erat, [ut a lubrica] glacie non recipiente vestigium et in prono citius pedes fallente, ut, seu manibus in adsurgendo seu genu se adiuvissent, ipsis adminiculis prolapsis iterum corruerent; nec stirpes circa radicesue ad quas pede aut manu quisquam eniti posset erant; ita in levi tantum glacie tabidaque nive volutabantur. Iumenta secabant interdum etiam infimam ingredientia nivem et prolapsa iactandis gravius in conitendo ungulis penitus perfringebant, ut pleraque velut pedica capta haererent in dura et alta concreta glacie.

There was a foul struggle there, [as from the slippery] ice not receiving a footprint and, on the slope, more quickly tripping up the feet, so that, whether they had helped themselves with their hands in getting up or with the knee, the very supports slipping away, they fell again; nor were there shoots or roots around onto which anyone could strain with foot or hand; thus they were tumbling about only on the smooth ice and the sodden snow. The beasts of burden, as they stepped in, were sometimes cutting even to the lowest snow, and, once they had slipped, by flinging their hooves more heavily in the effort, they broke through completely with their hooves, so that very many, as though caught in a fetter, stuck fast in the hard and deep congealed ice.

[37] Tandem nequiquam iumentis atque hominibus fatigatis castra in iugo posita, aegerrime ad id ipsum loco purgato; tantum nivis fodiendum atque egerendum fuit.

[37] At length, with the pack-animals and men fatigued to no purpose, the camp was pitched on the ridge, the place itself having been cleared for that very purpose with the greatest difficulty; so much snow had to be dug out and carried away.

Inde ad rupem muniendam per quam unam via esse poterat milites ducti, cum caedendum esset saxum, arboribus circa immanibus deiectis detruncatisque struem ingentem lignorum faciunt eamque, cum 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 iumenta solum sed elephanti etiam deduci possent. Quadriduum circa rupem consumptum, iumentis prope fame absumptis; nuda enim fere cacumina sunt et, si quid est pabuli, obruunt nives.

Thence the soldiers were led to a cliff to be made passable, along which alone there could be a way; when the rock had to be cut, after the enormous trees around had been thrown down and lopped, they make a huge heap of timber, and, when a force of wind suitable for making a fire had arisen, they kindle it, and, the rocks blazing, they make them crumble by pouring in vinegar. Thus, the cliff scorched by the conflagration, they open it with iron and soften it, with modest switchbacks shaping the slopes so that not pack-animals only but even elephants could be led down. Four days were consumed about the cliff, the pack-animals almost wasted away with hunger; for the summits are almost bare, and, if there is any fodder, the snows bury it.

Inferiora vallis apricos quosdam colles habent rivosque prope silvas et iam humano cultu digniora loca. Ibi iumenta in pabulum missa et quies muniendo fessis hominibus data. Triduo inde ad planum descensum et iam locis mollioribus et accolarum ingeniis.

The lower parts of the valley have certain sunlit hills and streams near the woods, and places now more worthy of human cultivation. There the beasts of burden were sent to pasture, and rest was given to the men wearied by building. From there, in three days, there was a descent to the plain, and now to gentler places and to the neighbors’ dispositions as well.

[38] Hoc maxime modo in Italiam perventum est quinto mense a Carthagine Nova, ut quidam auctores sunt, quinto decimo die Alpibus superatis. Quantae copiae transgresso in Italiam Hannibali fuerint nequaquam inter auctores constat. Qui plurimum, centum milia peditum, viginti equitum fuisse scribunt; qui minimum, viginti milia peditum, sex equitum.

[38] In this way most of all, arrival was made into Italy in the fifth month from New Carthage, as some authors have it, with the Alps surmounted on the fifteenth day. Of how great forces Hannibal had after crossing into Italy there is by no means agreement among the authors. Those who give the most write that there were 100,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry; those who the least, 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry.

L. Cincius Alimentus, qui captum se ab Hannibale scribit, maxime auctor moveret, nisi confunderet numerum Gallis Liguribusque additis; cum his octoginta milia peditum, decem equitum adducta—in Italia magis adfluxisse veri simile est et ita quidam auctores sunt;—ex ipso autem audisse Hannibale, postquam Rhodanum transierit triginta sex milia hominum ingentemque numerum equorum et aliorum iumentorum amisisse. Taurini Semigalli proxima gens erat in Italiam degresso. Id cum inter omnes constet, eo magis miror ambigi quanam Alpes transierit et volgo credere Poenino—atque inde nomen ei iugo Alpium inditum—transgressum, Coelium per Cremonis iugum dicere transisse; qui ambo saltus eum non in Taurinos sed per Salassos montanos ad Libuos Gallos deduxerint.

L. Cincius Alimentus, who writes that he was taken captive by Hannibal, would carry the most weight as an authority, did he not confound the number by adding Gauls and Ligurians; with these, eighty thousand infantry, ten thousand cavalry were brought in—it is more likely that these flowed to him in Italy, and thus some authorities hold;—but that he had heard from Hannibal himself that, after he crossed the Rhone, he lost thirty‑six thousand men and a huge number of horses and other draught‑animals. The Taurini, Half‑Gauls, were the nearest tribe when he had descended into Italy. Since this is agreed among all, so much the more do I marvel that there is dispute by which Alps he crossed, and that people commonly believe he crossed by the Poeninus—and from that the name was assigned to that ridge of the Alps—while Coelius says he crossed by the Cremonis ridge; which both passes would have led him not to the Taurini but through the Salassi mountaineers to the Libui Gauls.

Nec veri simile est ea tum ad Galliam patuisse itinera; utique quae ad Poeninum ferunt obsaepta gentibus semigermanis fuissent. Neque hercule [nomen] montibus his, si quem forte id movet, ab transitu Poenorum ullo Sedunoveragri, incolae iugi eius, norint inditum sed ab eo quem in summo sacratum vertice Poeninum montani appellant.

Nor is it likely that those routes then lay open to Gaul; especially those which lead to the Poeninus would have been obstructed by semi-German peoples. Nor, by Hercules, if that perhaps moves anyone, do the Seduno-Veragri, the inhabitants of that ridge, know that [name] was given to these mountains from any crossing of the Carthaginians, but from him whom, consecrated on the topmost summit, the mountaineers call Poeninus.

[39] Peropportune ad principia rerum Taurinis, proximae genti, adversus Insubres motum bellum erat. Sed armare exercitum Hannibal ut parti alteri auxilio esset, in reficiendo maxime sentientem contracta ante mala, non poterat; otium enim ex labore, copia ex inopia, cultus ex inluvie tabeque squalida et prope efferata corpora varie movebat. Ea P. Cornelio consuli causa fuit, cum Pisas navibus venisset, exercitu a Manlio Atilioque accepto tirone et in novis ignominiis trepido ad Padum festinandi ut cum hoste nondum refecto manus consereret.

[39] Most opportunely, at the outset of affairs, among the Taurini, the nearest tribe, a war had been set in motion against the Insubres. But Hannibal could not arm his army so as to be an aid to either side, his force, in the very process of refitting, keenly feeling the ills accumulated before; for leisure after labor, plenty after want, cultivation after foulness and squalid corruption, and bodies almost feral, were affecting them in various ways. This was the reason for Publius Cornelius the consul, when he had come by ships to Pisae, after receiving from Manlius and Atilius an army raw and alarmed by fresh disgraces, to hasten to the Po, in order that he might join hands in battle with the enemy not yet refreshed.

Sed cum Placentiam consul venit, iam ex stativis moverat Hannibal Taurinorumque unam urbem, caput gentis eius, quia volentes in amicitiam non veniebant, vi expugnarat; iunxissetque sibi non metu solum sed etiam voluntate Gallos accolas Padi, ni eos circumspectantes defectionis tempus subito adventu consul oppressisset. Et Hannibal movit ex Taurinis, incertos quae pars sequenda esset Gallos praesentem secuturos esse ratus. Iam prope in conspectu erant exercitus convenerantque duces sicuti inter se nondum satis noti, ita iam imbutus uterque quadam admiratione alterius.

But when the consul came to Placentia, Hannibal had already moved from his standing camp and had, by force, stormed one city of the Taurini, the capital of that tribe, because they were not coming of their own will into amity; and he would have attached to himself the Gauls dwelling along the Po not only by fear but also by willingness, had not the consul, by his sudden arrival, overborne them as they were looking around for a time of defection. And Hannibal moved out from the Taurini, thinking that the Gauls, uncertain which side was to be followed, would follow the side that was present. Now the armies were almost within sight, and the leaders had met—though not yet sufficiently known to one another, yet each already imbued with a certain admiration of the other.

Nam Hannibalis et apud Romanos iam ante Sagunti excidium celeberrimum nomen erat, et Scipionem Hannibal eo ipso quod adversus se dux potissimum lectus esset praestantem virum credebat; et auxerant inter se opinionem, Scipio, quod relictus in Gallia obvius fuerat in Italiam transgresso Hannibali, Hannibal et conatu tam audaci traiciendarum Alpium et effectu. Occupavit tamen Scipio Padum traicere et ad Ticinum amnem motis castris, priusquam educeret in aciem, adhortandorum militum causa talem orationem est exorsus.

For Hannibal’s name was already most celebrated among the Romans even before the destruction of Saguntum, and Hannibal, for the very fact that the commander chosen above all to be set against himself was Scipio, believed him a preeminent man; and they had heightened their estimate of one another—Scipio, because, left in Gaul, he had met Hannibal as he crossed over into Italy; Hannibal, by so audacious an attempt at crossing the Alps and by its accomplishment. Nevertheless Scipio anticipated him by crossing the Po, and, the camp having been moved to the river Ticinus, before he led out into the battle-line, for the purpose of exhorting the soldiers he began such an oration.

[40] "Si eum exercitum, milites, educerem in aciem quem in Gallia mecum habui, supersedissem loqui apud vos; quid enim adhortari referret aut eos equites qui equitatum hostium ad Rhodanum flumen egregie vicissent, aut eas legiones cum quibus fugientem hunc ipsum hostem secutus confessionem cedentis ac detractantis certamen pro victoria habui? Nunc quia ille exercitus, Hispaniae provinciae scriptus, ibi cum fratre Cn. Scipione meis auspiciis rem gerit ubi eum gerere senatus populusque Romanus voluit, ego, ut consulem ducem adversus Hannibalem ac Poenos haberetis, ipse me huic voluntario certamini obtuli, novo imperatori apud novos milites pauca verba facienda sunt. Ne genus belli neue hostem ignoretis, cum iis est vobis, milites, pugnandum quos terra marique priore bello vicistis, a quibus stipendium per viginti annos exegistis, a quibus capta belli praemia Siciliam ac Sardiniam habetis.

[40] "If I were leading into the battle-line, soldiers, that army which I had with me in Gaul, I would have refrained from speaking before you; for what would it profit to exhort either those cavalrymen who at the River Rhone most excellently defeated the enemy’s cavalry, or those legions with whom, having followed this very foe in flight, I counted as victory his confession—of yielding and shirking the contest? Now, because that army, levied for the province of Spain, there under my auspices is conducting operations with my brother Gnaeus Scipio, where the Senate and Roman People wished it to conduct them, I—in order that you might have the consul as leader against Hannibal and the Carthaginians (the Punics)—have myself offered to this voluntary contest; a few words must be spoken by a new commander among new soldiers. Do not be ignorant either of the kind of war or of the enemy: you must fight, soldiers, those whom, in the earlier war, you conquered by land and sea, from whom you exacted tribute for twenty years, from whom, as prizes of war taken, you possess Sicily and Sardinia."

Erit igitur in hoc certamine is vobis illisque animus qui victoribus et victis esse solet. Nec nunc illi quia audent sed quia necesse est pugnaturi sunt, qui plures paene perierint quam supersint; nisi creditis, qui exercitu incolumi pugnam detractavere, eos duabus partibus peditum equitumque in transitu Alpium amissis plus spei nactos esse. At enim pauci quidem sunt sed vigentes animis corporibusque, quorum robora ac vires vix sustinere vis ulla possit.

Therefore, in this contest there will be for you and for them that spirit which is wont to belong to victors and to the vanquished. Nor now will they be about to fight because they dare, but because it is necessary—those who have almost lost more men than remain; unless you suppose that those who, with their army intact, declined battle, after two parts of their infantry and cavalry were lost in the crossing of the Alps, have thereby acquired more hope. But indeed they are few, yet vigorous in mind and body, whose robustness and strength scarcely any force could withstand.

Effigies immo, umbrae hominum, fame, frigore, inluuie, squalore enecti, contusi ac debilitati inter saxa rupesque; ad hoc praeusti artus, nive rigentes nervi, membra torrida gelu, quassata fractaque arma, claudi ac debiles equi. Cum hoc equite, cum hoc pedite pugnaturi estis; reliquias extremas hostis, non hostem habetis, ac nihil magis vereor quam ne cui, vos cum pugnaveritis, Alpes vicisse Hannibalem videantur. Sed ita forsitan decuit, cum foederum ruptore duce ac populo deos ipsos sine ulla humana ope committere ac profligare bellum, nos, qui secundum deos violati sumus, commissum ac profligatum conficere.

