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Some Reflections on Hannibal's Pass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

Few historical problems have produced more unprofitable discussion than that of Hannibal's pass over the Alps. But if there is still no clear answer, some headway had at least been made in defining the question—which is half the battle. Kahrstedt put the matter as succinctly as anyone. ‘Mit Topographie ist nicht zum Ziele zu kommen, weisse Felsen and tiefe Schluchten, Flusstäler und steile Abhänge gibt es uberall. Das Problem ist literarhistorisch, nicht topographisch.’ Hence a feeling of dismay at finding the question reopened without, apparently, any realization of what sort of question it is. For in fact Sir Gavin de Beer's forthright and attractive little book, despite its ingenious attempt to introduce new kinds of evidence, never comes to grips with the fundamental issue—the relationship between Polybius' account and Livy's. This central question is dismissed with a fatal facility : ‘each account complements and supplies what was missing from the other ‘(p. 33). If one is to get anywhere with this problem one must treat it more seriously than that; and it may therefore perhaps be worth while, yet again, to reconsider the evidence and to indicate the limits within which the answer is to be sought (without any guarantee that it will necessarily be found). Such a survey can offer none of the ‘certainties’ or the excitement to be found in Alps and Elephants; it will propose no novelties; and if it is not to become unreadable, it had better avoid all but the most obvious and necessary references to a fantastically inflated modern literature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © F. W. Walbank 1956. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Kahrstedt, U., Geschichte der Karthager von 218–146 (Berlin, 1913), 181Google Scholar.

2 de Beer, G., Alps and Elephants (London: Bles, 1955, pp. XV + 123Google Scholar, with 14 figs, and a map). His theory has received wide publicity in various broadcasts, including a television programme on 12th June, 1956 which included a film of much of Hannibal's supposed route over the Col de Grimone and the Col de la Traversette.

3 For his account of the fight with the Gauls and the capture of the citadel de Beer (p. 54) quotes both Polyb. in, 51, 11, and Livy XXI, 33, II; he then continues: ‘on the following day Hannibal led his army in comparative safety. Livy: marching in open country, campestri maxime itinere,’ and his footnote gives a reference to Livy XXI, 32, 6. Only a reader who is following the argument with great attention will note that this second passage of Livy precedes the account of the seizure of the fortress, and refers to the section of the march ‘ab Druentia … ad Alpes’. In placing it without comment after the seizure of the fortress, de Beer is being perhaps less candid with his reader than his sharp criticism of his predecessors might lead one to expect.

4 Polyb. 111, 50, 1.

5 The point has often been made; see, for example, Meyer, Ed., Kleine Schriften, 11 (Halle, 1924), 413–14Google Scholar.

6 The problem of ‘peak flow’ is of course affected by one's view of the date Hannibal can be assumed to have been in this part of Gaul. Both Polyb. 11, 54, I, and Livy XXI, 35, 6, make the date when he was on the pass as ‘close on the setting of the Pleiades’; and the ‘morning-setting’ of the Pleiades was about 7th–9th November, as de Beer correctly states (pp. 100–103). But from the time of Hesiod (Works, 383 ff.) the setting of the Pleiades was an indication of the approach of winter; and it is possible in view of the reference in our sources to snow already gathering that this astronomical reference is not to be given too much weight. The first snow on the high passes can be expected towards the end of September, or indeed earlier. In 1947 the first snow was reported from Switzerland (2 ft. on the Furka Pass, 7,990 ft.) on 24th September; and Freshfield, , Hannibal Once More (London, 1914), 43 ff.Google Scholar, describes how in 1881 on the Col du Bonhomme the first snow fell on 15th August and the second a fortnight later (though this was probably exceptional). In our sources the astronomical reference is associated with the reference to the fall of snow, and may be derived erroneously from it: cf. Jullian, , Histoire de la Gaule, I, 487Google Scholar, n. 3; De Sanctis, , Storia dei Romani, III, 2, 79Google Scholar. The journey from New Carthage to the Po Valley took five months (Polyb. III, 56, 3; Livy, XXI, 38, 1); and though we are handicapped by having no clear indication of the date at which Hannibal set out, a start as late as early June (implied if he was on the pass early in November) would need some explanation. But if Hannibal was in Gaul in mid-September rather than the end of October, the rate of flow of the Durance ‘in its lower reaches’ would not, according to de Beer's graph, reach more than 350 cubic metres per second, compared with 750 at the end of October. The sceptic can of course argue that no graph necessarily covers the conditions of a particular year for which no independent records are available; and this is true for all arguments about the climatic conditions of 218 B.C.

