§21.58.1haud longi inde temporis, dum intolerabilia frigora erant, quies militi data est; §21.58.2et ad prima ac dubia signa veris profectus ex hibernis in Etruriam ducit, eam quoque gentem, sicut Gallos Liguresque, aut vi aut voluntate adiuncturus. §21.58.3transeuntem Appenninum adeo atrox adorta tempestas est, ut Alpium prope foeditatem superaverit.
After that, for only a short time, while the cold was unbearable, rest was given to the soldiers; and at the first and doubtful signs of spring, having set out from winter quarters, he led his army into Etruria, intending to win over that nation also, just as he had the Gauls and Ligurians, either by force or of their own free will. As he was crossing the Apennines, so fierce a storm assailed him that it almost surpassed the dreadfulness of the Alps.
vento mixtus imber cum ferretur in ipsa ora, primo, quia aut arma omittenda erant aut contra enitentes vertice intorti adfligebantur, constitere; §21.58.4dein, cum iam spiritum includeret nec reciprocare animam sineret, aversi a vento parumper consedere. §21.58.5tum vero ingenti sono caelum strepere et inter horrendos fragores micare ignes; capti auribus et oculis metu omnes torpere. §21.58.6tandem effuso imbre, cum eo magis accensa vis venti esset, ipso illo, quo deprensi erant, loco castra ponere necessarium visum est. §21.58.7id vero laboris velut de integro initium fuit: nam nec explicare quicquam nec statuere poterant nec, quod statutum esset, manebat omnia perscindente vento et rapiente. §21.58.8et mox aqua levata vento cum super gelida montium iuga concreta esset, tantum nivosae grandinis deiecit, ut omnibus omissis procumberent homines tegminibus suis magis obruti quam tecti; tantaque vis frigoris insecuta est, §21.58.9ut ex illa miserabili hominum iumentorumque strage cum se quisque attollere ac levare vellet, diu nequiret, quia torpentibus rigore nervis vix flectere artus poterant. §21.58.10deinde, ut tandem agitando sese movere ac recipere animos et raris locis ignis fieri est coeptus, ad alienam opem quisque inops tendere. §21.58.11biduum eo loco velut obsessi mansere.
When the rain mixed with wind was driven straight into their faces, at first they halted, because either their arms had to be dropped, or, if they struggled against it, they were whirled around by the tempest and dashed to the ground; then, when it now took away their breath and did not allow them to draw air, they turned away from the wind and sat down for a short while. Then indeed the heavens resounded with a mighty roar, and flashes of lightning gleamed amidst terrifying crashes; deprived of their hearing and sight, everyone was paralyzed with fear. At length, when the rain poured down and the force of the wind was thereby all the more excited, it seemed necessary to pitch camp on that very spot where they had been overtaken. But this was, as it were, a fresh beginning of their labor; for they could neither unfold nor pitch anything, nor did what had been pitched remain standing, since the wind was tearing everything to pieces and sweeping it away. And soon, when the water raised by the wind was frozen above the icy ridges of the mountains, it discharged such a quantity of snowy hail that, abandoning everything, the men fell prostrate, rather buried than protected by their own coverings; and so great a force of cold followed, that when anyone wished to raise and lift himself up from that miserable heap of men and beasts, for a long time he was unable, because, their muscles being numbed with the stiffening cold, they could scarcely bend their joints. Afterwards, when at length by shaking themselves they began to move and recover their spirits, and fires began to be made in a few places, each helpless man stretched out his hands toward the help of others. For two days they remained in that place as if besieged.
multi homines, multa iumenta, elephanti quoque ex iis, qui proelio ad Trebiam facto superfuerant, septem absumpti.
Many men, many beasts of burden, and also seven of the elephants that had survived the battle at the Trebia, perished.