Effigies—nay, shadows—of men, killed by hunger, cold, foulness, and squalor, bruised and debilitated among rocks and crags; besides, limbs scorched, sinews rigid with snow, members seared by frost, arms battered and broken, horses lame and feeble. With this cavalry, with this infantry you are going to fight; you have the last remnants of an enemy, not an enemy; and nothing do I fear more than that, when you have fought, to some it may seem that the Alps, not you, have conquered Hannibal. But perhaps it was fitting thus: since their leader and people are breakers of treaties, that the gods themselves, without any human aid, should engage and rout the war, and that we, who next after the gods have been wronged, should finish what has been engaged and already brought to the point of overthrow.

[41] Non vereor ne quis me haec vestri adhortandi causa magnifice loqui existimet, ipsum aliter animo adfectum esse. Licuit in Hispaniam, provinciam meam, quo iam profectus eram, cum exercitu ire meo, ubi et fratrem consilii participem ac periculi socium haberem et Hasdrubalem potius quam Hannibalem hostem et minorem haud dubie molem belli; tamen, cum praeterveherer navibus Galliae oram, ad famam huius hostis in terram egressus, praemisso equitatu ad Rhodanum movi castra. Equestri proelio, qua parte copiarum conserendi manum fortuna data est, hostem fudi; peditum agmen, quod in modum fugientium raptim agebatur, quia adsequi terra non poteram, [neque] regressus ad naves [erat] quanta maxime potui celeritate tanto maris terrarumque circuitu, in radicibus prope Alpium huic timendo hosti obvius fui.

[41] I do not fear lest anyone think that I speak these things magnificently for the sake of exhorting you, but am myself affected in spirit otherwise. It was permitted to go into Spain, my province, whither I had already set out, with my own army, where I would have my brother a participant in counsel and a partner in peril, and Hasdrubal rather than Hannibal as enemy, and, without doubt, a lesser magnitude of war; nevertheless, when I was sailing past the coast of Gaul with ships, at the fame of this enemy I disembarked, and, the cavalry sent ahead, I moved camp to the Rhone. In a cavalry battle, in that part of the forces where fortune gave the chance of coming to grips, I routed the enemy; the column of foot, which was being driven rapidly in the manner of fugitives, since I could not overtake it by land, [neque] a return to the ships [erat], with as great speed as I could, by so great a circuit of sea and lands, I met this fearsome enemy at the very roots of the Alps.

Utrum, cum declinarem certamen, improvidus incidisse videor an occurrere in vestigiis eius, lacessere ac trahere ad decernendum? Experiri iuvat utrum alios repente Carthaginienses per viginti annos terra ediderit an iidem sint qui ad Aegates pugnaverunt insulas et quos ab Eryce duodeuicenis denariis aestimatos emisistis, et utrum Hannibal hic sit aemulus itinerum Herculis, ut ipse fert, an vectigalis stipendiariusque et servus populi Romani a patre relictus. Quem nisi Saguntinum scelus agitaret, respiceret profecto, si non patriam victam, domum certe patremque et foedera Hamilcaris scripta manu, qui iussus ab consule nostro praesidium deduxit ab Eryce, qui graves impositas victis Carthaginiensibus leges fremens maerensque accepit, qui decedens Sicilia stipendium populo Romano dare pactus est.

Whether, when I was declining an engagement, I seem to have fallen in unawares, or rather to have met him on his very tracks, to challenge and drag him to a deciding fight? It pleases me to make trial whether in twenty years the earth has suddenly brought forth other Carthaginians, or whether they are the same who fought at the Aegates Islands and whom you sold from Eryx, appraised at eighteen denarii apiece; and whether this Hannibal is a rival of the journeys of Hercules, as he himself avers, or a tributary, a stipendary, and a slave of the Roman People, left by his father. Whom, unless the Saguntine crime were goading him, he would surely look back to—if not to his conquered fatherland, then at least to his home and his father—and to the treaties of Hamilcar written by his hand: he who, when ordered by our consul, drew off the garrison from Eryx; who, grumbling and grieving, accepted the heavy laws imposed upon the conquered Carthaginians; who, when departing from Sicily, covenanted to pay stipend to the Roman People.

Itaque vos ego, milites, non eo solum animo quo adversus alios hostes soletis, pugnare velim, sed cum indignatione quadam atque ira, velut si servos videatis vestros arma repente contra vos ferentes. Licuit ad Erycem clausos ultimo supplicio humanorum, fame interficere; licuit victricem classem in Africam traicere atque intra paucos dies sine ullo certamine Carthaginem delere; veniam dedimus precantibus, emisimus ex obsidione, pacem cum victis fecimus, tutelae deinde nostrae duximus, cum Africo bello urgerentur. Pro his impertitis furiosum iuvenem sequentes oppugnatum patriam nostram veniunt.

Therefore I would have you, soldiers, fight not only with the spirit with which you are accustomed against other enemies, but with a certain indignation and wrath, as if you were seeing your own slaves suddenly bearing arms against you. It was permitted to slay by famine, the last punishment of mortals, those shut up at Eryx; it was permitted to carry the victorious fleet over into Africa and within a few days to destroy Carthage without any battle; we granted pardon to those begging, we released them from the siege, we made peace with the conquered, then we took them into our protection when they were pressed by an African war. For these benefits imparted, following a frenzied youth, they come to attack our fatherland.

Atque utinam pro decore tantum hoc vobis et non pro salute esset certamen. Non de possessione Siciliae ac Sardiniae, de quibus quondam agebatur, sed pro Italia vobis est pugnandum. Nec est alius ab tergo exercitus qui, nisi nos vincimus, hosti obsistat, nec Alpes aliae sunt, quas dum superant, comparari nova possint praesidia; hic est obstandum, milites, velut si ante Romana moenia pugnemus.

And would that this contest were for your honor only and not for your safety. It is not over the possession of Sicily and Sardinia, about which matters were once in question, but for Italy that you must fight. Nor is there another army in the rear which, unless we are victorious, will oppose the enemy; nor are there other Alps during whose crossing fresh reinforcements could be procured. Here a stand must be made, soldiers, as though we were fighting before the walls of Rome.

Unusquisque se non corpus suum sed coniugem ac liberos parvos armis protegere putet; nec domesticas solum agitet curas sed identidem hoc animo reputet nostras nunc intueri manus senatum populumque Romanum: qualis nostra vis virtusque fuerit, talem deinde fortunam illius urbis ac Romani imperii fore."

Let each man think that he is protecting not his own body but his spouse and little children with arms; nor let him be occupied with domestic cares alone, but again and again let him reckon in this mindset: that the Senate and Roman People are now gazing upon our hands: as our force and virtue shall have been, such thereafter will be the fortune of that city and of the Roman empire."

[42] Haec apud Romanos consul. Hannibal rebus prius quam verbis adhortandos milites ratus, circumdato ad spectaculum exercitu captivos montanos vinctos in medio statuit armisque Gallicis ante pedes eorum proiectis interrogare interpretem iussit, ecquis, si vinculis levaretur armaque et equum victor acciperet, decertare ferro vellet. Cum ad unum omnes ferrum pugnamque poscerent et deiecta in id sors esset, se quisque eum optabat quem fortuna in id certamen legeret, et, [ut] cuiusque sors exciderat, alacer, inter gratulantes gaudio exsultans, cum sui moris tripudiis arma raptim capiebat.

[42] These things the consul among the Romans. Hannibal, thinking the soldiers to be encouraged by deeds rather than by words, with the army drawn up around for a spectacle, set bound mountain captives in the middle; and, Gallic arms having been thrown before their feet, he ordered the interpreter to ask whether anyone, if he were released from his bonds and should receive arms and, as victor, a horse, would wish to decide the issue by the sword. When, to a man, all demanded the iron and the fight, and the lot had been cast for that, each man was desiring that he himself be the one whom fortune would select for that contest; and, as each man’s lot fell, eager, exulting with joy amid the congratulators, he was snatching up his arms in haste, with the dances of his own custom.

Ubi vero dimicarent, is habitus animorum non inter eiusdem modo condicionis homines erat sed etiam inter spectantes volgo, ut non vincentium magis quam bene morientium fortuna laudaretur.

But when they actually fought, such a disposition of minds prevailed not only among men of the same condition but even commonly among the onlookers, that the fortune was lauded not so much of the victors as of those dying well.

[43] Cum sic aliquot spectatis paribus adfectos dimisisset, contione inde advocata ita apud eos locutus fertur.

[43] When, after several pairs had thus been watched, he dismissed them, their spirits affected, then, an assembly having been summoned, he is said to have spoken among them thus.

"Si, quem animum in alienae sortis exemplo paulo ante habuistis, eundem mox in aestimanda fortuna vestra habueritis, vicimus, milites; neque enim spectaculum modo illud sed quaedam veluti imago vestrae condicionis erat. Ac nescio an maiora vincula maioresque necessitates vobis quam captivis vestris fortuna circumdederit. Dextra laevaque duo maria claudunt nullam ne ad effugium quidem navem habentes; circa Padus amnis, maior [Padus] ac violentior Rhodano, ab tergo Alpes urgent, vix integris vobis ac vigentibus transitae.

"If you shall soon have, in estimating your own fortune, the same spirit which a little before you had at the example of another’s lot, we have conquered, soldiers; for that was not only a spectacle but a kind of, as it were, image of your condition. And I do not know whether fortune has cast about you greater bonds and greater necessities than about your captives. On the right and left two seas enclose us, we having not even a ship for escape; around us the river Padus, greater [Padus] and more violent than the Rhone; from the rear the Alps press upon us, scarcely crossed by you even when whole and vigorous.

Hic vincendum aut moriendum, milites, est, ubi primum hosti occurristis. Et eadem fortuna, quae necessitatem pugnandi imposuit, praemia vobis ea victoribus proponit quibus ampliora homines ne ab dis quidem immortalibus optare solent. Si Siciliam tantum ac Sardiniam parentibus nostris ereptas nostra virtute reciperaturi essemus, satis tamen ampla pretia essent: quidquid Romani tot triumphis partum congestumque possident, id omne vestrum cum ipsis dominis futurum est; in hanc tam opimam mercedem, agite dum, dis bene iuvantibus arma capite.

Here there must be conquering or dying, soldiers, where first you have met the enemy. And the same fortune which has imposed the necessity of fighting proposes to you, as victors, such rewards that men are not wont to desire greater even from the immortal gods. If we were only about to recover Sicily and Sardinia, torn from our forefathers, by our own valor, yet they would be rewards ample enough; whatever the Romans possess, begotten and heaped up by so many triumphs, all that will be yours together with the masters themselves; for this so opulent a wage, come now, with the gods kindly helping, take up arms.

Satis adhuc in vastis Lusitaniae Celtiberiaeque montibus pecora consectando nullum emolumentum tot laborum periculorumque vestrorum vidistis; tempus est iam opulenta vos ac ditia stipendia facere et magna operae pretia mereri, tantum itineris per tot montes fluminaque et tot armatas gentes emensos. Hic vobis terminum laborum fortuna dedit; hic dignam mercedem emeritis stipendiis dabit. Nec, quam magni nominis bellum est, tam difficilem existimaritis victoriam fore; saepe et contemptus hostis cruentum certamen edidit et incliti populi regesque perlevi momento victi sunt.

Up to now, in the vast mountains of Lusitania and Celtiberia, by chasing herds you have seen no emolument of your so many labors and dangers; it is now time for you to make for yourselves opulent and wealthy stipends and to merit great prices of toil, you who have traversed so long a journey through so many mountains and rivers and so many armed peoples. Here fortune has set for you the terminus of labors; here she will give a worthy wage for stipends earned. Nor, because the war is of so great a name, should you suppose the victory will be so difficult; often both a despised enemy has produced a bloody contest, and renowned peoples and kings have been overcome by a very slight turn.

Nam dempto hoc uno fulgore nominis Romani, quid est cur illi vobis comparandi sint? Ut viginti annorum militiam vestram cum illa virtute, cum illa fortuna taceam, ab Herculis columnis, ab Oceano terminisque ultimis terrarum per tot ferocissimos Hispaniae et Galliae populos vincentes huc pervenistis; pugnabitis cum exercitu tirone, hac ipsa aestate caeso, victo, circumsesso a Gallis, ignoto adhuc duci suo ignorantique ducem. An me in praetorio patris, clarissimi imperatoris, prope natum, certe eductum, domitorem Hispaniae Galliaeque, victorem eundem non Alpinarum modo gentium sed ipsarum, quod multo maius est, Alpium, cum semenstri hoc conferam duce, desertore exercitus sui?

For, subtracting this one splendor of the Roman name, what reason is there why they should be compared with you? Not to speak of your twenty years of soldiery, with that valor, with that fortune, from the Pillars of Hercules, from the Ocean and the farthest boundaries of the lands, conquering through so many most ferocious peoples of Spain and Gaul, you have come hither; you will fight with a raw army, in this very summer cut down, defeated, hemmed in by the Gauls, with a leader as yet unknown to his troops and with troops unknown to their leader. Or am I—born almost in the praetorium of my father, a most illustrious imperator, certainly reared there—a subduer of Spain and Gaul, the same man a victor not only over the Alpine nations but over the Alps themselves, which is much greater, to be compared with this six‑months commander, a deserter of his army?

