Hannibal Crosses the Alps
A Route Examined and
a Proposed Alternate Route

Modern Historians:
Route Acceptance and Rejection

By Russ Lockwood

So with controversy brewing over the route at the time of Livy, what has the last 2000 or so years wrought? Continuing controversy. They cannot all be correct. It is the picking and choosing of which part of which history that governs the route advocated by a particular author. With that in mind, here are the key segments and the reasoning behind each author's ideas, as well as additional thoughts to consider. This is by no means exhaustively complete with every book or article ever published, but the more popular works available to most people. With enough sources, you can start to pick up the gist of the routes' strengths and weaknesses.

It is quite amazing to read how one author will emphasize a particular point in his analysis, while another will not even mention it. This literary overview will piece together a narrative of Hannibal's route by analyzing all the relevant data from about a dozen authors. As mentioned before, this survey does not include every one of the hundreds of books written about Hannibal--only those most readily available. It begins with the start of the controversy, the Rhone crossing, and will examine each salient point on a geographical basis.

Note that in compiling this survey of Hannibal's route, I use the last name of various modern authors. Their full names are in the bibliography at the end of this work.

A Day's March

So much of the speculation about where events occurred depends upon the distance from one place to another. It's all well and good to tick off stades and km, but much of what we know depends upon the interpretation of a certain number of "days" of marching. Hard numbers from Polybius of "x" stades are good, if a bit rounded. The Roman mile equals about 8 stades, although others have used 8.33 to the mile. So there is enough wiggle room when it comes to a day's march.

Part of this comes from the road leading up to the first major checkpoint: the Rhone crossing, which Hannibal reached during the summer of 218BC. Polybius noted that the Romans had carefully measured the road Via Domitia, which arcs from the Rhone towards Spain. The great Roman roads usually followed existing paths, so the Via Domitia might be the same as the Way of Hercules--the probable path Hannibal originally intended to take before Scipio's army blocked the way.

In only one place does Polybius match days and distance: 800 stades in 10 days. It is, to be sure, rounded, but this roughly translates at 14km per day through relatively friendly territory between the Rhone and Alps.

The actural rate might be more and it might be less. When you consider the location--between the Pyrenees and the Rhone--and the danger level--low, as tribes heard about Carthaginian victories against previous tribes and cities along with advance gifts and bribes--a 14km per day figure is as good as any other.

Hannibal Crosses the Alps A Route Examined and a Proposed Alternate Route

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