21.38
Such,
in the main, was the way in which they reached Italy, five months, according
to some authorities, after leaving New Carthage, fifteen days of which were
spent in overcoming the difficulties of the Alps. The authorities are
hopelessly at variance as to the number of the troops with which Hannibal
entered Italy. The highest estimate assigns him 100,000 infantry and 20,000
cavalry; the lowest puts his strength at 20,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry. L.
Cincius Alimentus tells us that he was taken prisoner by Hannibal, and I
should be most inclined to accept his authority if he had not confused the
numbers by adding in the Gauls and Ligurians; if these are included there
were 80,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. It is, however, more probable that
these joined Hannibal in Italy, and some authorities actually assert this.
Cincius also states that he had heard Hannibal say that subsequently to his
passage of the Rhone he lost 36,000 men, besides an immense number of
horses and other animals. The first people he came to were the Taurini, a
semi-Garlic tribe. As tradition is unanimous on this point I am the more
surprised that a question should be raised as to what route Hannibal took
over the Alps, and that it should be generally supposed that he crossed over
the Poenine range, which is said to have derived its name from that
circumstance. Coelius asserts that he crossed by the Cremonian range. These
two passes, however, would not have brought him to the Taurini but
through the Salassi, a mountain tribe, to the Libuan Gauls. It is highly
improbable that those routes to Gaul were available at that time, and in any
case the Poenine route would have been closed by the semi-German tribes
who inhabited the district. And it is perfectly certain, if we accept their
authority, that the Seduni and Veragri, who inhabit that range, say that the
name of Poenine was not given to it from any passage of the Carthaginians
over it but from the deity Poeninus, whose shrine stands on the highest point
of the range.