Cui si quis demptis signis Poenos Romanosque hodie ostendat, ignoraturum certum habeo utrius exercitus sit consul. Non ego illud parvi aestimo, milites, quod nemo est vestrum cuius non ante oculos ipse saepe militare aliquod ediderim facinus, cui non idem ego virtutis spectator ac testis notata temporibus locisque referre sua possim decora. Cum laudatis a me miliens donatisque, alumnus prius omnium vestrum quam imperator, procedam in aciem adversus ignotos inter se ignorantesque.

As for him, if someone with the standards removed were today to show him the Carthaginians and the Romans, I hold it certain he would not know of which army he is the consul. I do not esteem it a small thing, soldiers, that there is none of you before whose eyes I myself have not often performed some military exploit, to none of whom I, the same man—spectator and witness of valor—am not able to recount his distinctions, noted with times and places. With you a thousand times praised by me and rewarded, a fosterling of you all before I am a commander, I shall advance into the battle-line against men unknown to each other and mutually ignorant.

[44] Quocumque circumtuli oculos, plena omnia video animorum ac roboris, veteranum peditem, generosissimarum gentium equites frenatos infrenatosque, vos socios fidelissimos fortissimosque, vos, Carthaginienses, cum ob patriam, tum ob iram iustissimam pugnaturos. Inferimus bellum infestisque signis descendimus in Italiam, tanto audacius fortiusque pugnaturi quam hostis, quanto maior spes, maior est animus inferentis vim quam arcentis. Accendit praeterea et stimulat animos dolor, iniuria, indignitas.

[44] Wherever I have cast my eyes, I see everything full of spirit and strength: veteran infantry, cavalry of the most high-born nations, both bridled and unbridled; you, our allies, most faithful and most brave; you, Carthaginians, about to fight both on behalf of the fatherland and on behalf of most just ire. We are bringing war and with hostile standards we are descending into Italy, intending to fight so much the more boldly and bravely than the enemy, inasmuch as the greater the hope, the greater is the spirit of the one bringing force than of the one warding it off. Moreover, grief, wrong, and indignity ignite and spur our spirits.

Ad supplicium depoposcerunt me ducem primum, deinde vos omnes qui Saguntum oppugnassetis; deditos ultimis cruciatibus adfecturi fuerunt. Crudelissima ac superbissima gens sua omnia suique arbitrii facit; cum quibus bellum, cum quibus pacem habeamus, se modum imponere aequum censet. Circumscribit includitque nos terminis montium fluminumque, quos non excedamus, neque eos, quos statuit, terminos obseruat: 'Ne transieris Hiberum; ne quid rei tibi sit cum Saguntinis.' Ad Hiberum est Saguntum?

They demanded me, the leader, first for punishment, then all of you who had besieged Saguntum; once surrendered, they were going to afflict us with ultimate tortures. The most cruel and most super-proud nation makes everything its own and at its own discretion; it judges it fair to impose the measure as to those with whom we shall have war and with whom peace. It circumscribes and encloses us with termini of mountains and rivers, which we are not to exceed, nor does it observe the termini which it has set: ‘Do not cross the Ebro; do not have any affair with the Saguntines.’ Is Saguntum on the Ebro?

'Nusquam te vestigio moveris.' Parum est quod veterrimas provincias meas, Siciliam ac Sardiniam, [ademisti?] Adimis etiam Hispanias et, si inde cessero, in Africam transcendes. [Transcendes] dico? Duos consules huius anni, unum in Africam, alterum in Hispaniam miserunt.

'You will not move a single step.' Is it too little that you have taken from me my very oldest provinces, Sicily and Sardinia, [have you taken away?] You are taking away the Spains as well, and, if I yield from there, you will cross into Africa. [You will cross] I say? They have sent the two consuls of this year, one into Africa, the other into Spain.

Nihil usquam nobis relictum est nisi quod armis vindicarimus. Illis timidis et ignavis esse licet, qui respectum habent, quos sua terra, suus ager per tuta ac pacata itinera fugientes accipient: vobis necesse est fortibus viris esse et, omnibus inter victoriam mortemue certa desperatione abruptis, aut vincere aut, si fortuna dubitabit, in proelio potius quam in fuga mortem oppetere. Si hoc [bene fixum] omnibus destinatum in animo est, iterum dicam, vicistis; nullum contemptu m[ortis incitamentum] ad vincendum homini ab dis immortalibus acrius datum est."

Nothing anywhere has been left to us except what we have vindicated by arms. To those it is permitted to be timid and ignoble, who have a regard backward, whom their own land, their own field will receive as they flee through safe and pacified roads: for you it is necessary to be brave men, and, with everything between victory and death broken off by sure desperation, either to conquer or, if Fortune will hesitate, to meet death in battle rather than in flight. If this [bene fixum] is destined in mind for all, I will say again, you have conquered; no incitement to conquer has been given to man by the immortal gods more keen than by contempt of m[ortis incitamentum]."

[45] His adhortationibus cum utrimque ad certamen accensi militum animi essent, Romani ponte Ticinum iungunt tutandique pontis causa castellum insuper imponunt: Poenus hostibus opere occupatis Maharbalem cum ala Numidarum, equitibus quingentis, ad depopulandos sociorum populi Romani agros mittit; Gallis parci quam maxime iubet principumque animos ad defectionem sollicitari. Ponte perfecto traductus Romanus exercitus in agrum Insubrium quinque milia passuum ab Victumulis consedit. Ibi Hannibal castra habebat; revocatoque propere Maharbale atque equitibus cum instare certamen cerneret, nihil unquam satis dictum praemonitumque ad cohortandos milites ratus, vocatis ad contionem certa praemia pronuntiat in quorum spem pugnarent: agrum sese daturum esse in Italia, Africa, Hispania, ubi quisque velit, immunem ipsi qui accepisset liberisque; qui pecuniam quam agrum maluisset, ei se argento satisfacturum; qui sociorum cives Carthaginienses fieri vellent, potestatem facturum; qui domos redire mallent, daturum se operam ne cuius suorum popularium mutatum secum fortunam esse vellent.

[45] With these exhortations, since on both sides the spirits of the soldiers had been inflamed for the contest, the Romans join a bridge over the Ticinus and, for the sake of guarding the bridge, place a fort on it besides; the Carthaginian, while the enemies are occupied with the work, sends Maharbal with a wing of Numidians, five hundred horsemen, to devastate the fields of the allies of the Roman people; he orders that the Gauls be spared as much as possible and that the minds of their chiefs be solicited toward defection. The bridge having been completed and the Roman army led across, it encamped in the territory of the Insubres, five miles from Victumulae. There Hannibal had his camp; and, Maharbal and the horsemen being quickly recalled, when he perceived that the encounter was at hand, thinking that nothing was ever said or forewarned enough for encouraging the soldiers, having called them to an assembly he proclaims definite rewards in hope of which they should fight: that he would give land in Italy, Africa, Spain—wherever each might wish—tax‑exempt to the recipient himself and to his children; that whoever preferred money to land, he would satisfy him in silver; that those among the allies who wished to become Carthaginian citizens, he would grant the power; that those who would rather return to their homes, he would take pains that none of their own countrymen would wish to have had their fortune exchanged with them.

Servis quoque dominos prosecutis libertatem proponit binaque pro his mancipia dominis se redditurum. Eaque ut rata scirent fore, agnum laeva manu, dextra silicem retinens, si falleret, Iovem ceterosque precatur deos ita se mactarent quemadmodum ipse agnum mactasset, et secundum precationem caput pecudis saxo elisit. Tum vero omnes, velut dis auctoribus in spem suam quisque acceptis, id morae quod nondum pugnarent ad potienda sperata rati, proelium uno animo et voce una poscunt.

To the slaves as well who had accompanied their masters he proposes liberty, and that he would give to the masters, in exchange for them, two slaves apiece. And that they might know these things would be ratified, holding a lamb in his left hand and a flint in his right, he prays that, if he should deceive, Jupiter and the other gods might immolate him in the same way as he himself had immolated the lamb; and, in accord with the prayer, he smashed the beast’s head with the stone. Then indeed all, as if with the gods as guarantors received into each man’s own hope, thinking that the only delay to gaining what they hoped for was that they were not yet fighting, demand battle with one mind and with one voice.

[46] Apud Romanos haudquaquam tanta alacritas erat, super cetera recentibus etiam territos prodigiis; nam et lupus intraverat castra laniatisque obviis ipse intactus evaserat, [et] examen apum in arbore praetorio imminente consederat. Quibus procuratis Scipio cum equitatu iaculatoribusque expeditis profectus ad castra hostium exque propinquo copias, quantae et cuius generis essent, speculandas obvius fit Hannibali et ipsi cum equitibus ad exploranda circa loca progresso. Neutri alteros primo cernebant; densior deinde incessu tot hominum [et] equorum oriens pulvis signum propinquantium hostium fuit.

[46] Among the Romans there was by no means such alacrity, besides the rest being also terrified by recent prodigies; for both a wolf had entered the camp and, with those who met him torn to pieces, he himself had escaped untouched, [and] a swarm of bees had settled on a tree overhanging the praetorium. After these had been duly expiated, Scipio, setting out with the cavalry and the light-armed javelin-men, in order to reconnoiter at the enemy camp and from close at hand the forces—how great they were and of what kind—met Hannibal, who likewise had advanced with cavalry to explore the surrounding places. Neither saw the other at first; then the thicker dust arising from the march of so many men [and] horses was a sign of the approaching enemies.

Consistit utrumque agmen et ad proelium sese expediebant. Scipio iaculatores et Gallos equites in fronte locat, Romanos sociorumque quod roboris fuit in subsidiis; Hannibal frenatos equites in medium accipit, cornua Numidis firmat. Vixdum clamore sublato iaculatores fugerunt inter subsidia ac secundam aciem.

Both battle-lines halted and were preparing themselves for battle. Scipio places the javelin-throwers and the Gallic horsemen in the front, the Romans and, of the allies, whatever was the strength, in the reserves; Hannibal takes the bridled horsemen into the center, and fortifies the wings with Numidians. Scarcely had the battle-cry been raised when the javelin-throwers fled back among the reserves and the second line.

Inde equitum certamen erat aliquamdiu anceps; dein quia turbabant equos pedites intermixti, multis labentibus ex equis aut desilientibus ubi suos premi circumventos vidissent, iam magna ex parte ad pedes pugna abierat, donec Numidae qui in cornibus erant circumvecti paulum ab tergo se ostenderunt. Is pavor perculit Romanos, auxitque pavorem consulis volnus periculumque intercursu tum primum pubescentis filii propulsatum. Hic erit iuvenis penes quem perfecti huiusce belli laus est, Africanus ob egregiam victoriam de Hannibale Poenisque appellatus.

From there the cavalry combat for some time was in suspense; then, because foot-soldiers intermingled were throwing the horses into disorder, with many slipping from their mounts or leaping down when they had seen their own being pressed and surrounded, by now for the greater part the fight had gone to the feet, until the Numidians who were on the wings, having ridden around, showed themselves a little from the rear. That panic struck the Romans, and it increased the panic that the consul’s wound and peril were repelled by the run-in of his son, then for the first time coming into pubescence. This will be the youth in whose hands the praise for the finishing of this war rests, called Africanus on account of his outstanding victory over Hannibal and the Punics.

Fuga tamen effusa iaculatorum maxime fuit quos primos Numidae invaserunt; alius confertus equitatus consulem in medium acceptum, non armis modo sed etiam corporibus suis protegens, in castra nusquam trepide neque effuse cedendo reduxit. Servati consulis decus Coelius ad servum natione Ligurem delegat; malim equidem de filio verum esse, quod et plures tradidere auctores et fama obtinuit.

Flight, however, was most headlong among the javelin-throwers, whom the Numidians first attacked; the other close-ranked cavalry, having received the consul into their midst, protecting him not only with their arms but even with their bodies, led him back into camp, yielding nowhere either in panic or in disorderly rout. The honor of the saved consul Coelius assigns to a slave, Ligurian by nation; I for my part would prefer it to be true about the son, which more authors have handed down and which common report has maintained.

[47] Hoc primum cum Hannibale proelium fuit; quo facile apparuit et equitatu meliorem Poenum esse et ob id campos patentes, quales sunt inter Padum Alpesque, bello gerendo Romanis aptos non esse. Itaque proxima nocte iussis militibus vasa silentio colligere castra ab Ticino mota festinatumque ad Padum est ut ratibus, quibus iunxerat flumen, nondum resolutis sine tumultu atque insectatione hostis copias traiceret. Prius Placentiam pervenere quam satis sciret Hannibal ab Ticino profectos; tamen ad sescentos moratorum in citeriore ripa Padi segniter ratem solventes cepit.

[47] This was the first battle with Hannibal; whereby it was easy to see both that the Carthaginian was better in cavalry, and that on that account the open plains, such as are between the Po and the Alps, were not apt for waging war for the Romans. Accordingly, on the next night, after the soldiers had been ordered to collect their baggage in silence, the camp was moved from the Ticinus, and haste was made to the Po so that, the rafts by which he had yoked the river not yet having been loosed, he might ferry his forces across without tumult and without the enemy’s pursuit. They reached Placentia before Hannibal knew well enough that they had set out from the Ticinus; nevertheless he captured about six hundred stragglers on the nearer bank of the Po, sluggishly unfastening the raft.

