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Note on Polybius III. 47–50, and Livy XXI. 31, 32 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 Note on Polybius III. 47–50, and Livy XXI. 31, 32 Spenser Wilkinson The Classical Review / Volume 28 / Issue 04 / June 1914, pp 123 - 126 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00007186, Published online: 27 October 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00007186 How to cite this article: Spenser Wilkinson (1914). Note on Polybius III. 47–50, and Livy XXI. 31, 32. The Classical Review, 28, pp 123-126 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00007186 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 09 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 123 NOTE ON POLYBIUS III. 47-50, AND LIVY XXI. 31, 32. THE question of Hannibal's route pains with which Hannibal had studied through the Alps depends in part upon the country in advance and planned his the interpretation of Polybius III. 47-50, march, ending with the statement that and of Livy XXL, 31 and 32. 1 gave Polybius had himself followed and ex- in 1911 an account of the route, which amined Hannibal's route. He has already seems to me best to accord with the said in 36 that in describing a country narratives of Polybius and Livy, and I unknown to his readers he will not give propose now to supplement it by a close the names of places, rivers, and towns examination of the ancient description which will convey no meaning to them, of one part of the route. I assume that but will find other means of making the the words of Polybius 42. 1, evOea>$reality intelligible. Polybius, returning ive%eipei TroieZaOai TTJV 8id/3a<7iv Kara to his story, in which he had left rfjv airXrjv pvaiv, imply that the cross- Hannibal starting up the Rhone, de- ing of the Rhone took place about scribes Scipio's arrival at the empty Fourques, just above the head of the camp, his surprise at Hannibal's new Delta. I think that the words <7%eSoi> direction and his return to the sea. •f/fiepwv TBTTcLpcov 6Bbv airej^atv aTparo- Hannibal, in four days from the cross- ire8q> T??? 8aXaTrr)<; cannot be intendeindg of the Rhone, reached the place to convey an exact distance, and are an called the Island, populous and corn anticipatory reference to the four days growing, in the angle formed by the on the first of which Scipio left his fleet course of the Rhone with that of a tribu- to reach Hannibal's empty camp on the tary called Skaras, its third side being fourth. When his infantry and cavalry formed by impracticable mountains. had crossed the Rhone Hannibal as- The words show that Polybius did not sembled the army and made a speech. suppose his readers acquainted with the Next day, while he was getting the names Island and Skaras, but that he elephants across the Rhone, he set his had been struck by the resemblance be- infantry in march and then followed tween the shape and size of the Island, with the elephants as rear-guard, moving and that of the part of Egypt called the beside the river eastwards away from Delta, and that this analogy would the sea towards Central Europe. enable them to identify it. The analogy Here Polybius describes the Rhone suggests that Polybius is referring to the and the Alps. The Rhone flowed west- Rhone and the Durance, which enclose wards through a defile, of which the between them an area approximating in south side was formed by the northern size to the Delta, though what he says slope of the Alps, whose mass lies be- of the population and fertility of the tween the Rhone Valley and the plain island can be applied only to a small of the Po. Hannibal's route took him part of this area. through these Alps, from the Rhone If Hannibal marched from Fourques Valley to Italy. In 39 Polybius has up the Rhone he must have crossed the divided the journey into stages: the Durance. The other tributaries of the second from the crossing of the Rhone, Rhone are of no great importance—the along that river to the ascent of the Sorgues, the Ouveze, the Eygues, and Alps towards Italy, 1,400 stadia (154 the Drome. The country enclosed by miles), and the third the passage of the any one of them and the Rhone is too Alps, 1,200 stadia (132 miles). This small to be compared with the Delta. I means that Hannibal marched 154 miles think anyone reading Polybius without along the Rhone Valley, the avXmv, that preconceptions, and looking for his when he left the av\a>v he was entering island on a map of France, would sup- the Alps, and that the 132 miles are the pose he was giving a general description distance by his route from the Alpine of the course of the Durance with refer- edge of that valley to the entrance to ence to the Rhone. Polybius does not the plain of the Po. mention the distance from the camp by Then comes a digression on the the Rhone to the Skaras or the Island. I24 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW He says that after four days Hannibal Accordingly the 1,400 stadia from the came to the island, but gives no indica- Rhone to the first battlefield, which is tion of distance. We have to consider at the beginning of the Alps, are not to the conditions. Hannibal had 38,000 be divided into 800 for the ten days' infantry, 8,000 horse, a number of ele- march and 600 for the distance from the phants and a great mule-train. The crossing of the Rhone to the Island. infantry and cavalry alone in the most The difference between 1,400 and 800 perfect modern order would form a must be divided between the four days column sixteen miles long, which with before the Island and the two days the elephants and mules would be twenty before the battle. Up to the battle miles long. It would take the infantry Hannibal is moving in the Rhone Valley alone between five and six hours to (avka>v). The battle takes place at the march across London Bridge and twice point where the army enters the Alps, the that time to ford a river, where the pace mass of mountains between the Rhone must be much reduced. I infer that the Valley and Italy. The two previous days whole army could not have forded the are spent in the approach to the difficult Durance in one day. But the Durance ground. at its nearest point is at least eighteen Recapitulating this narrative of Poly- miles from Fourques, and there is no bius, I think it means that from a point reason to suppose that the ford was at not far north of the Durance Hannibal the nearest point. I see no difficulty in marched his infantry along the easiest supposing that Hannibal would spend ground near the bank of the Rhone, four days in moving his army from that his cavalry guarded its right flank, Fourques to the north bank of the and that the troops of the native chiefs Durance, and much in supposing that marched on the right of the cavalry as a in that time he could have reached a flank guard against attacks from the point more than twenty miles north of tribes in the hills. This native flank that river. Once in the Island, Hannibal guard was withdrawn when the army sided with the elder of two brothers, was near Valence, and Hannibal entered who were quarrelling as to the kingship, the narrow country between the Isere secured him the supremacy, and conse- and the mountains. quently obtained from him supplies and I now propose to examine Livy's new arms for his troops and an alliance account of this part of the journey. against the Allobroges, whose resistance After crossing the Rhone Hannibal he expected to meet further north. assembles the army and makes a speech. Accordingly there was no opposition to Next day he sets out for Mediterranea his march until he approached the route Galliae (&>? ei? TTJV fieaoyaiav T?)? Ei/pairr)? through the Alps. From the Island he as Polybius writes), not thinking it the marched eighty-eight miles in ten days, more direct route to the Alps, but that meeting with no opposition from the the further he went away from the sea local chiefs of the Allobroges, who feared the less likely he would be to be impeded his cavalry and the native allies. But by Scipio, with whom he had no mind the native allies went home as Hannibal to fight until he reached Italy. His was approaching the difficult ground, fourth camp was in the Island, formed where the Allobroges assembled an army by the confluence of two Alpine rivers, to resist him and occupied a position the Rhone and the Saras, which rise in which could not be turned. Hannibal, .the Alps at a distance from one another on finding the enemy in the hills, halted and embrace a good deal of country in and had a reconnaissance made; he the interval between them. then advanced to a second camping- ground, from which he sent forward a Livy gives the same account as Poly- body of the troops to seize the enemy's bius of the events in the island, but he position in the night.
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