39. A letter which was brought out of Gaul from Lucius Porcius, the
praetor, increased the alarm at Rome. It stated that Hasdrubal had
quitted his winter quarters, and was now crossing the Alps; that eight
thousand Ligurians had been enlisted and armed, which would join him
when he had crossed over into Italy, unless some general were sent
into Liguria to engage them with a war. That he would himself advance
as far as he thought it safe with his small forces. This letter
obliged the consuls hastily to conclude the levy, and go earlier than
they had determined into their provinces, with the intention that each
should keep his enemy in his own province, and not allow them to form
a junction or concentrate their forces. This object was much aided by
an opinion possessed by Hannibal; for although he felt assured that
his brother would cross over into Italy that summer, yet when he
recollected what difficulties he had himself experienced through a
period of five months, first in crossing the Rhone, then the Alps,
contending against men, and the nature of the ground, he was far from
expecting that his transit would be so easy and expeditious, and this
was the cause of his moving more slowly from his winter quarters. But
all things were done by Hasdrubal with less delay and trouble than he
himself or any others expected. For the Arverni, and after them the
other Gallic and Alpine nations in succession, not only gave him a
friendly reception, but followed him to the war; and not only had
roads been formed during the passage of his brother in most of the
countries through which he marched, and which were before impassable,
but also as the Alps had been passable for a period of twelve years,
he marched through tribes of less ferocious dispositions. For
before that time, being never visited by foreigners, nor accustomed,
themselves, to see a stranger in their country, they were unsociable
to the whole human race. And at first, not knowing whither the
Carthaginian was going, they had imagined that their own rocks and