Transire pontem non potuit, ut extrema resoluta erant tota rate in secundam aquam labente. Coelius auctor est Magonem cum equitatu et Hispanis peditibus flumen extemplo tranasse, ipsum Hannibalem per superiora Padi vada exercitum traduxisse, elephantis in ordinem ad sustinendum impetum fluminis oppositis. Ea peritis amnis eius vix fidem fecerint; nam neque equites armis equisque saluis tantam vim fluminis superasse veri simile est, ut iam Hispanos omnes inflati trauexerint utres, et multorum dierum circuitu Padi vada petenda fuerunt qua exercitus gravis impedimentis traduci posset.

He could not cross the bridge, since, when the extremities had been loosened, the whole raft was sliding into the downstream water. Coelius is authority that Mago, with the cavalry and the Spanish infantry, at once swam the river, and that Hannibal himself led the army across by the upper shallows of the Po, with the elephants set in a line to withstand the river’s onrush. These things would scarcely win credence with those skilled in that stream; for it is not verisimilar that the horsemen, with arms and horses safe, overcame so great a force of water—let alone that inflated skins ferried all the Spaniards across—and the fords of the Po had to be sought by a circuit of many days, where an army heavy with impedimenta could be conveyed over.

Potiores apud me auctores sunt qui biduo vix locum rate iungendo flumini inventum tradunt; ea cum Magone equites [et] Hispanorum expeditos praemissos. Dum Hannibal, circa flumen legationibus Gallorum audiendis moratus, traicit gravius peditum agmen, interim Mago equitesque ab transitu fluminis diei unius itinere Placentiam ad hostes contendunt. Hannibal paucis post diebus sex milia a Placentia castra communivit et postero die in conspectu hostium acie directa potestatem pugnae fecit.

The authorities have greater weight with me who report that in two days scarcely a place was found for joining a raft to the river; and that, with Mago, the cavalry [and] the light-armed Spaniards were sent ahead. While Hannibal, having lingered about the river to hear the embassies of the Gauls, ferried across the heavier column of infantry, meanwhile Mago and the horsemen, from the crossing of the river, with a day’s march, hastened to Placentia against the enemy. A few days later Hannibal fortified a camp six miles from Placentia, and on the next day, with the battle line drawn up in the sight of the enemy, he offered the opportunity of battle.

[48] Insequenti nocte caedes in castris Romanis, tumultu tamen quam re maior, ab auxiliaribus Gallis facta est. Ad duo milia peditum et ducenti equites vigilibus ad portas trucidatis ad Hannibalem transfugiunt; quos Poenus benigne adlocutus et spe ingentium donorum accensos in civitates quemque suas ad sollicitandos popularium animos dimisit. Scipio caedem eam signum defectionis omnium Gallorum esse ratus contactosque eo scelere velut iniecta rabie ad arma ituros, quamquam gravis adhuc volnere erat, tamen quarta vigilia noctis insequentis tacito agmine profectus, ad Trebiam fluvium iam in loca altiora collesque impeditiores equiti castra movet.

[48] On the following night a slaughter in the Roman camp—greater in tumult than in fact—was carried out by the Gallic auxiliaries. About two thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry, after the sentries at the gates were butchered, desert to Hannibal; the Carthaginian, having addressed them kindly and fired them with the hope of enormous donatives, sent each man into his own community to agitate the minds of his fellow countrymen. Scipio, thinking that slaughter a sign of the defection of all the Gauls and that those touched by that crime, as if with a frenzy injected, would take up arms, although still grievously wounded, nevertheless at the fourth watch of the following night set out with a silent column and shifts his camp to the River Trebia, now into higher ground and hills more obstructive to cavalry.

Minus quam ad Ticinum fefellit; missisque Hannibal primum Numidis, deinde omni equitatu turbasset utique novissimum agmen, ni aviditate praedae in vacua Romana castra Numidae devertissent. Ibi dum perscrutantes loca omnia castrorum nullo satis digno morae pretio tempus terunt, emissus hostis est de manibus; et cum iam transgressos Trebiam Romanos metantesque castra conspexissent, paucos moratorum occiderunt citra flumen interceptos. Scipio, nec vexationem volneris in via iactati ultra patiens et collegam— iam enim et revocatum ex Sicilia audierat—ratus exspectandum, locum qui prope flumen tutissimus stativis est visus delectum communiit.

It deceived him less than at the Ticinus; and with Hannibal having sent first the Numidians, then all the cavalry, he would surely have thrown into disorder the rearmost column, had not the Numidians, out of avidity for prey, turned aside into the empty Roman camp. There, while, scrutinizing all the places of the camp, they squander time with no price of delay worthy enough, the foe slipped from their hands; and when they had already seen the Romans crossed over the Trebia and marking out a camp, they killed a few of the lingerers, intercepted on this side of the river. Scipio, no longer tolerating the vexation of his wound from being tossed on the road, and thinking he must wait for his colleague—for now he had heard that he too had been recalled from Sicily—fortified a selected position, which seemed safest for a stationary camp, near the river.

Nec procul inde Hannibal cum consedisset, quantum victoria equestri elatus, tantum anxius inopia quae per hostium agros euntem, nusquam praeparatis commeatibus, maior in dies excipiebat, ad Clastidium vicum, quo magnum frumenti numerum congesserant Romani, mittit. Ibi cum vim pararent, spes facta proditionis; nec sane magno pretio, nummis aureis quadringentis, Dasio Brundisino praefecto praesidii corrupto traditur Hannibali Clastidium. Id horreum fuit Poenis sedentibus ad Trebiam.

Not far from there, when Hannibal had encamped, as much as he was elated by the cavalry victory, so much was he anxious at the scarcity which, as he was going through the enemy’s fields, with supplies nowhere prepared, was confronting him greater by the day; he sends to the village of Clastidium, where the Romans had heaped up a great quantity of grain. There, when they were preparing to use force, a hope of treachery appeared; and indeed at no great price—at 400 gold coins—Clastidium is handed over to Hannibal, Dasius of Brundisium, the prefect of the garrison, having been corrupted. That was a granary for the Carthaginians while they sat encamped by the Trebia.

In captivos ex tradito praesidio, ut fama clementiae in principio rerum colligeretur, nihil saevitum est.

No cruelty was exercised upon the captives from the surrendered garrison, so that the fame of clemency might be gathered at the beginning of affairs.

[49] Cum ad Trebiam terrestre constitisset bellum, interim circa Siciliam insulasque Italiae imminentes et a Sempronio consule et ante adventum eius terra marique res gestae. Viginti quinqueremes cum mille armatis ad depopulandam oram Italiae a Carthaginiensibus missae; novem Liparas, octo ad insulam Volcani tenuerunt, tres in fretum avertit aestus. Ad eas conspectas a Messana duodecim naves ab Hierone rege Syracusanorum missae, qui tum forte Messanae erat consulem Romanum opperiens, nullo repugnante captas naves Messanam in portum deduxerunt.

[49] When at the Trebia the war had settled into a land campaign, meanwhile around Sicily and the islands adjacent to Italy operations were carried out both by Consul Sempronius and, before his arrival, by land and sea. Twenty quinqueremes with a thousand armed men were sent by the Carthaginians to devastate the coast of Italy; nine made for Lipara, eight for the Island of Vulcan, the current diverted three into the Strait. When these were sighted from Messana, twelve ships were sent by King Hiero of the Syracusans, who then by chance was at Messana awaiting the Roman consul; with no one resisting, they led the captured ships into the harbor at Messana.

Cognitum ex captivis praeter viginti naves, cuius ipsi classis essent, in Italiam missas, quinque et triginta alias quinqueremes Siciliam petere ad sollicitandos veteres socios; Lilybaei occupandi praecipuam curam esse; credere eadem tempestate qua ipsi disiecti forent eam quoque classem ad Aegates insulas deiectam. Haec, sicut audita erant, rex M. Aemilio praetori, cuius Sicilia provincia erat, perscribit monetque [et] Lilybaeum firmo teneret praesidio. Extemplo et circa a praetore ad civitates missi legati tribunique suos ad curam custodiae intendere, et ante omnia Lilybaeum tueri apparatu belli, edicto proposito ut socii navales decem dierum cocta cibaria ad naves deferrent et ubi signum datum esset ne quis moram conscendendi faceret, perque omnem oram qui ex speculis prospicerent adventantem hostium classem missis.

It was learned from the captives that, besides the twenty ships—to whose fleet they themselves belonged—which had been sent into Italy, thirty-five other quinqueremes were making for Sicily to sollicit the old allies; that the principal concern was the seizure of Lilybaeum; that he believed that in the same tempest in which they themselves had been scattered that fleet too had been driven down to the Aegates Islands. These things, just as they had been heard, the king wrote in full to Marcus Aemilius, the praetor, whose province was Sicily, and he warned him also to hold Lilybaeum with a firm garrison. Forthwith both envoys were sent by the praetor round about to the communities, and the tribunes directed their men to apply themselves to the care of guard-duty, and before all to protect Lilybaeum with an apparatus of war, an edict being published that the naval allies should bring to the ships cooked rations for ten days and that, when the signal had been given, no one should cause delay in embarking, and along the whole shore men were sent who from watch-stations might look out for the enemy fleet as it approached.

Itaque quamquam de industria morati cursum navium erant Carthaginienses ut ante lucem accederent Lilybaevm, praesensum tamen est quia et luna pernox erat et sublatis armamentis veniebant. Extemplo datum signum ex speculis et in oppido ad arma conclamatum est et in naves conscensum; pars militum in muris portarumque in stationibus, pars in navibus erant. Et Carthaginienses, quia rem fore haud cum imparatis cernebant, usque ad lucem portu se abstinuerunt, demendis armamentis eo tempore aptandaque ad pugnam classe absumpto.

Therefore, although the Carthaginians had deliberately delayed the course of their ships so that they might approach Lilybaeum before daylight, nevertheless they were anticipated, because the moon was all-night bright and they were coming with the rigging raised. At once a signal was given from the watchtowers, and in the town the cry to arms was raised, and there was boarding onto the ships; part of the soldiers were on the walls and at the posts of the gates, part were on the ships. And the Carthaginians, because they perceived that the affair would not be with the unprepared, kept away from the harbor until light, the time being spent in taking down the rigging and in fitting the fleet for battle.

Ubi inluxit, recepere classem in altum ut spatium pugnae esset exitumque liberum e portu naves hostium haberent. Nec Romani detractavere pugnam et memoria circa ea ipsa loca gestarum rerum freti et militum multitudine ac virtute.

When it dawned, they drew back the fleet into the deep, so that there might be space for battle and that the enemy ships might have a free exit from the port. Nor did the Romans decline the fight, relying on the memory of deeds done in those very places and on the multitude and virtue of their soldiers.

[50] Ubi in altum evecti sunt, Romanus conserere pugnam et ex propinquo vires conferre velle; contra eludere Poenus et arte non vi rem gerere navivmque quam virorum aut armorum malle certamen facere. Nam ut sociis navalibus adfatim instructam classem, ita inopem milite habebant et, sicubi conserta navis esset, haudquaquam par numerus armatorum ex ea pugnabat. Quod ubi animadversum est, et Romanis multitudo sua auxit animum et paucitas illis minuit.

[50] When they had been carried out into the deep, the Roman wished to engage battle and to compare forces at close quarters; contrariwise the Carthaginian aimed to elude and to conduct the affair by art, not by force, and to make it a contest of ships rather than of men or arms. For although they had a fleet amply equipped with naval allies, they were poor in soldiery, and if anywhere a ship was grappled, by no means an equal number of armed men fought from it. When this was noticed, on the Roman side their own multitude increased their spirit, and on theirs their paucity diminished it.

Extemplo septem naves Punicae circumventae: fugam ceterae ceperunt. Mille et septingenti fuere in navibus captis milites nautaeque, in his tres nobiles Carthaginiensium. Classis Romana incolumis, una tantum perforata navi sed ea quoque ipsa reduce, in portum rediit.

At once seven Punic ships were encircled; the rest took to flight. One thousand seven hundred soldiers and sailors were in the captured ships, among them three nobles of the Carthaginians. The Roman fleet, unharmed—only a single ship pierced, but that too brought back—returned to port.

Secundum hanc pugnam, nondum gnaris eius qui Messanae erant Ti. Sempronius consul Messanam venit. Ei fretum intranti rex Hiero classem ornatam obviam duxit, transgressusque ex regia in praetoriam navem, gratulatus sospitem cum exercitu et navibus advenisse precatusque prosperum ac felicem in Siciliam transitum, statum deinde insulae et Carthaginiensium conata exposuit pollicitusque est, quo animo priore bello populum Romanum iuvenis adiuvisset, eo senem adiuturum; frumentum vestimentaque sese legionibus consulis sociisque navalibus gratis praebiturum; grande periculum Lilybaeo maritimisque civitatibus esse et quibusdam volentibus novas res fore.

