234 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



Cortona and Thrasimene, it was but natural that the first discoveries 

 of the bones of elephants should have given rise to the supposition 



beneath Arezzo, braving Flaminius, whom he left on his left : he then followed the 

 valley of Chiana, and awaited or rather attracted the Consul beyond Cortona, and 

 near to Thrasimene, at the point where the road begins to rise towards Perugia. 



This entire route is so simple, it corresponds so accurately with the testimony of 

 the historians, and the nature of the ground, that it is difficult to explain how ano- 

 ther could have been imagined. And yet this is what has come to pass. The causes 

 of these errors have been, 1st. The fault in the editing or copying of the passage we 

 have cited from Livy ; 2ndly. A serious mistake of Strabo ; 3rdly. The ignorance of 

 many authors with regard to the variations which have occurred at divers periods in 

 the boundaries of Liguria and Etruria. 



Cluvier (Ital. Ant. 1, 580) remarks ami demonstrates very successfully that the 

 words of Livy should be, a Fesulis profectus, instead of Fesulas petens ; and he grounds 

 this reading, as I have done, on the authority of Polybius. Hence it appears that 

 he had got at part of the truth ; but he suddenly takes it into his head to make Hanni- 

 bal approach Fesulae by way of Bologna, and accuses Cornelius Nepos of error, for 

 making him approach it through Liguria. The other road, mentioned as being 

 longer, more convenient, and better known, he supposes to be that of Rimini and 

 Umbria : he does not perceive that the road by Bologna was quite as well known, 

 and that there could not have been any marshes between Bologna and Fesulae, for 

 the whole route lies along the mountains. By his own fiat he creates marshes near 

 Florence : but in coming by that route Hannibal would have found them not before 

 but behind Fesulse, and their passage could not have occupied much time. 



The same objections hold good against Cini, Villani, and Scala, who make Han- 

 nibal march through Prato and Pistoia, and thus make him cross the Apennines 

 above Modena ; as also against Luc Holstenius, who makes him come by Forli and 

 descend into Tuscany by the Cazentin : and against Guazzesi, who makes him enter 

 by the same province, and by the ^neighbourhood of Bagno. We must certainly 

 admit, that selecting the road of Cazentin would allow us to retain the reading of 

 Livy, Lceva relicto hoste, Fcesulas petens (having left the enemy on his left, marching 

 on Fesula?) ; hut this is in itself an objection against this opinion, since this reading 

 is evidently spurious for other reasons, and since, from whatever direction Hannibal 

 had come, the word petens (marching on) will not be admissible : besides, he could 

 have found no marshes in the Cazentin : the Arno does not form any there — it is too 

 hilly a country. There is also an objection drawn from the military art against 

 this route, as well as that of Pistoia. By proceeding in that direction, Hannibal 

 would not only have prolonged his march, and would have been obliged to traverse 

 an immense extent of difficult country, but he would have exposed himself to the 

 danger of being attacked in flank or rear by Servilius, who was at Rimini, and whom 

 nothing could have prevented from overtaking the Carthaginians in a day or two. 



Unquestionably the reason why this variety of authors have not bit upon the short 

 and natural road, corresponding so exactly with the passages of Polybius, Livy, and 

 Nepos, which we have cited, is, that Hannibal was said to have crossed the marshes, 

 on his way into Etruria. They have thence concluded that these marshes must have 

 been outside Etruria, and that consequently they could not be the marshes of the 

 Arno ; hence they have sought them in Lombardy and on the Po. 



It appears that this was the opinion adopted by Strabo, for he says that in former 

 times there were marshes near Placentium and along the Po, which greatly em- 

 barrassed Hannibal on his road to Etruria. — Geography, book v. g. 217. 



Guazzesi was so much attached to this idea, tbat he was anxious at all hazards to 

 change the word Arnus, in Livy, into that of Eridanus or Padus, or even to suppress 

 it altogether, although he acknowledges that all the manuscripts he had examined, 

 or caused to be examined, agreed in giving Arnus. — Mem. of the Academy of Cor- 

 tona, n. vi. pp. 29, 30. 



But the solution of the difficulty was to be found in Polybius himself. We see by 

 his testimony that, at the epoch of which he speaks, Etruria only began at the 

 Arno. Polybius says expressly, that the Ligurians were in possession of the country 

 as far as Pisa, the first city of Etruria towards the West, and as far as the territory " 



