ey must,
therefore, either yield in spirit and valour to that nation which they
had so often during those times overcome; or look forward, as the end
of their journey, to the plain which spreads between the Tiber and the
walls of Rome."

31. He orders them, roused by these exhortations, to refresh
themselves and prepare for the journey. Next day, proceeding upward
along the bank of the Rhone, he makes for the inland part of Gaul: not
because it was the more direct route to the Alps, but believing that
the farther he retired from the sea, the Romans would be less in his
way; with whom, before he arrived in Italy, he had no intention of
engaging. After four days' march he came to the Island: there the
streams of the Arar and the Rhone, flowing down from different
branches of the Alps, after embracing a pretty large tract of country,
flow into one. The name of the Island is given to the plains that lie
between them. The Allobroges dwell near, a nation even in those days
inferior to none in Gaul in power and fame. They were at that time at
variance. Two brothers were contending for the sovereignty. The elder,
named Brancus, who had before been king, was driven out by his younger
brother and a party of the younger men, who, inferior in right, had
more of power. When the decision of this quarrel was most opportunely
referred to Hannibal, being appointed arbitrator of the kingdom, he
restored the sovereignty to the elder, because such had been the
opinion of the senate and the chief men. In return for this service,
he was assisted with a supply of provisions, and plenty of all
necessaries, particularly clothing, which the Alps, notorious for
extreme cold, rendered necessary to be prepared. After composing the
dissensions of the Allobroges, when he now was proceeding to the Alps,
he directed his course thither, not by the straight road, but turned
to the left into the country of the Tricastini, thence by the extreme
boundary of the territory of the Vocontii he proceeded to the
Tricorii; his way not being any where obstructed till he came to the
river Druentia. This stream, also arising amid the Alps, is by far the
most difficult to pass of all the rivers in Gaul; for though it rolls
down an immense body of water, yet it does not admit of ships;
because, being restrained by no banks, and flowing in several and not
always the same channels, and continually forming new shallows and new
whirlpools, (on which account the passage is