After this battle, with those who were at Messana not yet aware of it, Tiberius Sempronius, the consul, came to Messana. As he was entering the strait, King Hiero led a decorated fleet to meet him, and, having passed over from the royal ship to the praetorian ship, he congratulated him on having arrived safe and sound with his army and ships, and prayed for a prosperous and felicitous passage into Sicily; then he set forth the condition of the island and the endeavors of the Carthaginians, and he promised that with the same spirit with which, as a young man, he had aided the Roman people in the earlier war, with that same spirit he would aid them as an old man; that he would supply grain and clothing free of charge to the consul’s legions and the naval allies; that there was great danger for Lilybaeum and the maritime cities, and that, with certain persons willing, there would be new things (i.e., attempts at revolution).

Ob haec consuli nihil cunctandum visum quin Lilybaeum classe peteret. Et rex regiaque classis una profecti. Navigantes inde pugnatum ad Lilybaeum fusasque et captas hostium naves accepere.

On account of these things it seemed to the consul that nothing was to be delayed, but that he should seek Lilybaeum with the fleet. And the king and the royal fleet set out together. Sailing from there, they learned that there had been fighting at Lilybaeum and that the enemy ships had been routed and captured.

[51] A Lilybaeo consul, Hierone cum classe regia dimisso relictoque praetore ad tuendam Siciliae oram, ipse in insulam Melitam, quae a Carthaginiensibus tenebatur, traiecit. Advenienti Hamilcar Gisgonis filius, praefectus praesidii, cum paulo minus duobus milibus militum oppidumque cum insula traditur. Inde post paucos dies reditum Lilybaeum captivique et a consule et a praetore, praeter insignes nobilitate viros, sub corona venierunt.

[51] From Lilybaeum the consul, Hiero having been dismissed with the royal fleet and the praetor left behind to guard the coast of Sicily, crossed over himself to the island of Melita, which was held by the Carthaginians. As he arrived, Hamilcar, son of Gisco, commander of the garrison, with a little less than two thousand soldiers, surrendered to him, and the town together with the island was handed over. Thence, after a few days, they returned to Lilybaeum, and the captives, both by the consul and by the praetor, except men distinguished by nobility, were sold at auction under the garland.

Postquam ab ea parte satis tutam Siciliam censebat consul, ad insulas Volcani, quia fama erat stare ibi Punicam classem, traiecit; nec quisquam hostium circa eas insulas inventus; iam forte transmiserant ad vastandam Italiae oram depopulatoque Vibonensi agro urbem etiam terrebant. Repetenti Siciliam consuli escensio hostium in agrum Vibonensem facta nuntiatur, litteraeque ab senatu de transitu in Italiam Hannibalis et ut primo quoque tempore collegae ferret auxilium missae traduntur. Multis simul anxius curis exercitum extemplo in naves impositum Ariminum mari supero misit, Sex.

After the consul judged Sicily sufficiently safe on that side, he crossed to the islands of Vulcan, because the report was that the Punic fleet was stationed there; and not a single enemy was found around those islands; by then, it chanced, they had already crossed over to devastate the coast of Italy, and, with the Vibonian territory plundered, they were even terrifying the city. As the consul was returning to Sicily, word is brought that the enemy had landed in the Vibonian territory, and letters from the senate about Hannibal’s crossing into Italy, and that he should bring aid to his colleague at the earliest possible time, having been sent, are delivered. Anxious with many cares at once, he immediately put the army on ships and sent it to Ariminum on the Upper Sea, Six.

Pomponio legato cum viginti quinque longis navibus Vibonensem agrum maritimamque oram Italiae tuendam attribuit, M. Aemilio praetori quinquaginta navium classem explevit. Ipse compositis Siciliae rebus decem navibus oram Italiae legens Ariminum pervenit. Inde cum exercitu suo profectus ad Trebiam flumen collegae coniungitur.

He assigned to the legate Pomponius, with twenty-five long ships, the Vibonensian district and the maritime coast of Italy to be guarded, and he completed for the praetor M. Aemilius a fleet of fifty ships. He himself, the affairs of Sicily composed, coasting along the shore of Italy with ten ships, arrived at Ariminum. Thence, setting out with his army, he joined his colleague at the river Trebia.

[52] Iam ambo consules et quidquid Romanarum virium erat Hannibali oppositum aut illis copiis defendi posse Romanum imperium aut spem nullam aliam esse satis declarabat. Tamen consul alter, equestri proelio uno et volnere suo comminutus, trahi rem malebat; recentis animi alter eoque ferocior nullam dilationem patiebatur. Quod inter Trebiam Padumque agri est Galli tum incolebant, in duorum praepotentium populorum certamine per ambiguum favorem haud dubie gratiam victoris spectantes.

[52] By now both consuls, and whatever of Roman forces was set against Hannibal, made it clear enough that either by those troops the Roman imperium could be defended, or that there was no other hope. Yet the one consul, diminished by a single cavalry skirmish and by his own wound, preferred that the matter be drawn out; the other, of a fresh spirit and therefore the more ferocious, would brook no delay. The land which lies between the Trebia and the Po the Gauls then inhabited, and in the contest of two prepotent peoples, with ambiguous favor they looked, beyond doubt, to the favor of the victor.

Id Romani, modo ne quid moverent, aequo satis, Poenus periniquo animo ferebat, ab Gallis accitum se venisse ad liberandos eos dictitans. Ob eam iram, simul ut praeda militem aleret, duo milia peditum et mille equites, Numidas plerosque, mixtos quosdam et Gallos, populari omnem deinceps agrum usque ad Padi ripas iussit. Egentes ope Galli, cum ad id dubios servassent animos, coacti ab auctoribus iniuriae ad vindices futuros declinant legatisque ad consulem missis auxilium Romanorum terrae ob nimiam cultorum fidem in Romanos laboranti orant.

That the Romans bore with a sufficiently even mind, provided only that they did not make any move; the Carthaginian took it with a very inequitable spirit, repeatedly saying that he had come, called in by the Gauls, to liberate them. On account of that anger, and at the same time that booty might feed the soldier, he ordered two thousand infantry and one thousand horsemen—Numidians for the most part, with certain Gauls mixed in—to ravage all the country in succession as far as the banks of the Po. The Gauls, lacking resources, although they had kept their minds wavering up to that point, compelled by the authors of the injury to turn to those who were going to be avengers, sent envoys to the consul and beg the aid of the Romans for their land, which was suffering because of the excessive loyalty of its cultivators toward the Romans.

Cornelio nec causa nec tempus agendae rei placebat suspectaque ei gens erat cum ob infida multa facinora, tum, ut alia vetustate obsoleuissent, ob recentem Boiorum perfidiam: Sempronius contra continendis in fide sociis maximum vinculum esse primos qui eguissent ope defensos censebat. Tum collega cunctante equitatum suum mille peditum, iaculatoribus ferme, admixtis ad defendendum Gallicum agrum trans Trebiam mittit. Sparsos et incompositos, ad hoc graves praeda plerosque cum inopinato invasissent, ingentem terrorem caedemque ac fugam usque ad castra stationesque hostium fecere; unde multitudine effusa pulsi, rursus subsidio suorum proelium restituere.

Cornelius liked neither the cause nor the time for undertaking the matter, and the nation was suspect to him both on account of many faithless misdeeds and—though other things might have become obsolete with age—on account of the recent perfidy of the Boii; Sempronius, on the contrary, judged that for keeping the allies in loyalty the greatest bond was that those who had first needed help should be defended. Then, while his colleague hesitated, he sends his cavalry, with about a thousand foot soldiers added, for the most part javelin-throwers, to defend the Gallic land across the Trebia. When they had unexpectedly fallen upon men scattered and unformed, and, moreover, most of them heavy with booty, they produced enormous terror, slaughter, and flight even up to the camp and the enemy outposts; from which, a multitude having poured out, they were driven back, and then, with the support of their own, they restored the battle.

Varia inde pugna [inter recedentes in]sequentesque, cumque ad extremum aequassent certamen, maior tamen hostium [cum caedes esset, penes] Romanos fama victoriae fuit.

Thence varied fighting [between the retreating and the] pursuers; and when at the last they had equalized the contest, yet, [since the slaughter of the enemy was greater, with] the Romans was the fame of victory.

[53] Ceterum nemini omnium maior ea iustiorque quam ipsi consuli videri; gaudio efferri, qua parte copiarum alter consul victus foret, ea se vicisse: restitutos ac refectos militibus animos nec quemquam esse praeter collegam qui dilatam dimicationem vellet; eum, animo magis quam corpore aegrum memoria volneris aciem ac tela horrere. Sed non esse cum aegro senescendum. Quid enim ultra differri aut teri tempus?

[53] Moreover, to no one of all did that seem greater and more just than to the consul himself; he was carried away by joy, in that sector of the forces wherein the other consul had been defeated, there he had himself won: that the spirits of the soldiers had been restored and refreshed, and that there was no one except his colleague who wanted the engagement delayed; that he, sick more in mind than in body, at the memory of the wound shuddered at the battle-line and the weapons. But one must not grow old with a sick man. For why should time be deferred or worn away any further?

Quem tertium consulem, quem alium exercitum exspectari? Castra Carthaginiensium in Italia ac prope in conspectu urbis esse. Non Siciliam ac Sardiniam, victis ademptas, nec cis Hiberum Hispaniam peti sed solo patrio terraque in qua geniti forent pelli Romanos.

What third consul, what other army is expected? The camp of the Carthaginians is in Italy and almost in sight of the city. It is not Sicily and Sardinia, taken from the vanquished, nor Spain on this side of the Iberus, that are being sought, but the Romans are being driven from their ancestral soil and the land in which they were born.

"Quantum ingemiscant" inquit "patres nostri, circa moenia Carthaginis bellare soliti, si videant nos, progeniem suam, duos consules consularesque exercitus, in media Italia paventes intra castra, Poenum quod inter Alpes Appenninumque agri sit suae dicionis fecisse?" Haec adsidens aegro collegae, haec in praetorio prope contionabundus agere. Stimulabat et tempus propinquum comitiorum, ne in novos consules bellum differretur, et occasio in se unum vertendae gloriae, dum aeger collega erat. Itaque nequiquam dissentiente Cornelio parari ad propinquum certamen milites iubet.

"How our fathers, accustomed to wage war around the walls of Carthage, would groan," he said, "if they should see us, their progeny, two consuls and consular armies, in the very middle of Italy quaking within the camp, while a Carthaginian has made the land between the Alps and the Apennines to be under his dominion?" These things he was urging as he sat beside his sick colleague; these things he was delivering, almost haranguing, in the praetorium. He was also spurred on by the nearness of the elections, lest the war be deferred to new consuls, and by the opportunity of turning the glory upon himself alone, while his colleague was ill. Therefore, Cornelius dissenting to no purpose, he orders the soldiers to be prepared for the near-at-hand engagement.

Hannibal cum quid optimum foret hosti cerneret, vix ullam spem habebat temere atque improvide quicquam consules acturos; cum alterius ingenium, fama prius, deinde re cognitum, percitum ac ferox sciret esse ferociusque factum prospero cum praedatoribus suis certamine crederet, adesse gerendae rei fortunam haud diffidebat. Cuius ne quod praetermitteret tempus, sollicitus intentusque erat, dum tiro hostium miles esset, dum meliorem ex ducibus inutilem volnus faceret, dum Gallorum animi vigerent, quorum ingentem multitudinem sciebat segnius secuturam quanto longius ab domo traherentur. Cum ob haec taliaque speraret propinquum certamen et facere, si cessaretur, cuperet speculatoresque Galli, ad ea exploranda quae vellet tutiores quia in utrisque castris militabant, paratos pugnae esse Romanos rettulissent, locum insidiis circumspectare Poenus coepit.

Hannibal, since he discerned what would be best for the enemy, scarcely had any hope that the consuls would do anything rashly and improvidently; since he knew the disposition of the one—known first by fame, then by reality—to be excited and fierce, and believed it had been made more ferocious by the prosperous encounter with his foragers, he did not doubt that fortune for undertaking the affair was at hand. That he might not let pass any moment of it, he was anxious and intent—while the enemy’s soldiery was raw, while a wound would render the better of the commanders useless, while the spirits of the Gauls were vigorous, whose vast multitude he knew would follow more sluggishly the farther they were dragged from home. Since on account of these and the like things he hoped for a near engagement and wished, if there were delay, to bring it about, and since the Gallic scouts—safer for exploring the things he wanted because they were serving in both camps—had reported that the Romans were prepared for battle, the Carthaginian began to look around for a place for ambushes.

[54] Erat in medio rivus praealtis utrimque clausus ripis et circa obsitus palustribus herbis et quibus inculta ferme vestiuntur, virgultis vepribusque. Quem ubi equites quoque tegendo satis latebrosum locum circumvectus ipse oculis perlustravit, "hic erit locus" Magoni fratri ait "quem teneas. Delige centenos viros ex omni pedite atque equite cum quibus ad me vigilia prima venias; nunc corpora curare tempus est." Ita praetorium missum.

[54] There was in the midst a stream, shut in on both sides by very steep banks and around it overgrown with marshy grasses and with the things with which waste places are commonly clothed, thickets and brambles. When he, having ridden around, had with his own eyes thoroughly surveyed it—a place affording cover sufficient for concealment even of the cavalry—“this will be the place,” he said to his brother Mago, “which you are to hold. Choose a hundred men from all the infantry and the cavalry, with whom come to me at the first watch; now it is time to care for your bodies.” Thus he was sent to the praetorium.

