Gauls near the Rhone and along the valley of the Po.
Many of these proved broken reeds at the time of trial, when their help
was most needed, and even turned into enemies, and Hannibal was too wise
not to have foreseen that this might happen. Still, for the moment all
seemed going as he wished; war was declared, and Rome made ready her
fleet for the attack by sea which she felt was certain to follow.

In our days of telephones and telegrams and wireless telegraphy, it is
very nearly _impossible_ for us to understand how an army of ninety
thousand foot, twelve thousand horse, and thirty-seven elephants could
go right through Spain from Carthagena in the south-east to the Pyrenees
in the north, and even beyond them, without a whisper of the fact
reaching an enemy across the sea. Yet this is what actually occurred.
Rome sent a large force under one consul into Sicily, the troops were
later to embark for Carthage, another to the Po to hold the Gauls in
check, while a third, under Publius Scipio, was shortly to sail for
Spain and there give battle to the Carthaginians. That Hannibal was
fighting his way desperately through Catalonia at that very moment they
had not the remotest idea.

* * * * *

Not only did Hannibal lose many of his men in Catalonia, but he was
obliged to leave a large body behind, under Hanno, his general, to
prevent the Catalans rising behind him, and cutting off his
communications with Spain.

The Pyrenees were crossed near the sea without difficulty, and for a
time the march was easy and rapid along the great Roman road as far as
Nismes, and then on to the Rhone between Orange and Avignon. By this
time the consul, Publius Scipio, who had been prevented for some reason
from going earlier to Spain, and was now sailing along the gulf of Genoa
on his way thither, heard at Marseilles that Hannibal was advancing
towards the river Rhone. The Roman listened to the news with incredulity
and little alarm. How could Hannibal have got over the Pyrenees and he
not know it? A second messenger arrived with the same tale as the first,
but Scipio still refused to believe there was any danger. Why, the late
rains had so swollen the river that it was now in high flood, and how
could any army ford a stream so broad and so rapid? And if it _did_, had
not the envoy said that some Gallic troops were drawn up on the other
side to prevent the enemy landing? So Scipio disembarked his troops in