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Hannibal, when he perceived Scipio's change of position, broke up his

camp and took post on the Trebiola, a little stream running into the

Trebia and facing the Roman camp at a distance of four miles.

He was now powerless to prevent the junction of the two Roman armies,

and for nearly a month Scipio and Hannibal lay watching each other. By

that time Sempronius was within a day's march of Scipio. Hannibal

had not been idle during this time of rest. He had been occupied in

cementing his alliance with the Gaulish tribes inhabiting the Lombard

plains. These, seeing how rapidly Hannibal had cleared the province of

the Romans, believed that their deliverance would be accomplished, and

for the most part declared for the Carthaginians.

Hannibal's agents had also been at work at Clastidium, and the prefect

of the garrison was induced by a bribe to surrender the place to him.

This was of enormous advantage to Hannibal, and a corresponding blow

to the Romans, for Clastidium was the chief magazine north of the

Apennines. The news of the fall of this important place filled

Sempronius, an energetic and vigorous general, with fury. He at once

rode down from his camp to that of Scipio and proposed that Hannibal

should be attacked instantly.

Scipio, who was still suffering from the wound he had received in the

cavalry engagement, urged that the Roman army should remain where they

were, if necessary, through the coming winter. He pointed out that

Hannibal's Gaulish allies would lose heart at seeing him inactive, and

would cease to furnish him with supplies, and that he would be obliged

either to attack them at a disadvantage or to retire from the position

he occupied. But Sempronius was an ambitious man, the time for the

consular election was approaching, and he was unwilling to leave for his

successor the glory of crushing Hannibal.

The fact, too, that Scipio was wounded and unable to take part in the

battle added to his desire to force it on, since the whole glory of the

victory would be his. He therefore told his colleague that although he

saw the force of his arguments, public opinion in Rome was already so

excited at Hannibal having been allowed, without a battle, to wrest so

wide a territory from Rome, that it was absolutely necessary that an

action should be fought. The two armies were now united on the Trebia,

and opinion was among the officers and troops, as between the consuls,

widely divided as to the best course to be pursued.

Hannibal's spies among the natives kept him acquainted with what was

going on in the Roman camp, and he determined to provoke the Romans to

battle. He therefore despatched two thousand infantry and a thousand

cavalry to ravage the lands of some Gaulish allies of the Romans.

Sempronius sent off the greater part of his cavalry, with a thousand

light infantry, to drive back the Carthaginians.

In the fight which ensued the Romans were worsted. Still more furious,

Sempronius marched to support them with his army. Hannibal called in

his troops and drew them off before Sempronius would arrive. The

disappointment and rage of the Roman general were great, and Hannibal

felt that he could now bring on a battle when he would. He determined

to fight in the plain close to his own position. This was flat and bare,

and was traversed by the Trebiola. This stream ran between steep banks

below the level of the plain; its banks were covered with thick bushes

and reeds, and the narrow gap across the plain was scarce noticeable.

On the evening of the twenty-fifth of December Hannibal moved his army

out from the camp and formed up on the plain facing the Trebia,

ordering the corps commanded by his brother Mago to enter the bed of the

Trebiola, and to conceal themselves there until they received his orders

to attack. The position Mago occupied would bring him on the left rear

of an army which had crossed the Trebia, and was advancing to attack

the position taken up by Hannibal. Having thus prepared for the battle,

Hannibal proceeded to provoke it.

At daybreak on the twenty-sixth he despatched a strong body of horsemen

across the river. Crossing the Trebia partly by ford and partly by

swimming, the Carthaginian horse rode up to the palisade surrounding

the Roman camp, where, with insulting shouts and the hurling of their

javelins, they aroused the Roman soldiers from their slumber. This

insult had the desired effect, Sempronius rushed from his tent, furious

at what he deemed the insolence of the Carthaginians, and called his

troops to arms. With their accustomed discipline the Romans fell into

their ranks. The light cavalry first issued from the palisade, the

infantry followed, the heavy cavalry brought up the rear. The insulting

Numidians had already retired, but Sempronius was now determined to

bring on the battle. He marched down the river and crossed at a ford.