7 Clouzot, E., Recueil des historiens de la France: Pouillés des provinces d'Aix, d'Aries et d'Embrun (Paris, 1923Google Scholar); Pouillés des provinces de Besançon, de Tarentaise et de Vienne (Paris, 1940Google Scholar).

8 De Beer (p. 37) acknowledges the existence of this century's gap in his argument, but dismisses it as unimportant, since ‘there is no record of any disturbance of the settled inhabitants of south-eastern Gaul in the second century B.C., and it may be safely concluded that the territories occupied by these tribes remained substantially the same’. But where would such a record survive ? Clearly this is an argumentum ex silentio, and not a very secure one.

9 Augusta Tricastinorum is identified with St. Paul-Trois-Châteaux by Desjardins, , Géographie de la Gaule romaine, II, 226Google Scholar, and by other scholars listed in Scherling, P-W, ‘Tricastini,’ col. 81. For the view that Noeomagus and Augusta Tricastinorum are both to be identified with Aoust-en-Diois see A. Berthelot, Rev. Ét. Anc., 1935, 203.

10 de Beer (p. 37) states that ‘Strabo said that the Vocontii were “above” the Cavari, and the Tricorii “above” the Vocontii’. This is a possible interpretation of what Strabo meant, but it is misleading as an account of what he said.

11 For this theory see Vallentin, F., Bull. epig. de la Gaule, 11, 219 ffGoogle Scholar. It gains support from the new fragments of the Arausio land register, which show that part of the territory of the colonia had been taken from (and restored to) the Tricastini; cf. A. Piganiol, CRAI, 1950, 62–3. This implies that Tricastinian land stretched south of the later diocese of St. Paul-Trois-Châteaux.

12 For the view that the change of direction ‘ad laeuam’ was immediately after the crossing of the Rhone in the original on which Livy drew see Kahrstedt, o.c., 149–150; De Sanctis, o.c., III, 2, 72.

13 For this hypothesis see O. Viedebantt, Hermes, 1919. 355–8; R. L. Dunbabin, Cl. Rev., 1931, 52 ff.

14 This would in any case involve the use by Livy of a third source, distinct from that which mentioned the names of the tribes, to explain how he came to get his reference to the Durance crossing after Hannibal had passed through their territory—a point not considered by Wilkinson, Spencer, Hannibal's March (Oxford, 1911), 21Google Scholar, who believes that the fording of the Durance described by Livy in reality took place near its junction with the Rhone.

15 See below, p. 41.

16 Osiander, W., Der Hanrdbalweg (Berlin, 1900), 74 ff.Google Scholar, thought it was the Drac; and others would make it the Drôme (Druna).

17 Silius followed Livy; Ammianus' immediate source is less clear. W. Sontheimer (Klio, 1926, 19–53) argued for Claudius Quadrigarius; but the verbal echoes suggest a direct use of Livy, and certainly exclude a Greek source like Timagenes. Ammianus (XV, 9, 2) mentions Timagenes as his source for the Gallic migrations: but this does not mean that he also followed him on Hannibal's Alpine crossing (as de Beer assumes, p. 34, n. 36).

18 Strabo, IV, 178–9; cf. Peut. Tab. and Anon. Rav. On the other hand, as de Beer observes (p. 26), the Antonine Itinerary and the Jerusalem Itinerary put the crossing at Fourques-Aries. This, for Hannibal, was open to the same objection as Tarascon-Beaucaire, but more so. It is the crossing adopted by de Beer (pp. 25–8), and by several of his predecessors; it is pertinently criticized by Fresh field, o.c., 62 ff.

19 Neither Polybius nor Livy contains any suggestion that Hannibal changed his original route; indeed Polyb. III, 47–8, implies that the journey was well-planned and reconnoitred. Nor will the provisioning of Hannibal's army in the ‘Island’ (Polyb. III, 49, 10–12; cf. Viedebantt, Hermes, 1919, 362) have been improvised overnight.

