For a short time after, while the cold continued intolerable, rest was given
to the soldiers; and having set out from his winter quarters on the first and
uncertain indications of spring, he leads them into Etruria, intending to gain
that nation to his side, like the Gauls and Ligurians, either by force or favour.
As he was crossing the Apennines, so furious a storm attacked him, that it almost
surpassed the horrors of the Alps. When the rain and wind together were driven
directly against their faces, they at first halted, because their arms must
either be cast away, or striving to advance against the storm they were whirled
round by the hurricane, and dashed to the ground: afterwards, when it now stopped
their breath, nor suffered them to respire, they sat down for a little, with
their backs to the wind. Then indeed the sky resounded with loud thunder, and
the lightnings flashed between its terrific peals; all, bereft of sight and
hearing, stood torpid with fear. At length, when the rain had spent itself,
and the fury of the wind was on that account the more increased, it seemed necessary
to pitch the camp in that very place where they had been overtaken by the storm.
But this was the beginning of their labours, as it were, afresh; for neither
could they spread out nor fix any tent, nor did that which perchance had been
put up remain, the wind tearing through and sweeping every thing away: and soon
after, when the water raised aloft by the wind had been frozen above the cold
summits of the mountains, it poured down such a torrent of snowy hail, that
the men, casting away every thing, fell down upon their faces, rather buried
under than sheltered by their coverings; and so extreme an intensity of cold
succeeded, that when each wished to raise and lift himself from that wretched
heap of men and beasts of burden, he was for a long time unable, because their
sinews being stiffened by the cold, they had great difficulty in bending their
joints. Afterwards, when, by continually moving themselves to and fro, they
succeeded in recovering the power of motion, and regained their spirits, and
fires began to be kindled in a few places, every helpless man had recourse to
the aid of others. They remained as if blockaded for two days in that place.
Many men and beasts of burden, and also seven elephants, of those which had
remained from the battle fought at the Trebia, were destroyed.
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