The water was intensely cold, the river was in flood, the ford waist

deep as the soldiers marched across it. Having gained the opposite bank,

the Roman general formed his army in order of battle. His infantry,

about forty-five thousand strong, was formed in three parallel lines;

the cavalry, five thousand strong, was on the flanks. The infantry

consisted of sixteen thousand Roman legionary or heavy infantry, and

six thousand light infantry. The Italian tribes, allied to Rome, had

supplied twenty thousand infantry; the remaining three thousand were

native allies. The infantry occupied a front of two and a half miles in

length; the cavalry extended a mile and a quarter on each flank. Thus

the Roman front of battle was five miles in extent.

Hannibal's force was inferior in strength; his infantry of the line were

twenty thousand strong. He had eight thousand light infantry and ten

thousand cavalry. The Carthaginian formation was much deeper than the

Roman, and Hannibal's line of battle was less than two miles long. In

front of it were the elephants, thirty-six in number, divided in pairs,

and placed in intervals of a hundred yards between each pair.

While the Romans, exposed to a bitterly cold wind, chilled to the bone

by their immersion in the stream, and having come breakfastless from

camp, were forming their long order of battle, Hannibal's troops,

gathered round blazing fires, were eating a hearty breakfast; after

which, in high spirits and confidence, they prepared for the fight.

Hannibal called the officers together and addressed them in stirring

words, which were repeated by them to the soldiers. The Roman

preparations had occupied a long time, and it was afternoon before

they advanced in order of battle. When within a short distance of the

Carthaginians they halted, and the trumpets and musical instruments on

both sides blew notes of defiance. Then the Carthaginian slingers

stole out between the ranks of their heavy infantry, passed between the

elephants, and commenced the battle.

Each of these men carried three slings, one of which was used for long

distances, another when nearer to the foe, the third when close at hand.

In action one of these slings was wound round the head, one round the

body, the third carried in hand. Their long distance missiles were

leaden bullets, and so skilful were they that it is said they could hit

with certainty the face of a foe standing at slinging distance.

Naked to the waist they advanced, and with their long distance slings

hurled the leaden bullets at the Roman infantry. When closer they

exchanged their slings and discharged from them egg shaped pebbles which

they had gathered from the bed of the Trebia. When within still closer

distance with the third slings they poured in volleys of much larger and

heavier stones, with such tremendous force that it seemed as though they

were sent from catapults. Against such a storm of missiles the Roman

skirmishers could make no stand, and were instantly driven back.

Their Cretan archers, after shooting away their arrows with but small

effect, for the strings had been damped in crossing the river, also fled

behind the heavy troops; and these in turn were exposed to the hail of

stones. Disorganized by this attack, the like of which they had never

experienced before, their helmets crushed in, their breastplates and

shields battered and dented, the front line of the Romans speedily

fell into confusion. Sempronius ordered up his war machines for casting

stones and javelins, but these too had been injured in their passage

across the river.

The hail of Carthaginian missiles continued until the Roman light

infantry were forced to fall back; and the slingers were then recalled,

and the heavy infantry of the two armies stood facing each other. The

Carthaginians took up close order, and, shoulder to shoulder, their

bodies covered with their shields, they advanced to meet the legions of

Rome. As they moved, their music--flute, harp, and lyre--rose on the

air in a military march, and keeping step the long line advanced with

perfect order and regularity. In the centre were the Carthaginian foot

soldiers and their African allies, clothed alike in a red tunic, with

helmet of bronze, steel cuirass and circular shield, and carrying,

besides their swords, pikes of twenty feet in length. On the left were

the Spaniards, in white tunics bordered with purple, with semicircular

shields four feet in length and thirty-two inches in width, armed with

long swords used either for cutting or thrusting.

