The Public Orator on the Battle of the Trebbia. 



229 



Trebbia," the object of which was to compare the different authori- 

 ties, and to illustrate them by a description of the neighbourhood of 

 Piacenza, which he had recently visited. He showed that Polybius's 

 narrative was the most valuable, as being in all probability the ori- 

 ginal source of all subsequent accounts, and as deriving an especial 

 interest from the author's personal knowledge of the localities. Livy 

 in the main followed Polybius, amplifying and varying the details 

 rather with a view to an effective and ornamented style than to the 

 actual truth of his statements. Some particulars, however, appeared, 

 in this part of his work as elsewhere, to have been borrowed from 

 L. Cincius Alimentus, or some other historian of the Second Punic 

 War. Cornelius Nepos, from his brevity, and Appian, from his in- 

 accuracy, were not worthy to be taken into account. No modern 

 historian appeared to have visited the place. The principal jioints 

 to be determined were (1) the situation of Scipio's camp after he 

 had abandoned his position in the immediate vicinity of Placentia, 

 and (2) the identification of the deep watercourse where Hannibal 

 placed Mago with two thousand men in ambush on the morning of 

 the battle. 



Scipio's camp was, beyond doubt, at or near Rivnlta, a castle and 

 hamlet situated on a ' high bank ' (as the name imports) on the 

 further side of the Trebbia, about nine miles south-west of Piacenza. 

 The ambuscade was placed in the watercourse called the Trebblola, 

 a small stream, of which the banks were from 6 to 8 feet high, about 

 six miles from Piacenza, above the place called ' La Volta di Settima.' 



The passages of Polybius, to which reference was made in the 

 lecture, are in Book III. chapters 66 sqq.; those of Livy, in Book 

 XXL chapters 47, 48, 52-55. 



The rude plan given below may make this abstract more intel- 

 ligible. 



Dec. 6 — " Suggestion of b proof of the 'I'heorcm that every Algc- 



