orthern Italy with all his
forces, and take every means to check Hannibal there. Instead, he
sent most of his troops to Spain under his brother Gnaeus Scipio, and
himself, with but a few men, set sail for Pisae.

Meanwhile Hannibal hurried up the valley of the Rhone, across the Isara,
through the fertile country of the Allobroges, arriving, in sixteen
days from Avenio, at the pass of the first Alpine range (Mont du Chat).
Crossing this with some difficulty, owing to the nature of the country
and the resistance of the Celts, he hastened on through the country of
the Centrones, along the north bank of the Isara. As he was leaving this
river and approaching the pass of the Little St. Bernard, he was again
attacked by the Celts, and obliged to make the ascent amidst continual
and bloody encounters. After toiling a day and a night, however, the
army reached the summit of the pass. Here, on a table-land, his troops
were allowed a brief rest.

The hardships of the descent were fully as great, and the fertile
valley of the Po was a welcome sight to the half-famished and exhausted
soldiers. Here they encamped, in September, and recruited their wearied
energies.

This famous march of Hannibal from the Rhone lasted thirty-three days,
and cost him 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry.

The Romans were still unprepared to meet Hannibal. One army was in Spain
under Gnaeus Scipio; the other in Sicily, on its way to Africa, under
the Consul Sempronius. The only troops immediately available were a
few soldiers that had been left in the valley of the Po to restrain the
Gauls, who had recently shown signs of defection.

Publius Cornelius Scipio, upon his return from Massilia, took command of
these. He met Hannibal first in October, 218, near the river Ticinus,
a tributary of the Po. A cavalry skirmish followed, in which he was
wounded and rescued by his son, a lad of seventeen, afterwards the
famous Africanus. The Romans were discomfited, with considerable loss.

They then retreated, crossing the Po at Placentia, and destroying the
bridge behind them. Hannibal forded the river farther up, and marched
along its right bank until he reached its confluence with the Trebia,
opposite Placentia. Here he encamped.

Meanwhile Sempronius, who had been recalled from Sicily, relieved the
disabled Scipio.

Early one raw morning in December, 218, the vanguard of the
Carthaginians was ordered to cross the Trebia, and, as soon any
resistance was m