1Then, so that delay and idleness should not unsettle their minds, he crosses the Pyrenees with the rest of his forces and pitches camp by the town of Iliberri. 2Although the Gauls heard that war was being carried into Italy, yet, because it was reported that the Spaniards across the Pyrenees had been subdued by force and strong garrisons imposed on them, several peoples, driven to arms by fear of slavery, gather at Ruscino. 3When this was reported to Hannibal, fearing delay more than war, he sent spokesmen to their chieftains to say that he wished to confer with them in person, and that either they should come nearer to Iliberri or he would advance to Ruscino, so that a meeting might be easier at close quarters: for he would gladly receive them in his camp and would come to them himself without hesitation.
4For he had come to Gaul as a guest, not as an enemy, and would not draw the sword, if the Gauls allowed it, before he had come into Italy. 5So much, indeed, through messengers; 5but when the Gaulish chieftains, moving their camp at once to Iliberri, came without reluctance to the Carthaginian, they were won over by gifts and let the army pass through their territory past the town of Ruscino in perfect peace.