quinqueremes and five triremes were properly fitted out and manned with rowers.  From Gades he returned to the winter quarters of the army at Carthage; and thence setting out, he led his forces by the city Etovissa to the Iberus and the sea-coast.  There, it is reported, a youth of divine aspect was seen by him in his sleep, who said, “that he was sent by Jupiter as the guide of Hannibal into Italy, and that he should, therefore, follow him, nor in any direction turn his eyes away from him.”  At first he followed in terror, looking no where, either around or behind:  afterwards, through the curiosity of the human mind, when he revolved in his mind what that could be on which he was forbidden to look back, he could not restrain his eyes; then he beheld behind him a serpent of wonderful size moving along with an immense destruction of trees and bushes, and after it a cloud following with thunderings from the skies; and that then inquiring “what was that great commotion, and what the cause of the prodigy,” he heard in reply:  “That it was the devastation of Italy:  that he should continue to advance forward, nor inquire further, but suffer the fates to remain in obscurity.”

23.  Cheered by this vision, he transported his forces in three divisions across the Iberus, having sent emissaries before him to conciliate by gifts the minds of the Gauls, in the quarter through which his army was to be led, and to examine the passes of the Alps.  He led ninety thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry across the Iberus.  He then subdued the Ilergetes, the Bargusii, the Ausetani, and that part of Lacetania which lies at the foot of the Pyrenaean mountains; and he placed Hanno in command over all this district, that the narrow gorges which connect Spain with Gaul might be under his power.  Ten thousand infantry, and a thousand cavalry, were given to Hanno for the defence of the country he was to occupy.  After the army began to march through the passes of the Pyrenees, and a more certain rumour of the Roman war spread through the barbarians, three thousand of the Carpetanian infantry turned back:  it clearly appeared that they were not so much swayed by the prospect of the war as by the length of the journey and the insuperable passage of the Alps.  Hannibal, because it was hazardous to recall or detain them by force, lest the fierce minds of the rest might also be irritated, sent home above seven thousand men, whom also he had observed to be annoyed with the service, pretending that the Carpetani had also been dismissed by him.

24.  Then, lest delay and ease might unsettle their minds, he crosses the Pyrenees with the rest of his forces, and pitches his camp at the town Illiberis.  The Gauls, though they had heard that the war was directed against Italy, yet because there was a report that the Spaniards on the other side of the Pyrenees had been reduced by force, and that strong forces had been imposed on them, being roused to arms through