aptains knew and shared it; and they and the men
were filled with a passionate love for and belief in their young
commander. Hannibal could make himself feared. The discipline in his
army was strict, though he never asked men to do or suffer what he would
not do or suffer himself. It was not through fear, however, that he made
men devoted to him. They followed him because they believed in him,
believed that he had a clear plan and the will to carry it through, and
because they loved him. He was the elder brother and companion of his
soldiers, and never forgot that they were men.

Three years after he had been made general in Spain Hannibal's plans
were complete. Everything was ready. He knew what he was going to do.
Suddenly he laid siege to Saguntum (219), a town in Spain allied to
Rome, and took it. This was a declaration of war on Rome. A few months
later news came to Rome; news which at first could hardly be believed.
Hannibal had left New Carthage, his great base in Spain, with a large
army. He had defeated the northern Spaniards and was preparing to cross
the Alps and descend on Italy. The Roman army sent to stop him on the
Rhone arrived too late to do so. But to cross the Alps with troops and
baggage when the winter snows were beginning to fall upon the mountain
passes and the streams were freezing into ice was believed to be
impossible: no army had ever done it. The paths were precipitous, at
places there were no tracks at all. Wild fighting tribes of Gauls held
the passes. There was no food: not even dry grass for the animals.
Fierce storms of hail and snow swept the mountain tops.

Nevertheless, before winter had fully set in Hannibal had brought his
army over. The losses of men and animals had been severe; but a thing
thought impossible had been done. The season was still early for
fighting: Hannibal could let his suffering troops rest in the fertile
North Italian plains. Livy describes the last stage of the journey:

_Hannibal's March: the Sight of the Promised Land_

On the ninth day they reached the crest of the Alps, pushing on
over trackless steeps, and sometimes compelled to retrace their
steps owing to the treachery of the guides or, where they were not
trusted, to the random choice of some route through a valley. For
two days they encamped on the top, and the soldiers, exhausted by
marching and fighting, were allowed to rest. A number of baggage
animals, too, that had slipped on t