232 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRl'PEDS. 



and traversed the whole extent of the valley of the Arno, on his march 

 against the Consul Flaminius, who was posted at Arezzo, as he halted 



Arezzo, while his colleague, Servilius, marched through Umbria, to take up his po- 

 sition at Rimini." 



The unfriendly disposition of the Gauls having induced Hannibal to quit his winter 

 quarters at the earliest period possible, he made the most diligent inquiries concern- 

 ing the rnads that might conduct him into the enemy's country. He learned " that 

 they were long, and well known to the Romans, w ith the exception of one leading 

 into Etruria, across some marshes. The passage, indeed, was difficult, but short, and 

 ■well calculated to strike Flaminius with astonishment on account of the singularity 

 of the enterprize." He determined upon taking it. This resolution alarmed his 

 followers, " who shrunk in dismay from the gulphs of the swamps and lakes that lay 

 before them." 



Polybius then proceeds to describe, in his seventy-ninth chapter, the order in which 

 Hannibal effected this passage, and the sufferings that both he and his army had to 

 endure during its continuance. "At length," continues he, " having in defiance of 

 all calculations succeeded in traversing the marshes, Hannibal received information 

 that Flaminius was posted at Arezzo. He encamped on the first dry spot that pre- 

 sented itself, in order to rest his troops and to reconnoitre the plans of the enemy. 

 Observing that the country around him was rich, and, being informed of the weak 

 character and mean capacity of Flaminius, he judged that if he passed him by, as if 

 he were bent on some more distant enterprise, the Consul would find himself unable 

 to resist the railleries and reproaches of his soldiers, and that, without waiting for 

 the junction of his colleague, he would determine upon pursuing the Carthaginians 

 into some position to which it was their object to attract him. In fact," continues 

 Polybius in his eighty-third chapter, " as soon as Hannibal had left his camp near Fe- 

 sulae, and had passed by the Roman army, Flaminius, fancying himself despised by 

 the Carthaginians, began to exhibit symptoms of irritation : when he beheld the de- 

 solation they were causing by ravaging and burning every thing in their path, he 

 could no longer restrain himself; and heedless of the remonstrances of his officers, 

 that he should wait for the junction of his colleague, he hurried forward against Han- 

 nibal. The latter had his left covered by Cortona, and his right by the lake of Thrasi- 

 mene, and the more to inflame the anger of Flaminius, he carried his devastations to 

 the extreme. At length, observing the approach of the Consul, he suddenly wheeled 

 about to receive him." 



It was there, between the lake and the hills that run almost down to it, that he 

 gained that sanguinary victory. 



It is clear then, that, after the battle of Trebbia, Hannibal entered Etruria, by tra- 

 versing a very swampy country. That, on his emerging from the marshes, he en- 

 camped near ^Fesulee. That he then passed by the Romans, who were stationed 

 near Arezzo, and took up his position between Cortona and Thrasimene. 



These last two portions of his route are clear beyond all doubt. From Fesulee to 

 Arezzo he must necessarily have passed along the upper valley of the Arno ; and 

 from the neighbourhood of Arezzo to that of Cortona, he must have followed the 

 valley of the Chiana. 



Eut by what road did he reach Fesula? ? Where are the marshes he traversed, and 

 in what quarter did he cross the Apennines ? 



These are questions upon which people have not as yet been able to agree, and for 

 which I think I have found a satisfactory solution. 



In fact, to arrive at this result, I think it is only necessary to fill the chasms left 

 in the narrative of Polybius by the additional matter furnished by Livy and Corne- 

 lius Nepos. 



Livy has been accused of being nothing more than a copyist of Polybius ; time it is 

 that almost throughout he translates him word for word ; but he must assuredly 

 have consulted other chronicles, for he fills up the outline of the Greek historian with 

 many important circumstances evidently true, as their connexion with the whole 

 proves beyond all doubt. 



After giving an account, in the fifty-seventh chapter of his twenty-first book, of 



