1The consul Publius Cornelius, about three days after Hannibal moved from the bank of the Rhône, had come to the enemy's camp with his army in battle order, intending to make no delay in fighting; 2but when he sees the fortifications deserted and that he would not easily overtake men who had gone so far ahead, he returned to the sea and his ships, intending to meet Hannibal more safely and easily in this way as he came down from the Alps. 3However, so that Spain, the province which had fallen to him by lot, should not be bare of Roman auxiliaries, he sent his brother Gnaeus Scipio with the greatest part of his forces against Hasdrubal, not only to protect old allies and win new ones but also to drive Hasdrubal out of Spain.
5He himself, with quite small forces, makes his way back to Genua, intending to defend Italy with the army that was around the Po. 6From the Durance, by a route mostly over level ground, Hannibal reached the Alps in complete peace with the Gauls who inhabit those parts. 7Then, although the thing had been anticipated by report, by which uncertain matters are usually exaggerated beyond the truth, yet, seen at close quarters, the height of the mountains and the snows almost mingling with the sky, the rude dwellings set upon the crags, the flocks and beasts of burden shrivelled with cold, the men unshorn and unkempt, all things living and lifeless stiff with frost, and everything else more hideous to see than to describe, renewed their terror.
8As they were leading the column up the first slopes, there appeared mountaineers occupying the heights that overhung them, who, if they had occupied the more hidden valleys, could have risen suddenly to the fight and caused huge rout and slaughter. 9Hannibal ordered the standards to halt; 9and having sent Gauls ahead to view the ground, when he learned that there was no way through there, he pitches camp in the widest valley he can find among surroundings all rugged and precipitous. 10Then, learning through these same Gauls, who differed little in language and customs and had mingled in the conversations of the mountaineers, that the pass was held only by day and that at night each slipped away to his own dwelling, at first light he went up towards the heights, as though intending to force his way through the defile openly and by day.
11Then, having spent the day pretending something other than what was being prepared, and having fortified a camp in the same place where they had halted, as soon as he perceived that the mountaineers had come down from the heights and the guards had been relaxed, he lit more fires for show than the number of those remaining required, left the baggage with the cavalry and the greater part of the infantry, and himself with the light-armed troops, all the bravest men, swiftly made his way through the defile and settled on those very heights which the enemy had held.