On the left were the native allies, naked to the waist, armed with

shields and swords similar to those of the Gauls, save that the swords

were used only for cutting.

Sempronius brought up his second line to fill the intervals in the

first, and the Romans advanced with equal steadiness to the conflict;

but the much greater closeness of the Carthaginian formation served

them in good stead. They moved like a solid wall, their shields locked

closely together, and pressed steadily forward in spite of the desperate

efforts of the Roman centre in its more open order to resist them; for

each Roman soldier in battle was allowed the space of a man's width

between him and his comrade on either side, to allow him the free use of

his weapon. Two Carthaginians were therefore opposed to each Roman, in

addition to which the greater depth of the African formation gave them a

weight and impetus which was irresistible.

While this fight was going on the Numidian horsemen, ten thousand

strong, charged the Roman cavalry. These, much more lightly armed than

their opponents and inferior in numbers, were unable for a moment to

withstand the shock, and were at once driven from the field. Leaving the

elephants to pursue them and prevent them from rallying, the Numidian

horsemen turned and fell on the flanks of the long Roman line; while at

the same moment the Carthaginian slingers, issuing out again from behind

the main body, opened a tremendous fire with stones heated in furnaces

brought to the spot.

Although taken in flank, crushed under a storm of missiles, with their

cavalry defeated and their centre broken, the Romans fought steadily and

well. Hannibal now launched against their ranks the elephants attached

to the infantry, which, covered in steel armour and trumpeting loudly,

carried death and confusion into the Roman ranks. But still the legions

fought on obstinately and desperately until the sound of wild music

in their rear filled them with dismay, as Mago, with his division of

Numidian infantry, emerged from his hiding place and fell upon the

Romans from behind.

Struck with terror at the sudden appearance of these wild soldiers, of

whose ferocity they had heard so much, the Romans lost all heart and

strove now only to escape. But it was in vain. The Carthaginian infantry

were in their front, the cavalry on their flank, the Numidians in their

rear.

Some ten thousand Roman soldiers only, keeping in a solid body, cut

their way through the cavalry and reached Piacenza.

Thirty thousand were slaughtered on the plain. Many were drowned in

trying to swim the Trebia, and only the legion which had remained to

guard the camp, the broken remains of the cavalry, and the body which

had escaped from Piacenza remained of the fifty thousand men whom

Sempronius commanded.

The exultation of the victors was unbounded. The hitherto invincible

legions of Rome had been crushed. The way to Rome was clear before them.

All the fatigues and hardships they had undergone were forgotten in the

hour of triumph, and their native allies believed that their freedom

from Rome was now assured.

The verdict of great commanders of all ages has assigned to the battle

of the Trebia the glory of being the greatest military exploit ever

performed. The genius of Hannibal was shown not only in the plan of

battle and the disposition of his troops, but in the perfection with

which they were handled, in the movements which he had himself invented

and taught them, and the marvellous discipline with which he had

inculcated them.

Napoleon the First assigned to Hannibal the leading place among the

great generals of the world, and the Trebia was his masterpiece. But the

Carthaginians, exulting in their victory, did not gauge the extent

of the stubbornness and resources of Rome. Sempronius himself set the

example to his countrymen. At Piacenza he rallied the remnants of his

army, and wrote to Rome, saying that he had been victorious, but that a

sudden storm had saved the enemy from destruction.

The senate understood the truth, but acted in the spirit in which he had

written. They announced to the people that a victory had been won, and

ordered the consular election to take place as usual, at the same time

issuing orders to all parts of the Roman dominion for the enrolment of

fresh troops.

Hannibal attempted to surprise Piacenza, but Scipio issued out with his

cavalry and inflicted a check upon him, Hannibal himself being slightly

wounded. The Carthaginians then marched away and stormed the town of

Vicumve, and during their absence the two consuls evacuated Piacenza

and marched south. Scipio led his portion of the little army to Ariminum

(Rimini), Sempronius took his command to Arretium (Mezzo), where they