1Next day, with the barbarians now darting in between less vigorously, the forces were reunited, and the pass was got over, not without loss, but with greater destruction of pack animals than of men. 2After that the mountaineers, fewer now and more in the manner of brigands than of soldiers, kept making raids now on the van, now on the rear, whenever either the ground gave them an advantage or those who pressed ahead or lagged behind offered some opportunity. 3The elephants, while they were driven with great delay along the narrow and steep roads, nevertheless made the column safe from the enemy wherever they went, because men unused to them were afraid to come too close.
4On the ninth day they reached the summit of the Alps, mostly through trackless country and by wanderings which were caused either by the treachery of the guides or, when these were not trusted, by valleys entered at random by men guessing at the route. 5For two days they kept a standing camp on the summit, and rest was given to the soldiers, worn out with toil and fighting; 5and a number of pack animals which had slipped among the rocks reached the camp by following the tracks of the column. 6Upon men weary and sick of so many hardships a fall of snow too, as the constellation of the Pleiades was now setting, added great terror.
7When the standards had been moved at first light and the column was advancing sluggishly through a landscape everywhere filled with snow, and listlessness and despair showed on every face, Hannibal went on ahead of the standards and, on a certain headland from which there was a wide and distant view, ordered the soldiers to halt and showed them Italy and the plains around the Po lying beneath the Alpine mountains, and told them that they were now climbing over the walls not of Italy alone but of the city of Rome too; 9that the rest would be level or downhill; 9with one battle, or at most two, they would have the citadel and capital of Italy in their hands and in their power.
10The column then began to advance, with even the enemy now attempting nothing beyond petty thefts when chance offered. 11But the route was much more difficult than it had been on the ascent, since most parts of the Alps, on the Italian side, are steeper just as they are shorter. 11For almost the whole way was sheer, narrow and slippery, so that they could neither keep themselves from slipping nor, if they stumbled even slightly, stay fixed in their footing, and they fell one upon another, and pack animals upon men.