21.34
They
now came to another canton which, considering that it was a mountain
district, had a considerable population. Here he narrowly escaped
destruction, not in fair and open fighting, but by the practices which he
himself employed -falsehood and treachery. The head men from the fortified
villages, men of advanced age, came as a deputation to the Carthaginian and
told him that they had been taught by the salutary example of other people's
misfortunes to seek the friendship of the Carthaginians rather than to feel
their strength. They were accordingly prepared to carry out his orders; he
would receive provisions and guides, and hostages as a guarantee of good
faith. Hannibal felt that he ought not to trust them blindly nor to meet their
offer with a flat refusal, in case they should become hostile. So he replied in
friendly terms, accepted the hostages whom they placed in his hands, made
use of the provisions with which they supplied him on the march, but
followed their guides with his army prepared for action, not at all as though
he were going through a peaceable or friendly country. The elephants and
cavalry were in front, he himself followed with the main body of the infantry,
keeping a sharp and anxious look-out in all directions. Just as they reached a
part of the pass where it narrowed and was overhung on one side by a wall
of rock, the barbarians sprang up from ambush on all sides and assailed the
column in front and rear, at close quarters, and at a distance by rolling huge
stones down on it. The heaviest attack was made in the rear, and as the
infantry faced round to meet it, it became quite obvious that if the rear of the
column had not been made exceptionally strong, a terrible disaster must have
occurred in that pass. As it was, they were in the greatest danger, and within
an ace of total destruction. For whilst Hannibal was hesitating whether to
send his infantry on into the narrow part of the pass -for whilst protecting
the rear of the cavalry they had no reserves to protect their own rear -the
mountaineers, making a flank charge, burst through the middle of the column
and held the pass so that Hannibal had to spend that one night without his
cavalry or his baggage.