Mox cum delectis Mago aderat. "Robora virorum cerno" inquit Hannibal; "sed uti numero etiam, non animis modo valeatis, singulis vobis novenos ex turmis manipulisque vestri similes eligite. Mago locum monstrabit quem insideatis; hostem caecum ad has belli artes habetis." Ita [cum] mille equitibus Magone, mille peditibus dimisso Hannibal prima luce Numidas equites transgressos Trebiam flumen obequitare iubet hostium portis iaculandoque in stationes elicere ad pugnam hostem, iniecto deinde certamine cedendo sensim citra flumen pertrahere.

Soon Mago arrived with the chosen men. “I discern the strength of the men,” said Hannibal; “but that you may prevail by number also, not by courage only, let each of you choose nine like yourselves from the squadrons and the maniples. Mago will point out the place for you to occupy; you have an enemy blind to these arts of war.” Thus, Mago having been sent off with 1,000 horse and 1,000 foot, at first light Hannibal orders the Numidian horsemen, having crossed the river Trebia, to ride to and fro before the enemy’s gates and, by casting javelins, to draw the enemy’s stations out to battle; then, once a fight has been engaged, by yielding to pull them gradually back to this side of the river.

Haec mandata Numidis: ceteris ducibus peditum equitumque praeceptum ut prandere omnes iuberent, armatos deinde instratisque equis signum exspectare.

These were the mandates to the Numidians: to the other leaders of infantry and cavalry the precept that they should order all to take breakfast, then, armed and with the horses saddled, to await the signal.

Sempronius ad tumultum Numidarum primum omnem equitatum, ferox ea parte virium, deinde sex milia peditum, postremo omnes copias ad destinatum iam ante consilio avidus certaminis eduxit. Erat forte brumae tempus et nivalis dies in locis Alpibus Appenninoque interiectis, propinquitate etiam fluminum ac paludum praegelidis. Ad hoc raptim eductis hominibus atque equis, non capto ante cibo, non ope ulla ad arcendum frigus adhibita, nihil caloris inerat, et quidquid aurae fluminis appropinquabant, adflabat acrior frigoris vis.

Sempronius, at the tumult of the Numidians, first led out all the cavalry—fierce in that part of his strength—then six thousand foot, and finally all the forces to the place appointed already before by counsel, avid for the contest. It chanced to be the season of midwinter and a snowy day in regions set between the Alps and the Apennine, ice-cold also from the propinquity of rivers and marshes. Moreover, with men and horses drawn out in haste, no food having been taken beforehand, no aid of any kind applied to ward off the cold, there was no warmth in them; and whatever breaths of the river they approached, a keener force of cold blew upon them.

Ut vero refugientes Numidas insequentes aquam ingressi sunt—et erat pectoribus tenus aucta nocturno imbri—tum utique egressis rigere omnibus corpora ut vix armorum tenendorum potentia esset, et simul lassitudine et procedente iam die fame etiam deficere.

But when, pursuing the fleeing Numidians, they entered the water—and it had been raised to the chest by nocturnal rain—then indeed, once they had come out, the bodies of all grew rigid, so that there was scarcely the power of holding their arms, and at the same time, from weariness and, with the day now advancing, from hunger as well, they began to fail.

[55] Hannibalis interim miles ignibus ante tentoria factis oleoque per manipulos, ut mollirent artus, misso et cibo per otium capto, ubi transgressos flumen hostes nuntiatum est, alacer animis corporibusque arma capit atque in aciem procedit. Baliares locat ante signa [ac] levem armaturam, octo ferme milia hominum, dein graviorem armis peditem, quod virium, quod roboris erat; in cornibus circumfudit decem milia equitum et ab cornibus in utramque partem diversos elephantos statuit. Consul effuse sequentes equites, cum ab resistentibus subito Numidis incauti exciperentur, signo receptui dato revocatos circumdedit peditibus.

[55] Meanwhile Hannibal’s soldier, fires having been made before the tents, and oil sent through the maniples that they might soften their limbs, and food taken at leisure—when it was reported that the enemies had crossed the river—spry in spirits and bodies takes up arms and advances into the battle line. He places the Balearics before the standards [and] the light-armed, about eight thousand men; then the heavier-armed foot, whatever there was of force, whatever of robustness; on the wings he poured around ten thousand horse, and from the wings on both sides he stationed elephants in separate detachments. The consul, as the horsemen were following in a disorderly fashion, when, off their guard, they were received by Numidians who suddenly made a stand, having given the signal for retreat and recalled them, surrounded them with infantry.

Duodeuiginti milia Romani erant, socium nominis Latini viginti, auxilia praeterea Cenomanorum; ea sola in fide manserat Gallica gens. Iis copiis concursum est.

There were 18,000 Romans, 20,000 of the allies of the Latin Name, and, besides, the auxiliaries of the Cenomani; that Gallic people alone had remained in loyalty. With these forces battle was joined.

Proelium a Baliaribus ortum est; quibus cum maiore robore legiones obsisterent, diducta propere in cornua levis armatura est, quae res effecit ut equitatus Romanus extemplo urgeretur. Nam cum vix iam per se resisterent decem milibus equitum quattuor milia et fessi integris plerisque, obruti sunt insuper velut nube iaculorum a Baliaribus coniecta. Ad hoc elephanti eminentes ab extremis cornibus, equis maxime non visu modo sed odore insolito territis, fugam late faciebant.

The battle began with the Balearians; and when the legions, with greater strength, stood against them, the light-armed troops were quickly drawn off to the wings, a move which brought it about that the Roman cavalry was at once pressed. For, being only four thousand horse against ten thousand, and fatigued while most of the others were fresh, they could scarcely hold out by themselves, and moreover were overwhelmed as if by a cloud of missiles hurled by the Balearians. In addition, the elephants, looming from the furthest wings, with the horses especially terrified not only by the sight but by the unfamiliar odor, were causing flight far and wide.

Pedestris pugna par animis magis quam viribus erat, quas recentes Poenus paulo ante curatis corporibus in proelium attulerat; contra ieiuna fessaque corpora Romanis et rigentia gelu torpebant. Restitissent tamen animis, si cum pedite solum foret pugnatum; sed et Baliares pulso equite iaculabantur in latera et elephanti iam in mediam peditum aciem sese tulerant et Mago Numidaeque, simul latebras eorum improvida praeterlata acies est, exorti ab tergo ingentem tumultum ac terrorem fecere. Tamen in tot circumstantibus malis mansit aliquamdiu immota acies, maxime praeter spem omnium adversus elephantos.

The infantry combat was equal in courage more than in strengths, which the Carthaginian, fresh, having but a little before refreshed their bodies, had brought into the battle; by contrast the Romans’ bodies, fasting and weary and stiff with frost, were torpid. They would nonetheless have held their ground in spirit, if the fighting had been with infantry alone; but the Balearics, the cavalry having been routed, were casting their javelins into the flanks, and the elephants had already borne themselves into the very middle of the infantry battle-line, and Mago and the Numidians, as soon as the line, unwary, had been carried past their hiding places, rising from the rear created a huge tumult and terror. Nevertheless, amid so many surrounding evils the line remained unmoved for some time, beyond everyone’s expectation especially against the elephants.

Eos velites ad id ipsum locati verutis coniectis et avertere et insecuti aversos sub caudis, qua maxime molli cute volnera accipiunt, fodiebant.

The velites, placed for that very purpose, with their veruta cast, both turned them away and, pursuing them when turned, stabbed them beneath the tails, where, in the very soft skin, they most readily receive wounds.

[56] Trepidantesque et prope iam in suos consternatos e media acie in extremam ad sinistrum cornu adversus Gallos auxiliares agi iussit Hannibal.

[56] And, panicking and by now almost throwing their own men into consternation, Hannibal ordered them to be driven from the middle of the battle line to the extreme left wing, against the Gallic auxiliaries.

Ibi extemplo haud dubiam fecere fugam; novus quoque terror additus Romanis ut fusa auxilia sua viderunt. Itaque cum iam in orbem pugnarent, decem milia ferme hominum—cum alia evadere nequissent—media Afrorum acie quae Gallicis auxiliis firmata erat, cum ingenti caede hostium perrupere et, cum neque in castra reditus esset flumine interclusus neque prae imbri satis decernere possent qua suis opem ferrent, Placentiam recto itinere perrexere. Plures deinde in omnes partes eruptiones factae; et qui flumen petiere, aut gurgitibus absumpti sunt aut inter cunctationem ingrediendi ab hostibus oppressi.

There at once they made the rout not doubtful; a new terror also was added for the Romans when they saw their own auxiliaries scattered. And so, when they were now fighting in a circle, about ten thousand men—since they could not escape otherwise—broke through the middle line of the Africans, which had been strengthened by Gallic auxiliaries, with a huge slaughter of the enemy; and, since there was no return to the camp, cut off by the river, nor could they, because of the rain, discern well where they might bring help to their own, they went on to Placentia by a straight route. Then more break-outs were made in all directions; and those who sought the river were either swallowed up by the whirlpools or, amid hesitation in entering, were overpowered by the enemies.

Qui passim per agros fuga sparsi erant vestigia cedentis sequentes agminis Placentiam contendere; aliis timor hostium audaciam ingrediendi flumen fecit, transgressique in castra pervenerunt. Imber nive mixtus et intoleranda vis frigoris et homines multos et iumenta et elephantos prope omnes absumpsit. Finis insequendi hostis Poenis flumen Trebia fuit, et ita torpentes gelu in castra rediere ut vix laetitiam victoriae sentirent.

Those who had been scattered far and wide through the fields in flight, following the tracks of the withdrawing column, hastened to Placentia; in others, fear of the enemy produced the audacity of entering the river, and, having crossed, they reached the camp. A rain mixed with snow and an intolerable force of cold consumed many men and beasts of burden and nearly all the elephants. The river Trebia was the limit of pursuing the enemy for the Carthaginians, and thus, numbed with frost, they returned to camp so that they scarcely felt the joy of victory.

Itaque nocte insequenti, cum praesidium castrorum et quod reliquum [ex fuga semermium] ex magna parte militum erat ratibus Trebiam traicerent, aut nihil sensere obstrepente pluvia aut, quia iam moveri nequibant prae lassitudine ac volneribus, sentire sese dissimularunt, quietisque Poenis tacito agmine ab Scipione consule exercitus Placentiam est perductus, inde Pado traiectus Cremonam, ne duorum exercituum hibernis una colonia premeretur.

Thus, on the following night, while the garrison of the camp and what remained [from the rout of the half-armed] of the greater part of the soldiers were being carried across the Trebia on rafts, they either perceived nothing, the rain drowning out all sound, or, because they could no longer move from weariness and wounds, they pretended not to notice; and, the Carthaginians being quiet, the army, in a silent column, was led by Consul Scipio to Placentia, and thence, ferried over the Po, to Cremona, lest one colony be burdened by the winter quarters of two armies.

[57] Romam tantus terror ex hac clade perlatus est ut iam ad urbem Romanam crederent infestis signis hostem venturum nec quicquam spei aut auxilii esse quo portis moenibusque vim arcerent: uno consule ad Ticinum victo, altero ex Sicilia revocato, duobus consulibus, duobus consularibus exercitibus victis quos alios duces, quas alias legiones esse quae arcessantur? Ita territis Sempronius consul advenit, ingenti periculo per effusos passim ad praedandum hostium equites audacia magis quam consilio aut spe fallendi resistendive, si non falleret, transgressus. Is, quod unum maxime in praesentia desiderabatur, comitiis consularibus habitis in hiberna rediit.

[57] So great a terror was borne to Rome from this calamity that they already believed the enemy would come to the Roman city with hostile standards, and that there was no hope or aid by which they might ward off the assault from the gates and walls: with one consul defeated at the Ticinus, the other recalled from Sicily, with two consuls, with two consular armies defeated—what other commanders, what other legions were there to be summoned? Thus, while they were so terrified, the consul Sempronius arrived, having crossed over with immense danger through the enemy horsemen scattered everywhere for plunder, more by audacity than by counsel or any hope of deceiving, or—if he did not deceive—of resisting. He, having held the consular elections, which was the one thing especially desired at the moment, returned to winter quarters.

Creati consules Cn. Servilius et C. Flaminius.

The consuls were elected Cn. Servilius and C. Flaminius.

Ceterum ne hiberna quidem Romanis quieta erant vagantibus passim Numidis equitibus et, [ut] quaeque his impeditiora erant, Celtiberis Lusitanisque. Omnes igitur undique clausi commeatus erant, nisi quos Pado naves subveherent. Emporium prope Placentiam fuit et opere magno munitum et valido firmatum praesidio.

But not even the winter quarters were quiet for the Romans, with Numidian horsemen roaming everywhere and, [as] wherever things were more obstructed for these, the Celtiberians and Lusitanians. Accordingly all supplies were shut off on every side, except those which ships brought up the Po. There was an emporium near Placentia, fortified with great works and strengthened by a strong garrison.

Eius castelli oppugnandi spe cum equitibus ac levi armatura profectus Hannibal, cum plurimum in celando incepto ad effectum spei habuisset, nocte adortus non fefellit vigiles. Tantus repente clamor est sublatus ut Placentiae quoque audiretur. Itaque sub lucem cum equitatu consul aderat iussis quadrato agmine legionibus sequi.

