spirit, and
by a desire to taunt Hannibal with an expression of their opinion that
his occupation of the land would be a very temporary encumbrance.
Hannibal, to revenge himself for this taunt, put up for sale at
auction, in his own camp, the shops of one of the principal streets of
Rome, and they were bought by his officers with great spirit. It
showed that a great change had taken place in the nature of the
contest between Carthage and Rome, to find these vast powers, which
were a few years before grappling each other with such destructive and
terrible fury on the Po and at Cannae, now satisfying their declining
animosity with such squibbing as this.

When the other modes by which Hannibal attempted to obtain
re-enforcements failed, he made an attempt to have a second army
brought over the Alps under the command of his brother Hasdrubal. It
was a large army, and in their march they experienced the same
difficulties, though in a much lighter degree, that Hannibal had
himself encountered. And yet, of the whole mighty mass which set out
from Spain, nothing reached Hannibal except his brother's _head_. The
circumstances of the unfortunate termination of Hasdrubal's attempt
were as follows:

When Hasdrubal descended from the Alps, rejoicing in the successful
manner in which he had surmounted those formidable barriers, he
imagined that all his difficulties were over. He dispatched couriers
to his brother Hannibal, informing him that he had scaled the
mountains, and that he was coming on as rapidly as possible to his
aid.

The two consuls in office at this time were named, the one Nero, and
the other Livius. To each of these, as was usual with the Roman
consuls, was assigned a particular province, and a certain portion of
the army to defend it, and the laws enjoined it upon them very
strictly not to leave their respective provinces, on any pretext
whatever, without authority from the Roman Legislature. In this
instance Livius had been assigned to the northern part of Italy, and
Nero to the southern. It devolved upon Livius, therefore, to meet and
give battle to Hasdrubal on his descent from the Alps, and to Nero to
remain in the vicinity of Hannibal, to thwart his plans, oppose his
progress, and, if possible, conquer and destroy him, while his
colleague prevented his receiving the expected re-enforcements from
Spain.

Things being in this state, the couriers whom Hasdrubal sent with his
letters had the vigilance of b