1The Gauls rush to meet them on the bank with various howls and songs after their custom, shaking their shields above their heads and brandishing spears in their right hands, although they were alarmed too by the huge number of ships opposite, with the immense roar of the river and the mingled shouting of sailors and soldiers, both of those who were struggling to break through the force of the current and of those who were cheering on their comrades from the other bank as they crossed; 3and as they were already sufficiently alarmed by the tumult in front, a more terrifying shout assailed them from behind, their camp having been taken by Hanno.
3Soon he himself was upon them, and terror surrounded them on both sides, as so great a force of armed men was landing from the ships and an unexpected battle line was pressing on them from behind. 4After the Gauls, having tried to use force in both directions, were being driven back, they break through where the way seemed most open and scatter in alarm to their villages in all directions. 4Hannibal, having taken the rest of his forces across at leisure, and now scorning the Gaulish tumults, pitches camp. 5I believe there were various plans for taking the elephants across; at any rate the tradition of how it was done varies.
5Some report that, when the elephants had been herded together on the bank, the fiercest of them, provoked by its driver, pursued him as he fled into the water and drew the herd after it, the very force of the river sweeping each one to the other bank as the bottom failed it, frightened at the depth. 6But it is more generally agreed that they were taken across on rafts; 6just as that plan would have been safer beforehand, so, now that the thing has been done, it is more readily believed. 7They extended from the land into the river one raft two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, and, after fastening it upstream to the bank by several strong cables so that it should not be carried downstream, they covered it like a bridge with earth thrown on, so that the beasts might step on boldly as if on solid ground; 8a second raft, equally wide and a hundred feet long, fit for crossing the river, was joined to this; 8then, when the elephants, driven along the fixed raft as along a road with the females going ahead, had passed onto the smaller raft attached to it, at once the ropes by which it was lightly fastened were loosed, and it is towed by several light vessels to the other bank.
10So, when the first had been landed, others were then fetched and taken across. 10They showed no alarm at all as long as they were being driven along what was, as it were, a continuous bridge; 10the first panic came when the raft was loosed from the rest and they were swept out into the stream; 11then, crowding against one another as those at the edges drew back from the water, they showed a good deal of alarm, until fear itself produced calm as they looked round at the water. 12Some even fell into the river in their frenzy; 12but, steadied by their very weight, after their drivers had been thrown off, feeling for the shallows step by step, they got out onto land.