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Hannibal's March Hannibal's March. by Spenser Wilkinson The Classical Review http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR Additional services for The Classical Review: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Hannibal's March Hannibal's March. By Spenser Wilkinson. Clarendon Press. A. D. Godley The Classical Review / Volume 25 / Issue 04 / June 1911, pp 116 - 118 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00046655, Published online: 27 October 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00046655 How to cite this article: A. D. Godley (1911). The Classical Review, 25, pp 116-118 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00046655 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 130.216.129.208 on 21 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW HANNIBAL'S MARCH. Hannibal's March. By SPENSER WIL- On the statements of Polybius, it KINSON. Clarendon Press. would be easiest to suppose that Hanni- bal crossed the Little St. Bernard; and THE data for a conclusion about Hanni- till the early eighties that view was bal's Pass still provide a healthy exer- generally accepted. It was approved cise for intellectual athletes, and will by Arnold and by Mommsen. But probably continue to do so till such clearly there was always much to be time as scholars shall agree about the said in favour of a more southern pass, date and personality of Homer. Pro- not involving a long circuit like the fessor Wilkinson has now entered the Little St. Bernard route—unless, in- lists; and perhaps it is not altogether deed, we are to press the statement of superfluous for a reviewer of his mono- Livy and Polybius that Hannibal went graph to recapitulate in the briefest north so as to escape Scipio. Mr. way what we are told by ancient au- Freshfield pleads for the Col de Larche, thorities. According to Polybius, Han- otherwise called Col d'Argentiere. The nibal crossed the Rhone at a point Carthaginians marched up the Rhone distant by four days1 march from the to the Rhone and Isere confluence, or sea; marched in four days to the thereabouts, and then turned abruptly ' Island' or delta formed near or in the eastward and crossed a hilly country to country of the Allobroges by the con- the upper waters of the Durance, fluence of the Rhone and the ' Skaras'— whence to the Col de Larche. What, which has been usually identified with then, becomes of Polybius' ten days' the Isere,—thence advanced ten days up march up the river after the Island ? * the river,' which brought him to the Mr. Coolidge votes for the Mont actual passage of the Alpine chain. In Genevre, near the Mont Cenis route, crossing, he passed close to a 'white but allows, or allowed, that there is rock,' and showed his army a view of much to be said for the Little St. Ber- Italy from the summit of the pass. nard (see The Alps in Nature and His- Livy follows Polybius here and there, tory). Now comes Professor Wilkin- but introduces details which are incon- son with a different route altogether. sistent with the earlier narrative. Ac- He is not the first to suggest it; his cording to Livy, Hannibal marched up book is a detailed justification of the the Rhone, after crossing it, to the Insula view held by two French officers, and the neighbourhood of the Allo- Colonel Perrin and Captain Colin. broges ; then, leaving it, turned ' to the According to these two gentlemen and left' into the country of the Tricastini Professor Wilkinson, the Rhone was and Tricorii and Vocontii—that is, a crossed at the head of its delta, just district considerably south of the Isere ; above Fourques, only about thirty miles thence to the Durance, which he from the coast. Thence the Cartha- crossed, and continued by a campestre iter ginians marched in four days to the to the Alps. Both historians describe Island, which is the delta formed by encounters between the Carthaginian the confluence of the Rhone and the army and the hill tribes through whose Sorgue ; in ten more days, to a place country it passed. They do not agree' on the Isere, near St. Nazaire, about in their account of the part of Italy into twenty miles above the confluence of which the army descended. Livy says that river and the Rhone; thence east- it was the country of the Taurini, wards ' by Montaud, Noyarey, Greno- Polybius that of the Insubres. Varro ble, the valley of the Arc, and the Col is another ' authority.' He enumerates du Clapier to Susa and Avigliana,' five Alpine passes known to the Romans which route is ' both the shortest route of his day, and tells us that Hannibal through the Alps from France