The Length of Hannibal's March
At this period the Carthaginians were masters of the
The length of the march from Carthagena to the Po, 1125 Roman miles. |
whole Mediterranean coast of
Libya from the Altars of
Philaenus,
1 opposite the Great Syrtis, to the Pillars of Hercules,
a seaboard of over sixteen thousand stades. They had also
crossed the strait of the Pillars of Hercules, and got possession
of the whole seaboard of
Iberia on the Mediterranean as far as
the
Pyrenees, which separate the Iberes from the Celts—that
is, for a distance of about eight thousand stades: for it is
three thousand from the Pillars to New Carthage, from which
Hannibal started for
Italy; two thousand six hundred from
thence to the Iber; and from that river to
Emporium again sixteen hundred; from which
town, I may add, to the passage of the
Rhone
is a distance of about sixteen hundred stades:
for all these distances have now been carefully
measured by the Romans and marked with milestones at every
eighth stade.
2 After crossing the river there was a march up
stream along its bank of fourteen hundred stades, before reaching the foot of the pass over the
Alps into
Italy. The pass
itself was about twelve hundred stades, which being crossed
would bring him into the plains of the
Padus in
Italy. So
that the whole length of his march from New Carthage was about
nine thousand stades, or 1125 Roman miles. Of the country
he had thus to traverse he had already passed almost half in
mere distance, but in the difficulties the greater part of his
task was still before him.
Coss. P. Cornelius Scipio and Tib. Sempronius Longus. B. C. 218. The Consuls are sent, one to Spain, and the other to Africa. |