Free Hannibal by Ernle Bradford Page B

aygue (‘water’ in Provencal). The river’s name today is the Aygues. Its position alone, relative to the Rhône and the Baronnies, and at exactly the right distance from Hannibal’s crossing-place and the sea, seems to confirm that this is Polybius’ Skaras.
    On arrival at the ‘Island’, Hannibal found a great gathering of Gauls, divided into two parties and clearly on the point of taking arms against each other. Two brothers were in dispute as to the leadership of the tribe, and the elder (rather like a native chieftain appealing to some British general in a remote part of the world in the nineteenth century) came to Hannibal and asked him to resolve the issue. Having listened to the arguments, and carefully considered the rights and wrongs of the case, Hannibal pronounced in favour of the elder brother. Since it was clear that the weight of Hannibal’s army would be thrown on this side, the younger claimant was driven from the territory. The newly-confirmed chief now showed his gratitude to this dark-skinned leader of the strange foreign army by supplying him with corn and other provisions and, in particular, winter clothing and footwear which would be badly needed if they were set on crossing the Alps. Even more important, he provided Hannibal with a rearguard to protect the Carthaginians on their passage through the land ahead against attacks from the Allobroges, another tribe into whose territory they would be venturing as they made their way towards the foothills of the distant mountains.
    After three or four days in the ‘Island’, Hannibal continued to march ‘along the river’ for ten days. Although the accounts of Polybius and Livy regarding the approach to the Alps vary somewhat, Livy being far more explicit in naming details of tribes and places, the two historians agree on the basic route. Where Polybius says that they marched ‘along the river’, Livy says that Hannibal was now ready for the Alps but, instead of marching directly towards them, ‘he turned to the left….’
    Standing on the eastern bank of the Rhône and facing the Alps, the river descends from the north—that is to say, from the spectator’s left. There is no confusion here, although some commentators have found one. Livy detailed information about the tribes through whose lands he passed provides further clues. First, he came to ‘the country of the Tricastini, and thence proceeded through the outer territories of the Vocontii to the Tricorii….’ These tribal areas, as a distinguished French scholar, August Longnon, has shown, corresponded very closely to the dioceses of the early Christian church, which in their turn have changed little down to the present day. The Tricastini occupied the area north of the ‘Island’ along the Rhône bank, while the Vocontii were to the north-east in the area of the river Drôme, a tributary flowing into the Rhône from the Alps. It was almost certainly at the point where the Drôme enters the Rhône—where far in the blue distance the Alpes du Dauphine bar the horizon—that Hannibal turned east. The army still had its flank on the river, but this was now the clear swift-flowing, mountain-born Drôme.
    After ten days, about 140 kilometres since leaving the ‘Island’, the army began to leave the rich valley and the ascent of the Alps began. So long as they were in relatively open land, where the cavalry could deploy, the Allobroges, against whom they had been warned, had left them strictly alone. When the friendly Gauls who had been acting as their guides and escort turned back for home, the Allobroges began to collect more men and to post lookouts on the heights towards which the army was advancing. They waited for the moment when their mountaineer skills could be deployed against this sluggishly approaching giant.
     
    …The Allobrogian chieftains got together a considerable force and occupied advantageous positions on the road by which the Carthaginians would be obliged to