20 For this point see Jullian, o.c., 1, 464, n. 4; De Sanctis, o.c., in, 2, 70.

21 This takes the natural view that the ἀναβολὴ τῶν Ἄλπεων of Polyb. III, 39, 9, is identical with ἡ πρὸς τὰς Ἄλπεις ἀναβολή of Polyb. III, 50, I. Not all critics have accepted this: see for its defence Freshfield, o.c., 9–10.

22 At 8⅓ stades to the Roman mile, Polybius' stade measured 177·5 metres: de Beer, pp. 25–6.

23 From the confluence of the Aygues with the Rhone to Aries, where de Beer locates Hannibal's crossing is only 62 km.

24 For our present purpose nothing is gained by listing the various locations of this crossing, ranging from Aries to as far north as St. Etienne-des-Sorts, Pont-St. Esprit or Bourg-St. Andéol.

25 But the observation is not as novel as a hasty reading of de Beer's polemic might suggest. The readings of both sources are fully discussed by Spenser Wilkinson, o.c, 18–19, and by Torr, C., Hannibal crosses the Alps (Cambridge, 1925, edition 2), 710Google Scholar; the Oxford Livy, as de Beer himself admits, gives a perfectly clear account of the readings; and if Büttner-Wobst prints ᾗ δ᾽ Ἰσάρας (de Beer transliterates he d'Isaras, neglecting the iota subscript), it is only fair to take into account the first sentence of his introduction, which states that he regards this part of his work as ‘nihil aliud … nisi supplementa editionis Hultschianae’. Hultsch (to whose edition de Beer makes no reference) gives a fair account of the readings of the MSS of Polybius at the point in question.

26 The Aygues was also the choice of Fortia d'Urban (1821).

27 Logically the possibility exists that the same original source gave both names, and that one was followed by Polybius and the other by the line of descent which ended in Livy; but this seems too improbable to be worth mentioning except in a footnote.

28 See Nicol, J., The Historical and Geographical Sources used by Silius Italicus (Oxford, 1930), 129 ffGoogle Scholar.

29 See the comments of Ed. Meyer, o.c., 11, 413, n. 1.

30 o.c., 1, 474, n. 3.

31 Probably rather more, since Vienne was their capital.

32 The point is emphasized by de Beer, p. 60.

33 See also Pliny, NH III, 124Google Scholar.

34 This suggestion is that of Kahrstedt, o.c., 150, and it still seems the most plausible.

35 Livy XXI, 38, 5.

36 For the use of Silenus by Polybius and (via Coelius) by Livy see Kahrstedt, o.c., 148 ff.

37 His words are κατῆρε τολμηρῶς εἰς τὰ περὶ τὸν Πὰδον πεδία καὶ τὸ τῶν Ἰνσόμβρων ἔθνος (56, 3). The Insubres had their capital at Mediolanum, and per haps controlled several other peoples such as the Laevi and the Anares–which might explain why Ṗtolemy (III, 1, 29) reckons Ticinum, the capital of the Laevi, as an Insubrian town; see Philipp, P-W, ‘Insubres,’ col. 1590.

38 See De Sanctis, o.c., III, 2, 65.

39 Klotz, , Livius und seine Vorgänger (Berlin Leipzig, 19401941), 102Google Scholar, thinks Coelius conflated Silenus and Fabius.

40 The evidence from Servius, (ad Aen. X, 13Google Scholar) must be mentioned. If he has quoted Varro aright, Varro placed Hannibal's pass between the Corniche route and ‘the pass by which Pompey went to Spain’, which is no doubt the Mt. Genèvre. But the same passage distinguishes Hannibal's pass from Hasdrubal's, though Livy (XXVII, 39, 7) and Appian (Hann. VII, 52Google Scholar) both agree that Hasdrubal crossed by the same pass as his brother. Altogether, this passage—which may not necessarily be enumerating the passes in geographical order from south to north—is too obscure to help very much, especially as we do not know on what source Varro was drawing. See De Sanctis, o.c., in, 2, 65–6.

41 o.c., II, 411, n. 1.

42 The Historian's Craft (Manchester, 1954), 60Google Scholar.