§21.35.1postero die iam segnius intercursantibus barbaris iunctae copiae, saltusque haud sine clade, maiore tamen iumentorum quam hominum pernicie, superatus. §21.35.2inde montani pauciores iam et latrocinii magis quam belli more concursabant modo in primum modo in novissimum agmen, utcumque aut locus opportunitatem daret aut progressi morative aliquam occasionem fecissent. §21.35.3elephanti sicut per artas praecipitesque vias magna mora agebantur, ita tutum ab hostibus, quacumque incederent, quia insuetis adeundi propius metus erat, agmen praebebant. §21.35.4nono die in iugum Alpium perventum est per invia pleraque et errores, quos aut ducentium fraus aut, ubi fides iis non esset, temere initae valles a coniectantibus iter faciebant. §21.35.5biduum in iugo stativa habita, fessisque labore ac pugnando quies data militibus; iumentaque aliquot, quae prolapsa in rupibus erant, sequendo vestigia agminis in castra pervenere. §21.35.6fessis taedio tot malorum nivis etiam casus occidente iam sidere Vergiliarum ingentem terrorem adiecit. §21.35.7per omnia nive oppleta cum signis prima luce motis segniter agmen incederet, pigritiaque et desperatio in omnium vultu emineret, §21.35.8praegressus signa Hannibal in promunturio quodam, unde longe ac late prospectus erat, consistere iussis militibus Italiam ostentat subiectosque Alpinis montibus Circumpadanos campos, §21.35.9moeniaque eos tum transcendere non Italiae modo sed etiam urbis Romanae; cetera plana, proclivia fore; uno aut summum altero proelio arcem et caput Italiae in manu ac potestate habituros. §21.35.10procedere inde agmen coepit iam nihil ne hostibus quidem praeter parva furta per occasionem temptantibus. §21.35.11ceterum iter multo, quam in ascensu fuerat, ut pleraque Alpium ab Italia sicut breviora ita adrectiora sunt, difficilius fuit.
\nOn the following day, as the barbarians now attacked more sluggishly, the forces were united, and the pass was surmounted, not without loss, though with greater destruction of beasts of burden than of men.\n\nFrom that point the mountaineers, fewer in number and behaving more like brigands than warriors, attacked now the vanguard, now the rearguard, whenever either the ground offered an opportunity or those who had gone ahead or lagged behind had created some opening.\n\nWhile the elephants were driven with great delay through the narrow and steep paths, yet wherever they went they rendered the column safe from the enemy, because those unaccustomed to them were afraid of approaching closer.\n\nOn the ninth day they reached the summit of the Alps, after traveling for the most part through trackless wastes and detours, which were caused either by the treachery of their guides or, when they were not trusted, by valleys entered at random by those trying to guess the route.\n\nFor two days they remained encamped on the summit, and rest was given to the soldiers who were exhausted by toil and fighting; several beasts of burden, too, which had fallen among the rocks, reached the camp by following the tracks of the column.\n\nTo the men, already exhausted by the weariness of so many miseries, a fall of snow—the constellation of the Pleiades being now near its setting—added an immense terror.\n\nWhen, at dawn, the standards having been moved, the column marched slowly through places completely covered with snow, and languor and despair were conspicuous on every face,\n\nHannibal, having gone ahead of the standards, ordered the soldiers to halt on a certain prominence, from which there was a view far and wide, and pointed out Italy and the plains around the Po lying beneath the Alpine mountains,\n\ntelling them that they were then scaling the walls not of Italy only, but even of the Roman city; that the rest of their way would be smooth and downhill; and that after one or at most a second battle, they would have the citadel and capital of Italy in their hand and power.\n\nFrom there the column began to advance, with not even the enemy attempting anything further except small, opportunistic thefts.\n\nBut the descent was much more difficult than the ascent had been, as most of the slopes of the Alps on the Italian side, just as they are shorter, so are they steeper.
omnis enim ferme via praeceps, angusta, §21.35.12lubrica erat, ut neque sustinere se ab lapsu possent nec, qui paulum titubassent, haerere adfixi vestigio suo, aliique super alios et iumenta in homines occiderent.
For almost the entire path was steep, narrow,\n\nand slippery, so that they could neither prevent themselves from slipping, nor could those who stumbled even slightly keep their foothold, and they fell one over another, and the beasts of burden fell upon the men.