Hannibal, having set out with cavalry and light-armed troops in the hope of storming that fort, since he had had very much, in concealing his undertaking, toward the fulfillment of his hope, attacking by night did not deceive the sentries. So great a clamor was suddenly raised that it was heard even at Placentia. Accordingly, toward daybreak the consul was at hand with the cavalry, the legions having been ordered to follow in a square formation.

Equestre interim proelium commissum; in quo, quia saucius Hannibal pugna excessit, pavore hostibus iniecto defensum egregie praesidium est. Paucorum inde dierum quiete sumpta et vixdum satis percurato volnere, ad Victumulas oppugnandas ire pergit. Id emporium Romanis Gallico bello fuerat; munitum inde locum frequentaverant accolae mixti undique ex finitimis populis, et tum terror populationum eo plerosque ex agris compulerat.

A cavalry battle meanwhile was joined; in it, because Hannibal, wounded, withdrew from the fight, with panic cast upon the enemy the garrison was excellently defended. Then, a rest of a few days having been taken, and his wound scarcely yet sufficiently attended to, he proceeds to go to assault Victumulae. That had been an emporium for the Romans in the Gallic war; thereafter the fortified place had been frequented by inhabitants, a mixture from all sides out of the neighboring peoples, and at that time the terror of ravagings had driven most thither from the fields.

Huius generis multitudo fama impigre defensi ad Placentiam praesidii accensa armis arreptis obviam Hannibali procedit. Magis agmina quam acies in via concurrerunt, et cum ex altera parte nihil praeter inconditam turbam esset, in altera et dux militi et duci miles fidens, ad triginta quinque milia hominum a paucis fusa. Postero die deditione facta praesidium intra moenia accepere; iussique arma tradere cum dicto paruissent, signum repente victoribus datur, ut tamquam vi captam urbem diriperent; neque ulla, quae in tali re memorabilis scribentibus videri solet, praetermissa clades est; adeo omne libidinis crudelitatisque et inhumanae superbiae editum in miseros exemplum est.

The multitude of this sort, inflamed by the report of the garrison at Placentia having been vigorously defended, with arms seized, went forth to meet Hannibal. More columns than battle-lines collided in the road; and since on the one side there was nothing except an unorganized mob, while on the other both the soldier trusted his leader and the leader his soldier, about thirty-five thousand men were routed by a few. On the next day, surrender having been made, they admitted the garrison within the walls; and when, being ordered to hand over their arms, they obeyed on the word, a signal is suddenly given to the victors to sack the city as though taken by force; nor was any calamity omitted which, in such a matter, is wont to seem memorable to writers; to such a degree was every example of lust, cruelty, and inhuman arrogance enacted upon the wretched.

Hae fuere hibernae expeditiones Hannibalis.

These were Hannibal’s winter expeditions.

[58] Haud longi inde temporis, dum intolerabilia frigora erant, quies militi data est; et ad prima ac dubia signa veris profectus ex hibernis in Etruriam ducit, eam quoque gentem, sicut Gallos Liguresque, aut vi aut voluntate adiuncturus. Transeuntem Appenninum adeo atrox adorta tempestas est, ut Alpium prope foeditatem superaverit. Vento mixtus imber cum ferretur in ipsa ora, primo, quia aut arma omittenda erant aut contra enitentes vertice intorti adfligebantur, constitere; dein, cum iam spiritum includeret nec reciprocare animam sineret, aversi a vento parumper consedere.

[58] Not long thereafter, while the colds were intolerable, rest was given to the soldiery; and at the first and doubtful signs of spring, setting out from the winter-quarters he leads into Etruria, intending to add that nation too, as he had the Gauls and Ligurians, either by force or by their own will. As he was crossing the Apennine so atrocious a storm assailed him that it nearly surpassed the foulness of the Alps. Rain mixed with wind was being driven straight into their very faces, and at first, because either their weapons had to be let go or, as they strove against it, they were dashed down by eddying gusts twisted about their heads, they halted; then, when it now shut in their breath and did not allow them to draw it back, turned away from the wind they sat down for a little while.

Tum vero ingenti sono caelum strepere et inter horrendos fragores micare ignes; capti auribus et oculis metu omnes torpere; tandem effuso imbre, cum eo magis accensa vis venti esset, ipso illo quo deprensi erant loco castra ponere necessarium visum est. Id vero laboris velut de integro initium fuit; nam nec explicare quicquam nec statuere poterant nec quod statutum esset manebat omnia perscindente vento et rapiente. Et mox aqua levata vento cum super gelida montium iuga concreta esset, tantum nivosae grandinis deiecit ut omnibus omissis procumberent homines tegminibus suis magis obruti quam tecti; tantaque vis frigoris insecuta est ut ex illa miserabili hominum iumentorumque strage cum se quisque attollere ac levare vellet, diu nequiret, quia torpentibus rigore nervis vix flectere artus poterant.

Then indeed with an immense din the sky clattered, and amid horrendous crashes fires flickered; seized in ears and eyes by fear, all grew torpid; at last, with the rain poured out, and the force of the wind thereby the more enkindled, it seemed necessary to pitch camp in the very place where they had been caught. This in truth was, as it were, a fresh beginning of labor; for they could neither unfold anything nor set anything up, nor did what had been set up stay put, the wind rending and snatching everything away. And soon, when the water, lifted by the wind, had congealed upon the gelid ridges of the mountains, it cast down so much snowy hail that, letting everything go, the men sank prone, more overwhelmed than covered by their coverings; and so great a force of cold followed that, from that miserable carnage of men and draft-animals, whenever each tried to rise and lift himself, he could not for a long time, because with sinews numbed by the chill they could scarcely bend their limbs.

Deinde, ut tandem agitando sese movere ac recipere animos et raris locis ignis fieri est coeptus, ad alienam opem quisque inops tendere. Biduum eo loco velut obsessi mansere; multi homines, multa iumenta, elephanti quoque ex iis qui proelio ad Trebiam facto superfuerant septem absumpti.

Then, when at last by moving about they began to stir themselves and to recover their spirits, and fires began to be made in a few places, each man, destitute, stretched out toward another’s help. For two days they remained in that place as if besieged; many men, many beasts of burden, and even elephants—seven of those who had survived the battle fought at the Trebia—were lost.

[59] Degressus Appennino retro ad Placentiam castra movit et ad decem milia progressus consedit. Postero die duodecim milia peditum, quinque equitum adversus hostem ducit; nec Sempronius consul—iam enim redierat ab Roma—detractavit certamen. Atque eo die tria milia passuum inter bina castra fuere; postero die ingentibus animis vario eventu pugnatum est.

[59] Having descended from the Apennines, he moved his camp back toward Placentia and, after advancing about 10 miles, made camp. On the next day he leads 12,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry against the enemy; nor did the consul Sempronius—for by now he had returned from Rome—decline the combat. And on that day there were 3 miles between the two camps; on the following day they fought with great spirits and with varied fortune.

Primo concursu adeo res Romana superior fuit ut non acie vincerent solum sed pulsos hostes in castra persequerentur, mox castra quoque oppugnarent. Hannibal paucis propugnatoribus in vallo portisque positis, ceteros confertos in media castra recepit intentosque signum ad erumpendum exspectare iubet. Iam nona ferme diei hora erat, cum Romanus nequiquam fatigato milite, postquam nulla spes erat potiundi castris, signum receptui dedit.

At the first encounter the Roman cause was so superior that they not only prevailed in the battle-line but pursued the routed enemies into their camp, and soon even assaulted the camp as well. Hannibal, with a few defenders placed on the rampart and at the gates, withdrew the rest, packed close, into the middle of the camp and ordered them, intent, to await the signal to break out. It was now about the ninth hour of the day, when the Roman, his soldiery wearied to no purpose, since there was no hope of gaining possession of the camp, gave the signal for retreat.

Quod ubi Hannibal accepit laxatamque pugnam et recessum a castris vidit, extemplo equitibus dextra laevaque emissis in hostem ipse cum peditum robore mediis castris erupit. Pugna raro magis ulla saeva aut utriusque partis pernicie clarior fuisset, si extendi eam dies in longum spatium sivisset; nox accensum ingentibus animis proelium diremit. Itaque acrior concursus fuit quam caedes et, sicut aequata ferme pugna erat, ita clade pari discessum est.

When Hannibal learned this and saw the fight relaxed and a withdrawal from the camp, immediately, with the cavalry sent out on the right and on the left, he himself burst forth from the middle of the camp with the strength of the infantry. Rarely would any battle have been more savage or more distinguished by the destruction of both sides, if the day had allowed it to be extended to a long span; night broke off the battle, inflamed with mighty spirits. Therefore the clash was keener than the slaughter, and, just as the fight was well-nigh equal, so they departed with equal loss.

Ab neutra parte sescentis plus peditibus et dimidium eius equitum cecidit; sed maior Romanis quam pro numero iactura fuit, quia equestris ordinis aliquot et tribuni militum quinque et praefecti sociorum tres sunt interfecti. Secundum eam pugnam Hannibal in Ligures, Sempronius Lucam concessit. Venienti in Ligures Hannibali per insidias intercepti duo quaestores Romani, C. Fuluius et L. Lucretius, cum duobus tribunis militum et quinque equestris ordinis, senatorum ferme liberis, quo magis ratam fore cum iis pacem societatemque crederet, traduntur.

From neither side did more than six hundred infantry and half that number of cavalry fall; but the loss was greater to the Romans than in proportion to the number, because several of the equestrian order and five tribunes of the soldiers and three prefects of the allies were slain. After that battle Hannibal [went] into the Ligurians, Sempronius withdrew to Luca. As Hannibal was coming into the Ligurian country, two Roman quaestors, C. Fulvius and L. Lucretius, together with two military tribunes and five of the equestrian order—almost all sons of senators—having been intercepted by ambush, were delivered up to him, in order that he might believe the more that a peace and alliance with them would be ratified.

[60] Dum haec in Italia geruntur, Cn. Cornelius Scipio in Hispaniam cum classe et exercitu missus, cum ab ostio Rhodani profectus Pyrenaeosque montes circumvectus Emporias appulisset classem, exposito ibi exercitu orsus a Laeetanis omnem oram usque ad Hiberum flumen partim renovandis societatibus partim novis instituendis Romanae dicionis fecit. Inde conciliata clementiae fama non ad maritimos modo populos sed in mediterraneis quoque ac montanis ad ferociores iam gentes valuit; nec pax modo apud eos sed societas etiam armorum parta est, validaeque aliquot auxiliorum cohortes ex iis conscriptae sunt. Hannonis cis Hiberum provincia erat; eum reliquerat Hannibal ad regionis eius praesidium.

[60] While these things were being done in Italy, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, sent into Spain with a fleet and an army, when he had set out from the mouth of the Rhone and, having coasted round the Pyrenean mountains, had brought his fleet to land at Emporiae, after disembarking the army there, beginning with the Laeetani, made the whole coast up to the river Hiberus part of Roman dominion, partly by renewing alliances and partly by establishing new ones. Thence, a reputation for clemency having been won, it prevailed not only with the maritime peoples but also among the inland and mountain peoples, even with nations now more ferocious; and not only peace among them but a fellowship of arms as well was achieved, and several strong cohorts of auxiliaries were levied from them. The province on this side of the Hiberus was Hanno’s; Hannibal had left him for the defense of that region.

Itaque priusquam alienarentur omnia obviam eundum ratus, castris in conspectu hostium positis in aciem eduxit. Nec Romano differendum certamen visum, quippe qui sciret cum Hannone et Hasdrubale sibi dimicandum esse malletque adversus singulos separatim quam adversus duos simul rem gerere. Nec magni certaminis ea dimicatio fuit.

Therefore, thinking that he must go to meet them before everything was alienated, with the camp pitched in the sight of the enemy he led out into the battle-line. Nor did the Roman think the contest should be deferred, since he knew that he must fight with Hanno and Hasdrubal and preferred to conduct the matter against each separately rather than against both at the same time. Nor was that engagement one of great contest.

Sex milia hostium caesa, duo capta cum praesidio castrorum; nam et castra expugnata sunt atque ipse dux cum aliquot principibus capiuntur; et Cissis, propinquum castris oppidum, expugnatur. Ceterum praeda oppidi parvi pretii rerum fuit, supellex barbarica ac vilium mancipiorum; castra militem ditauere, non eius modo exercitus qui victus erat sed et eius qui cum Hannibale in Italia militabat, omnibus fere caris rebus, ne gravia impedimenta ferentibus essent, citra Pyrenaeum relictis.

Six thousand of the enemy were cut down; two thousand were captured along with the garrison of the camp; for the camp too was taken by storm, and the commander himself, with several chiefs, were captured; and Cissis, a town near the camp, was stormed. However, the plunder of the town was of things of little price—barbaric household furniture and slaves of low value; the camp enriched the soldiery, not only of the army that had been defeated but also of that which was serving with Hannibal in Italy, since almost all costly items, lest they be heavy impedimenta for those carrying them, had been left on this side of the Pyrenees.

