by W.C. Mahaney
ABSTRACT
Following interviews and discussions with surviving soldiers of Hannibal’s alpine invasion of Italia, Polybius, a Greek general serving as advisor to Scipio Aemilianus, retraced the Hannibalic invasion of 218 BC in great detail. Writing his History – The Rise of the Roman Empire- Polybius had the resource of Scipio’s extensive library and freedom to visit large swarths of the Mediterranean. Considered by Scipio and others, a prime military tactician and strategist, Polybius participated in many military exercises and wrote a manual—Tactics—(now lost) up to the 2nd Century BC. Following Hannibal’s trail on horseback, he later recounted Hannibal’s route from Carthago Nova through the Pyrénées and Gaul (France) to the Rhône River, crossing near Arles, north to Orange, Drôme River to the Durance, diversion to the Guil River, and on to the Col de la Traversette (~3000 m asl), the highest col in the Western Alps. His History is actually a guidebook to the invasion route. The Traversette provides a vantage point overlooking the Po River and the vaunted, much discussed rockfall, a ~250 m wide rubble mass that blocked passage of Hannibal’s elephants and horses. Soldiers could pass, but clearing a path for animals took three days to allow the army to recover in the wide valley plain below, prior to exfil onto the lower Po River plains. Polybius probably spent scant time at the rockfall but noted it was a two-stage event, older rock largely weathered, partly superposed by younger rock. This assessment qualifies Polybius as probably, if not the first, certainly one of the earliest stratigraphers in history, his separation of rockfall lobes on weathering/tonal contrasts, marking a seminal event in earth science history.
