The Book        Aids to Reading         Samples

Home

About the Book

Characters

Glossary

Maps

Place Names

Bibliography

Notes

Album

Buy the Book

About the Author

Notes: Chapter 8

Back to Chapter Notes

Notes for Chapter 8, Dorix, The Gorge, 218 B.C.

1. Druna River. Today called the Drôme, which enters the Rhône (Rhodanus) somewhat south of Lyons. The river begins in the mountains, flows north until it reaches the modern city of Die, where it turns west, then dips south briefly and flows west into the Rhodanus. Hannibal’s “difficult gorge” strikes off to the east south of Die.
2. Hannibal’s route through the Alps and the “difficult gorge.” Modern scholars have several competing theories about the route Hannibal took. I prefer that of John Prevas, Hannibal Crosses the Alps, which is similar to an earlier proposal by _____. Did Hannibal take the Druentia (modern Durance), the Isara (probably the Isère), the Agas (Eygues), or the Druna (Drôme)? Surveying the candidate routes on the ground, Prevas searched for key sites described in the ancient sources (Polybius and Livy). The best possibility he found for the site of the first ambush was along the Druna. On the modern Michelin maps (#245 and #244), I find a couple of candidates. First, the Gorges des Gats, which Prevas discusses, is a winding canyon in mountainous country with a long climb up a narrowing valley to reach it. Its stream, the Bez, strikes the Drôme south of Die in the St. Ferreol area. Second, a route along the Meyrosse River, traveling up it from Die. On the far side of either canyon, there is a fairly easy route south to the Druentia. Prevas prefers the Gorges des Gats, describing it as a narrow and treacherous gorge. Where, then, was the second ambush? Prevas says Hannibal encountered the tribal elders around modern Gap, at the Druentia (Durance), and they directed him to a shortcut to Italy, which Prevas thinks is the Combe du Queyras on the Guil River, a “treacherous little gorge some six to seven miles long,” which widens into a small valley, up which there is a high pass through the tallest of the Alps, the Col de la Traversette, which also fits the ancient descriptions. This pass comes out above the headwaters of the Padus River (modern Po) above Turin. While I haven’t traveled the route myself, Prevas has—and its competitors as well—so that I find him quite persuasive. His book shows good pictures of the gorges and the pass.
3. Distances mentioned for parts of Hannibal’s march. I’ve based distances and time estimates on mileages measured in the Barrington Atlas. Normally, especially if the terrain is difficult, I assume an ancient army with its baggage train could march 10 – 20 miles a day—call it 15 average. Of course, on special occasions, such as Publius Scipio’s march to intercept Hannibal, they might manage prodigious distances: thirty or forty miles in a day.
4. “Just as Gallic as his childhood world.” Borix and Dorix began their journey in southern Gaul west of the Rhodanus. In Chapter 5, they are still in Gaul, now east of the river. “Gaul-Across-the-Alps,” or Gallia Comata, “Long-Haired Gaul” to the Romans, covered all of modern France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Low Countries. Nearer Gaul, or Gallia Cisalpina, also known as Italian Gaul, lay within Italy on the southern side of the Alps.
5. “Really big mountains.” Hannibal passed through several lesser mountain ranges in eastern Gaul before actually reaching the Alps.
6. Cebenna. The Cebenna Massif rises a few thousand feet high in central southern Gaul (France) west of the Rhodanus River.
7. Druna River. My description of the Druna (Drôme) is hypothetical, since I haven’t visited it. My guesses as to the trees there are based on general information about species that grow in that part of Europe and what information I could glean about the typical altitudes at which they grow. I consulted Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Trees and the Western Garden Book (though it focuses on the Western Hemisphere).
8. Sacred oaks. Oak trees were sacred to the Druids, a class of Celtic priests, prophets, and bards who lived among the Gauls of this period and occupied many important Gallic offices—judges and administrators as well as priests and religious teachers. They conducted their rituals in oak groves or forests and also revered mistletoe. Their rites included magic, astrology, and the powers of plants and animals. When Rome invaded Gaul during Caesar’s day, the Druids led the resistance. Encarta says they held sway from the second century B.C.E. to the second century A.C.E., when Christianity began to swamp the religion so that it eventually died out. Based on those dates, the Druids were probably just coming into prominence at the time of Hannibal’s invasion.
9. India. The far-off land of India, lying beyond the realm of the Parthians in Mesopotamia, was more fabled than known to the Romans, particularly at this early period. Most of what was known came from the explorations and conquests of Alexander the Great, a century earlier than my story. As for Alexander “conquering India,” he took some towns along the Indus River, far from conquering all of what we know today as the subcontinent.
10. “Provincial boys.” We’ve all encountered the narrow suspicion that untraveled and little educated folk sometimes have for speakers of other languages. Their assumption is often that these foreigners are making fun of them in their barbarous words.
11. Hobnailed boot. I’m assuming that other peoples, such as the Gauls and Hannibal’s Africans, wore footgear similar to the Roman caligae, strong sandals with studded soles, good for marching in hard terrain.
12. Dormas. The ancient sources mention the brother of Brancus, with whom Brancus was contending for the leadership at the Island, but they don’t name him. Thus the name Dormas is my invention.
13. “Eyes of Argus.” A monster in Greek mythology with 100 eyes. By one tradition, Argus became a peacock, hence the eye-like images on a peacock’s tail. The Carthaginians would have known this myth, as they were highly Hellenized by Hannibal’s day.
14. Description of the gorge of the first ambush. My description is based partly on what the ancient sources say, partly on my own suppositions. Figures for its depth are the rough estimates of people like Maharbal, who may have tended to exaggerate distances, especially depths. But there’s no doubt the gorge was deep.
15. Hannibal’s stratagems at the gorge. Here we begin to see the many stratagems of Hannibal, surely one of the most creative generals in history.