which the present moment reaped the whole advantage. He would have
wished to march instantly on Rome, or at least to pass the winter
in some of the allied or subject provinces--in Etruria or in
Umbria--there to live at discretion in pillage and license. Did
Hannibal represent that it was necessary to spare the provinces in
order to gain them over to the common cause, the Cisalpines broke
forth into murmurs; the combinations of prudence and genius
appeared in their eyes but a vile pretext to deprive them of the
advantages which they had legitimately won."--(I. 292-293.)

We cannot follow the steps of the great conqueror in his memorable
campaigns--in his fatal march over the fens of Etruria, or through the
glorious field of Thrasymene. But the share which the Gauls had in the
mighty victory of Cannae, and the change of the seat of war, with the
results which followed from it, are of such importance, and the remarks
made upon them by M. Thierry are so just, that we shall give the whole
of his account of this event at full length:--

"From the field of Thrasymene Hannibal passed into southern Italy,
and gave battle a third time to the Romans, near the village of
Cannae, on the banks of the Aufidus, now called the Offanto. He had
then under his banners 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry; and of
these 50,000 combatants, at least 30,000 were Gauls. In his order
of battle, he placed their cavalry on the right wing, and in the
centre their infantry, whom he united to the Spanish infantry, and
whom he commanded in person: the Gaulish foot, as was their custom
on all occasions when they were determined to conquer or die, threw
off their tunic and sagum, and fought naked from their waist
upwards, armed with their long and pointless sabres. They commenced
the action; and their cavalry and that of the Numidians terminated
it. We know how dreadful the carnage was in that celebrated
battle--the most glorious of the victories of Hannibal--the most
disastrous of the defeat of Rome. When the Carthaginian general,
moved with pity, called to his soldiers 'to halt, and to spare the
vanquished,' without doubt the Gauls, bloodthirsty in the
destruction of their mortal enemies, carried to that butchery more
than the ordinary irritation of wars, the satisfaction of a
vengeance ardently wished for, and