Liv. 21.30.1Itaque Hannibal, postquam ipsī sententia stetit pergere īre atque Ītaliam petere, advocātā contiōne mīlitum versat animōs castīgandō adhortandōque: mīrārī sē, quīnam pectora semper inpavida repēns terror invāserit.And so Hannibal, after he had himself resolved to press on and make for Italy, called an assembly of the soldiers and worked on their minds by rebuke and encouragement: he wondered, he said, what sudden terror had seized hearts that had always been fearless. Liv. 21.30.2Per tot annōs vincentīs eōs stīpendia facere neque ante Hispāniā excessisse, quam omnēs gentēsque et terrae, quās duo dīversa maria amplectantur, Carthāginiēnsium essent.For so many years they had served and been victorious, and had not left Spain before all the nations and lands embraced by the two opposite seas belonged to the Carthaginians. Liv. 21.30.3Indignātōs deinde, quod, quīcumque Saguntum obsēdissent, velut ob noxam sibi dedī postulāret populus Rōmānus, Hibērum trāiēcisse ad dēlendum nōmen Rōmānōrum līberandumque orbem terrārum.Then, indignant that the Roman people demanded that whoever had besieged Saguntum should be handed over to them as if for a crime, they had crossed the Ebro to blot out the name of the Romans and set the world free.
Liv. 21.30.4Tum nēminī vīsum id longum, cum ab occāsū sōlis ad exortus intenderent iter;Then no one had thought the journey long, although they were directing their march from the setting of the sun to its rising; Liv. 21.30.5nunc, postquam multō maiōrem partem itineris ēmēnsam cernant, Pȳrēnaeum saltum inter ferōcissimās gentēs superātum, Rhodanum, tantum amnem, tot mīlibus Gallōrum prohibentibus, domitā etiam ipsīus flūminis vī trāiectum, in cōnspectū Alpīs habeant, quārum alterum lātus Ītaliae sit, in ipsīs portīs hostium fatīgātōs subsistere — quid Alpīs aliud esse crēdentēs quam montium altitūdinēs?now, when they saw that much the greater part of the journey had been covered, the pass of the Pyrenees crossed among the fiercest nations, the Rhône, so great a river, crossed in spite of so many thousands of Gauls trying to prevent them, and the force of the river itself subdued, and when they had the Alps in sight, the other side of which was Italy, they were halting, worn out, at the very gates of the enemy — believing the Alps to be what else but high mountains?
Liv. 21.30.7Fingerent altiōrēs Pȳrēnaeī iugīs: nūllās profectō terrās caelum contingere nec inexsuperābilēs hūmānō generī esse.Suppose them higher than the ridges of the Pyrenees: surely no lands touched the sky or were impassable to the human race. Liv. 21.30.7Alpīs quidem habitārī, colī, gignere atque alere animantēs: perviās faucīs esse exercitibus.The Alps indeed were inhabited and cultivated, and bred and nourished living things: their passes could be travelled by armies. Liv. 21.30.8Eōs ipsōs, quōs cernant, lēgātōs nōn pinnīs sublīme ēlātōs Alpīs trānsgressōs.Those very envoys whom they saw had not crossed the Alps borne aloft on wings. Liv. 21.30.8Nē maiōrēs quidem eōrum indigenās, sed advenās Ītaliae cultōrēs hās ipsās Alpīs ingentibus saepe agminibus cum līberīs ac coniugibus migrantium modō tūtō trānsmīsisse.Not even their ancestors had been natives, but settlers, newcomers to Italy, who had often crossed these very Alps safely in huge columns with their children and wives in the manner of migrants. Liv. 21.30.9Mīlitī quidem armātō nihil sēcum praeter īnstrūmenta bellī portantī quid invium aut inexsuperābile esse?For an armed soldier, carrying nothing with him but the tools of war, what indeed was pathless or insurmountable? Liv. 21.30.9Saguntum ut caperētur, quid per octō mēnsēs perīculī, quid labōris exhaustum esse!To take Saguntum, what danger, what toil had been endured for eight months!
Liv. 21.30.10Rōmam, caput orbis terrārum, petentibus quicquam adeō asperum atque arduum vidērī, quod inceptum morētur?To men making for Rome, the capital of the world, could anything seem so rough and steep as to hold up their undertaking? Liv. 21.30.11Cēpisse quondam Gallōs ea, quae adīrī posse Poenus dēspēret.The Gauls had once captured places which the Carthaginian despaired of being able even to approach. Liv. 21.30.11Proinde aut cēderent animō atque virtūte gentī per eōs diēs totiēns ab sē victae aut itineris fīnem spērent campum interiacentem Tiberī ac moenibus Rōmānīs.So let them either yield in spirit and courage to a nation they had so often defeated in these days, or hope that the end of their journey was the plain lying between the Tiber and the walls of Rome.