History of Hannibal the Carthaginian Author:Jacob Abbott General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1878 Original Publisher: Harper Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select f... more »rom more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Difficulties anticipated. Keconnoitcring pirty Chapter IV. The Passage Of The Rhone. TTANNIBAL, after he had passed the Pyr- - -- - enees, did not anticipate any new difficulty till he should arrive at the Rhone. Ho knew very well that that was a broad and rapid river, and that he must cross it near its mouth, where the water was deep and the banks low; and, besides, it was not impossible that the Romans who were coming to meet him, under Cornelius Scipio, might have reached the Rhone before he should arrive there, and be ready upon the banks to dispute his passage He had sent forward, therefore, a small detachment in advance, to reconnoiter the country and select a route to the Rhone, and if they met with no difficulties to arrest them there, they were to go on till they reached the Alps, and explore the passages and denies through which his army could best cross those snow-covered mountains. It seems that before he reached the Pyrenees -- that is, while he was upon the Spanish side of Some Ir. bes reduced. Alarm of the Uaula them, some of the tribes through whose territories he had to pass undertook to resist him, and he, consequently, had to attack them and reduce them by force; and then, when he was ready to move on, lie left a guard in the territories thus conquered to keep them in subjection. Rumors of this reached Gaul. The G auls were alarmed for their own safety. They had not intended to oppose Hannibal so long as they supposed that he only wished for a safe passage through their country on his way to Italy; but now, when they found, from what had occurred in...« less