[61] Priusquam certa huius cladis fama accideret, transgressus Hiberum Hasdrubal cum octo milibus peditum, mille equitum, tamquam ad primum adventum Romanorum occursurus, postquam perditas res ad Cissim amissaque castra accepit, iter ad mare convertit. Haud procul Tarracone classicos milites navalesque socios vagos palantesque per agros, quod ferme fit ut secundae res neglegentiam creent, equite passim dimisso cum magna caede, maiore fuga ad naves compellit; nec diutius circa ea loca morari ausus, ne ab Scipione opprimeretur, trans Hiberum sese recepit. Et Scipio raptim ad famam novorum hostium agmine acto, cum in paucos praefectos navium animadvertisset, praesidio Tarracone modico relicto Emporias cum classe rediit.

[61] Before a sure report of this disaster arrived, Hasdrubal, having crossed the Iberus with 8,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, as though to meet the first arrival of the Romans, after he learned that matters at Cissa were ruined and the camp lost, turned his march to the sea. Not far from Tarraco he drove the fleet-soldiers and the naval allies, wandering and straggling through the fields—as it commonly happens that favorable circumstances create negligence—having sent the cavalry out everywhere, with great slaughter and, a greater thing, a rout, to the ships; and not daring to linger longer about those places, lest he be overwhelmed by Scipio, he withdrew across the Iberus. And Scipio, in haste at the report of new enemies, his column pushed forward, when he had observed only a few captains of ships, with a small garrison left at Tarraco returned with the fleet to Emporiae.

Vixdum digresso eo Hasdrubal aderat et Ilergetum populo, qui obsides Scipioni dederat, ad defectionem impulso cum eorum ipsorum iuventute agros fidelium Romanis sociorum vastat; excito deinde Scipione hibernis toto cis Hiberum rursus cedit agro. Scipio relictam ab auctore defectionis Ilergetum gentem cum infesto exercitu invasisset, compulsis omnibus Atanagrum urbem, quae caput eius populi erat, circumsedit, intraque dies paucos pluribus quam ante obsidibus imperatis Ilergetes pecunia etiam multatos in ius dicionemque recepit. Inde in Ausetanos prope Hiberum, socios et ipsos Poenorum, procedit atque urbe eorum obsessa Lacetanos auxilium finitimis ferentes nocte haud procul iam urbe, cum intrare vellent, excepit insidiis.

Scarcely had he withdrawn when Hasdrubal was at hand, and, the people of the Ilergetes—who had given hostages to Scipio—being driven to defection, with the youth of those very men he devastates the fields of the faithful allies of the Romans; then, Scipio having been aroused from winter quarters, he again withdraws from all the land on this side of the Hiberus. Scipio, when he had invaded with a hostile army the nation of the Ilergetes, left behind by the author of the defection, having forced them all together, besieged Atanagrum, the city which was the head of that people, and within a few days, more hostages than before having been exacted, he both fined the Ilergetes in money and received them back into his law and dominion. Thence he advances against the Ausetani near the Hiberus, themselves allies of the Punic side, and, their city being besieged, he caught by ambush the Lacetani, who were bringing aid to their neighbors, at night not far now from the city, when they wished to enter.

Caesa ad duodecim milia; exuti prope omnes armis domos passim palantes per agros diffugere; nec obsessos alia ulla res quam iniqua oppugnantibus hiemps tutabatur. Triginta dies obsidio fuit, per quos raro unquam nix minus quattuor pedes alta iacuit adeoque pluteos ac vineas Romanorum operverat ut ea sola ignibus aliquotiens coniectis ab hoste etiam tutamentum fuerit. Postremo cum Amusicus princeps eorum ad Hasdrubalem profugisset, viginti argenti talentis pacti deduntur.

About twelve thousand were cut down; nearly all, stripped of their arms, scattered, straggling through the fields to their homes; nor was anything other than the winter, inclement to the assailants, protecting the besieged. The siege lasted thirty days, during which the snow rarely ever lay less than four feet deep, and it had so covered the Romans’ mantlets and vineae that these alone, when fires were several times cast by the enemy, were even a safeguard. Finally, when Amusicus, their prince, had fled to Hasdrubal, they surrendered on terms for twenty talents of silver.

Tarraconem in hiberna reditum est.

They returned to their winter quarters at Tarraco.

[62] Romae aut circa urbem multa ea hieme prodigia facta aut, quod evenire solet motis semel in religionem animis, multa nuntiata et temere credita sunt, in quis ingenuum infantem semenstrem in foro holitorio triumphum clamasse, et [in] foro boario bovem in tertiam contignationem sua sponte escendisse atque inde tumultu habitatorum territum sese deiecisse, et navium speciem de caelo adfulsisse, et aedem Spei, quae est in foro holitorio, fulmine ictam, et Lanuvi hastam se commouisse et coruum in aedem Iunonis devolasse atque in ipso pulvinari consedisse, et in agro Amiternino multis locis hominum specie procul candida veste visos nec cum ullo congressos, et in Piceno lapidibus pluvisse, et Caere sortes extenuatas, et in Gallia lupum vigili gladium ex vagina raptum abstulisse. Ob cetera prodigia libros adire decemviri iussi; quod autem lapidibus pluvisset in Piceno, novendiale sacrum edictum; et subinde aliis procurandis prope tota civitas operata fuit. Iam primum omnium urbs lustrata est hostiaeque maiores quibus editum est dis caesae, et donum ex auri pondo quadraginta Lanuvium Iunoni portatum est et signum aeneum matronae Iunoni in Auentino dedicaverunt, et lectisternium Caere, ubi sortes attenuatae erant, imperatum, et supplicatio Fortunae in Algido; Romae quoque et lectisternium Iuventati et supplicatio ad aedem Herculis nominatim, deinde universo populo circa omnia pulvinaria indicta, et Genio maiores hostiae caesae quinque, et C. Atilius Serranus praetor vota suscipere iussus, si in decem annos res publica eodem stetisset statu.

[62] At Rome and around the city many prodigies either occurred that winter, or—what is wont to happen once minds have been stirred into religion—many were reported and rashly believed: among these, that a freeborn infant six months old in the Forum Holitorium cried out “triumph!”, and that in the Forum Boarium a bull of its own accord climbed to the third story and, frightened by the uproar of the inhabitants, threw itself down; and that an apparition of ships flashed from the sky; and that the Temple of Hope, which is in the Forum Holitorium, was struck by lightning; and that at Lanuvium the spear moved of itself; and that a raven flew down into the temple of Juno and sat upon the very sacred cushion; and that in the territory of Amiternum in many places figures in the form of men, in white garb, were seen from afar and met with no one; and that in Picenum it rained stones; and that at Caere the lots were thinned out; and that in Gaul a wolf snatched away a sentry’s sword from its sheath and carried it off. For the other prodigies the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books; but because it had rained stones in Picenum, a nine-day rite was proclaimed; and thereafter, for attending to the others, almost the whole commonwealth was employed. First of all, the city was lustrated, and greater victims were sacrificed to the gods to whom it was prescribed; and a gift of gold of the weight of 40 pounds was carried to Lanuvium for Juno; and they dedicated on the Aventine a bronze statue of a matron to Juno; and at Caere, where the lots had been diminished, a lectisternium was ordered; and a supplication to Fortuna on Algidus; at Rome too both a lectisternium for Juventas and, by name, a supplication at the temple of Hercules; then for the whole people a supplication was proclaimed around all the divine couches, and five greater victims were slain to the Genius; and Gaius Atilius Serranus the praetor was ordered to undertake vows, if for 10 years the commonwealth should stand in the same condition.

Haec procurata votaque ex libris Sibyllinis magna ex parte levaverant religione animos.

These matters, once attended to, and the vows from the Sibylline books, had to a great extent relieved minds of religious anxiety.

[63] Consulum designatorum alter Flaminius, cui eae legiones quae Placentiae hibernabant sorte evenerant, edictum et litteras ad consulem misit ut is exercitus Idibus Martiis Arimini adesset in castris. Hic in provincia consulatum inire consilium erat memori veterum certaminum cum patribus, quae tribunus plebis et quae postea consul prius de consulatu qui abrogabatur, dein de triumpho habuerat, invisus etiam patribus ob novam legem, quam Q. Claudius tribunus plebis adversus senatum atque uno patrum adiuvante C. Flaminio tulerat, ne quis senator cuive senator pater fuisset maritimam navem, quae plus quam trecentarum amphorarum esset, haberet. Id satis habitum ad fructus ex agris vectandos; quaestus omnis patribus indecorus visus.

[63] Of the consuls-designate, one, Flaminius, to whom by lot had fallen those legions which were wintering at Placentia, sent an edict and letters to the consul that that army should be present at Ariminum in the camp on the Ides of March. Here it was his plan to enter upon the consulship in his province, mindful of his old contests with the fathers, which, as tribune of the plebs and afterwards as consul, he had waged—first over the consulship which was being abrogated, then over a triumph—hated also by the fathers on account of a new law, which Quintus Claudius, tribune of the plebs, had carried against the senate, and with one of the fathers, Gaius Flaminius, assisting: that no senator, or anyone whose father had been a senator, should have a maritime ship which was of more than 300 amphorae. That was held sufficient for carrying produce from the fields; all profit-seeking seemed unbecoming to the fathers.

Res per summam contentionem acta invidiam apud nobilitatem suasori legis Flaminio, favorem apud plebem alterumque inde consulatum peperit. Ob haec ratus auspiciis ementiendis Latinarumque feriarum mora et consularibus aliis impedimentis retenturos se in urbe, simulato itinere privatus clam in provinciam abiit. Ea res ubi palam facta est, novam insuper iram infestis iam ante patribus movit: non cum senatu modo sed iam cum dis immortalibus C. Flaminium bellum gerere.

The affair, prosecuted with the utmost contention, brought odium among the nobility upon Flaminius, the proposer of the law, but favor among the plebs, and from that it produced another consulship. Because of this, thinking that by the falsifying of auspices, by a delay of the Latin Festival, and by other consular impediments they would hold him back in the city, with a feigned journey, as a private citizen, he secretly departed to his province. When this became public, it stirred a new anger in the fathers, already hostile before: that Gaius Flaminius was waging war not only with the senate but now with the immortal gods.

Consulem ante inauspicato factum revocantibus ex ipsa acie dis atque hominibus non paruisse; nunc conscientia spretorum et Capitolium et sollemnem votorum nuncupationem fugisse, ne die initi magistratus Iovis optimi maximi templum adiret, ne senatum invisus ipse et sibi uni invisum videret consuleretque, ne Latinas indiceret Iovique Latiari sollemne sacrum in monte faceret, ne auspicato profectus in Capitolium ad vota nuncupanda, paludatus inde cum lictoribus in provinciam iret. Lixae modo sine insignibus, sine lictoribus profectum clam, furtim, haud aliter quam si exsilii causa solum vertisset. Magis pro maiestate videlicet imperii Arimini quam Romae magistratum initurum et in deversorio hospitali quam apud penates suos praetextam sumpturum.

They alleged that, previously, when made consul inauspiciously, he had not obeyed the gods and men recalling him from the very battle-line; now, with a conscience of things spurned, he had fled both the Capitol and the solemn pronouncing of vows, lest on the day of entering upon his magistracy he should go to the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest, lest he should see and consult the senate, he himself odious and odious to himself alone, lest he should proclaim the Latin Festival and perform the solemn sacrifice to Jupiter Latiaris on the mountain, lest, having set out with auspices taken, he should go up to the Capitol for vows to be pronounced, and from there, in the paludamentum with lictors, go into his province. Like a camp-follower he had set out, without insignia, without lictors, secretly, furtively, no otherwise than if for the cause of exile he had changed his soil. Evidently, in regard for the majesty of the imperium, he would begin his magistracy at Ariminum rather than at Rome, and he would assume the toga praetexta in a hospitable hostelry rather than before his own household penates.

Revocandum universi retrahendumque censuerunt et cogendum omnibus prius praesentem in deos hominesque fungi officiis quam ad exercitum et in provinciam iret. In eam legationem—legatos enim mitti placuit—Q. Terentius et M. Antistius profecti nihilo magis eum moverunt quam priore consulatu litterae moverant ab senatu missae. Paucos post dies magistratum iniit, immolantique ei vitulus iam ictus e manibus sacrificantium sese cum proripuisset, multos circumstantes cruore respersit; fuga procul etiam maior apud ignaros quid trepidaretur et concursatio fuit.

All unanimously decreed that he must be recalled and drawn back, and compelled, while present, first to perform the duties owed to gods and men before he should go to the army and into the province. On that embassy—for it was decided that envoys be sent—Q. Terentius and M. Antistius set out; they moved him no more than the letters sent by the senate had moved him in his prior consulship. A few days later he entered upon his magistracy, and as he was sacrificing, a calf, already struck, when it had snatched itself from the hands of the sacrificers, spattered many standing around with blood; and there was an even greater flight and running to-and-fro at a distance among those ignorant of what the alarm was about.

Id a plerisque in omen magni terroris acceptum. Legionibus inde duabus a Sempronio prioris anni consule, duabus a C. Atilio praetore acceptis Etruriam per Appennini tramites exercitus duci est coeptus.

That was received by most as an omen of great terror. Thereupon, with two legions taken from Sempronius, consul of the previous year, and two from C. Atilius, praetor, the army began to be led into Etruria through the passes of the Apennines.