to Italy crossed by the second of these, count- and the route which offers the fewest ing from the Mediterranean north- and least formidable defiles.' It is wards. further urged in defence of the Col du THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 117 Clapier—and on these points, indeed, through the country of the Tricastini Colonel Perrin and Professor Wilkinson and Vocontii, and the crossing of the lay most stress—firstly, that this route Durance ? Professor Wilkinson does leads directly past a very prominent, his best to utilise Livy; but he can light-coloured mass of rock, easily to only do so by assuming that that his- be identified with Polybius's XevKoirerpov torian confuses the order of events, and o)(vp6v; secondly, that the Col du Cla- that the Carthaginians crossed the pier alone of possible Alpine passes Durance in their march up the Rhone commands a view of sub-Alpine Italy; at the confluence of the two rivers— thirdly, that the difficulties of the descent not, as Livy says, after marching as described by Polybius and Livy are through the above-mentioned country. such as would confront an army de- It is worth noticing, however, that in scending by this particular pass. Apart « Livy's description the army seem to from this evidence, how far does Pro- have crossed the Durance by wading. fessor Wilkinson accord with ancient Could that be done near its junction authority, and with what, in view of with the Rhone ? Really, one cannot the uncertainty of the latter, is really reconcile Polybius and Livy. Our almost as important, a priori prob- author follows the excellent principle of ability ? Certainly he is to be com- neglecting no authority; and this must mended for a most meritorious attempt be counted to him for righteousness; to make the most of Polybius and Livy. but he is essaying a hopeless tour de He may ' interpret' them ; he does not force. disregard them. The base of the theory Wrhen we come to the actual passage is that Hannibal did not cross the Little of the Alps, the evidence on which Pro- St. Bernard. He left the Isere pretty fessor Wilkinson mainly relies cannot low down. Then, in order to fit in be said to be really conclusive for the Polybius' fourteen days' riparian march, Col du Clapier—it contradicts nothing he must have crossed the Rhone low and it confirms nothing. Hannibal down, too. So he crossed it at may have marched from the Isere by Fourques. But can thirty miles from the route which the Professor and the the coast correspond to Polybius' four French officers have so carefully and days' going ? Yes, says Professor Wil- ingeniously traced for him. But the kinson ; Polybius says ' four days' be- ancient historians really supply nothing cause Scipio, marching to catch Hanni- that can be called evidence. There is bal, took four days from the sea to the a mass of ' white ' rock—the Rocher de Carthaginian crossing-place. We do la Porte—on the way to the Col du not know that; all that seems clear is Clapier.1 But how many cliffs are that Scipio did not take more; but there on the passes of the Graian and according to the narrative he may have Cottian Alps which might be called taken less. Scipio was in a hurry, XevKoirerpov 6-xvpov ? As to the view of probably. Be this as it may, Hannibal the Italian plain which the Clapier marched in a leisurely four days to the alone of possible passes is said to ' Insula' formed by the confluence of possess, there is no pass with a descent the Sorgue with the Rhone; so that into Italy where a general might not Polybius and Livy, who say that this say to his troops, 'That valley brings was the Allobroges' country, must be you to Italy.' To turn this simple and mistaken ; there are no Allobroges so obvious sentence into ' there is Italy' far south. Ten days more, and Hanni- is surely not inconsistent with the bal is twenty miles up the Isere valley. sobriety of even a Polybius—let alone a Having got so far, one would expect rhetorician like Livy. Nor can we him to continue in that valley to its well lay stress on the difficulties of the head, and cross the Little St. Bernard; descent as pointing to the Col du but no, he turns due east, strikes the Clapier more that any other Col. The Arc valley, and heads for the Col du difficulties described by Polybius and Clapier, a pass which apparently was not very commonly used. Meantime, what becomes of Livy and the passage 1 This white rock, I am told by Mr. Coolidge, is also on the route to the Petit Mont Cenis. u8 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW Livy read like the ordinary incidents of tried to cross.
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