Carthaginian moved his army of fifty thousand men together with cavalry and elephants up to a suitable crossing-place before any news reached the Consul in Massilia. Hannibal’s forces now came into an area inhabited by a tribe called the Volcae, who seem to have been in command of both banks of the Rhône and clearly made a large part of their living out of transporting goods and people from one side to the other. The Volcae who were on the western bank, either unable or unwilling to leave their homes and their boat-building activities, were to provide the answer to Hannibal’s transportation problems. But the majority of the tribe, seeing in the arrival of this large foreign army a threat to their liberties, had gathered on the eastern side and, using the Rhône as their moat, were preparing to give battle. Four days’ march from the sea, as Polybius tells us, ‘the stream is single’. At about sixty kilometres lies Fourques, where the river is indeed single, wide and smooth-flowing to this day (although the Rhône has changed considerably since the great dam was built at Donzères), and very probably, to judge from the lie of the land around, always with a gentle approach from the western banks.
It is possible that echoes of Sosilos (Hannibal’s Greek tutor) who later wrote his life, or of another Greek, Silenos, who accompanied him on the march and whose account was translated into Latin, may be found in Polybius. Certainly there is an eye-witness feel about some of the passages describing the Rhône crossing:
Doing his best to make friends with the inhabitants of the bank, he bought up all their canoes and boats—a considerable number since many of the people on the banks of the Rhône engage in maritime traffic. He also got from them logs suitable for making canoes, so that in two days he had a very large number of ferry boats, every one doing his best to dispense with any assistance and relying on himself for his chance of getting across.
Meanwhile, a great number of Gauls had gathered on the opposite bank and it was clear that their army would never be able to land in face of such determined opposition. The problem of transporting fifty thousand infantrymen and nine thousand horses and their riders-let alone thirty-seven elephants—would have been daunting enough in itself, but to get them over in face of a hostile force would have been almost impossible. On the third night, having carefully weighed up the situation, Hannibal called for Hanno, a fellow nobleman and son of the suffete Bomilcar, and put him in command of part of the army. These troops were mostly Spaniards, the reason they were chosen being that the Spaniards were the best swimmers. Their task was to cross the Rhône at some suitable point to the north and remain concealed.
‘Advancing up the bank of the river for two hundred stades [about thirty-five kilometres] they reached a place at which the stream divides, forming an island, and here they stopped.’ They used timber ready to hand to make rafts and made the crossing safely. There was no opposition, for the Gauls, too preoccupied with the army that was facing them down the river, had omitted to post any scouts or lookouts beyond their camp. (As Hannibal had no doubt already discovered, the Gauls were brave in battle but unskilled in even the rudiments of warfare’s disciplines.) Polybius continues: ‘Occupying a post of some natural strength, they remained there for that day to rest after their exertions and at the same time to prepare for the movement which they had been ordered to execute.’
Hannibal had calculated that on the morning of the sixth day the army would be ready at the crossing-point. The fifth night, therefore, was devoted to getting all the boats into place for the assault. His attention to detail in this amphibious landing is shown by the fact that, although the transport had been swiftly assembled, much of it made on the spot, and under the view of the
It is possible that echoes of Sosilos (Hannibal’s Greek tutor) who later wrote his life, or of another Greek, Silenos, who accompanied him on the march and whose account was translated into Latin, may be found in Polybius. Certainly there is an eye-witness feel about some of the passages describing the Rhône crossing:
Doing his best to make friends with the inhabitants of the bank, he bought up all their canoes and boats—a considerable number since many of the people on the banks of the Rhône engage in maritime traffic. He also got from them logs suitable for making canoes, so that in two days he had a very large number of ferry boats, every one doing his best to dispense with any assistance and relying on himself for his chance of getting across.
Meanwhile, a great number of Gauls had gathered on the opposite bank and it was clear that their army would never be able to land in face of such determined opposition. The problem of transporting fifty thousand infantrymen and nine thousand horses and their riders-let alone thirty-seven elephants—would have been daunting enough in itself, but to get them over in face of a hostile force would have been almost impossible. On the third night, having carefully weighed up the situation, Hannibal called for Hanno, a fellow nobleman and son of the suffete Bomilcar, and put him in command of part of the army. These troops were mostly Spaniards, the reason they were chosen being that the Spaniards were the best swimmers. Their task was to cross the Rhône at some suitable point to the north and remain concealed.
‘Advancing up the bank of the river for two hundred stades [about thirty-five kilometres] they reached a place at which the stream divides, forming an island, and here they stopped.’ They used timber ready to hand to make rafts and made the crossing safely. There was no opposition, for the Gauls, too preoccupied with the army that was facing them down the river, had omitted to post any scouts or lookouts beyond their camp. (As Hannibal had no doubt already discovered, the Gauls were brave in battle but unskilled in even the rudiments of warfare’s disciplines.) Polybius continues: ‘Occupying a post of some natural strength, they remained there for that day to rest after their exertions and at the same time to prepare for the movement which they had been ordered to execute.’
Hannibal had calculated that on the morning of the sixth day the army would be ready at the crossing-point. The fifth night, therefore, was devoted to getting all the boats into place for the assault. His attention to detail in this amphibious landing is shown by the fact that, although the transport had been swiftly assembled, much of it made on the spot, and under the view of the
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