Just at the close of the first war, the Carthaginians had
established in Spain a city which took the name of New Carthage--that
is, New New City,--and had extended their dominion over much of that
country, as well as over most of the territory on the south shore of
the Mediterranean Sea. Hannibal laid siege to the independent city of
Saguntum, on the northeast of New Carthage, and, after several months
of desperate resistance, took it, thus throwing down the gauntlet to
Rome and completing the dominion of Carthage in that region (B.C. 218).
Rome sent ambassadors to Carthage, to ask reparation and the surrender
of Hannibal: but "War!" was the only response, and for seventeen years
a struggle of the most determined sort was carried on by Hannibal and
the Roman armies.
After wintering at New Carthage, Hannibal started for Italy with a
great army. He crossed the Pyrenees, went up the valley of the Rhone,
and then up the valley of the Is?re, and most probably crossed the Alps
by the Little St. Bernard pass. It was an enterprise of the greatest
magnitude to take an army of this size through a hostile country, over
high mountains, in an inclement season; but no difficulty daunted this
general. In five months he found himself in the valley of the Duria
(modern Dora Baltea), in Northern Italy, with a force of twenty
thousand foot and six thousand cavalry (the remains of the army of
ninety-four thousand that had left New Carthage), with which he
expected to conquer a country that counted its soldiers by the hundred
thousand.
Pages:
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170