История Рима от основания города

Книга XXII, гл. 2

2. Dum con­sul pla­can­dis Ro­mae dis ha­ben­do­que di­lec­tu dat ope­ram, Han­ni­bal pro­fec­tus ex hi­ber­nis, quia iam Fla­mi­nium con­su­lem Ar­re­tium per­ve­nis­se fa­ma erat, [2] cum aliud lon­gius ce­te­rum com­mo­dius os­ten­de­re­tur iter, pro­pio­rem viam per pa­lu­des pe­tit, qua flu­vius Ar­nus per eos dies so­li­to ma­gis inun­da­ve­rat. [3] His­pa­nos et Af­ros et om­ne ve­te­ra­ni ro­bur exer­ci­tus ad­mix­tis ip­so­rum im­pe­di­men­tis, ne­cu­bi con­sis­te­re coac­tis ne­ces­sa­ria ad usus dees­sent, pri­mos ire ius­sit, se­qui Gal­los, ut id ag­mi­nis me­dium es­set, no­vis­si­mos ire equi­tes, [4] Ma­go­nem in­de cum ex­pe­di­tis Nu­mi­dis co­ge­re ag­men, ma­xi­me Gal­los, si tae­dio la­bo­ris lon­gae­que viae, ut est mol­lis ad ta­lia gens, di­la­be­ren­tur aut sub­sis­te­rent, co­hi­ben­tem.

[5] Pri­mi, qua mo­do praei­rent du­ces, per praeal­tas flu­vii ac pro­fun­das vo­ra­gi­nes, haus­ti pae­ne li­mo im­mer­gen­tes­que se, ta­men sig­na se­que­ban­tur. [6] Gal­li ne­que sus­ti­ne­re se pro­lap­si ne­que ad­sur­ge­re ex vo­ra­gi­ni­bus po­te­rant ne­que aut cor­po­ra ani­mis aut ani­mos spe sus­ti­ne­bant; [7] alii fes­sa aeg­re tra­hen­tes membra, alii, ubi se­mel vic­tis tae­dio ani­mis pro­cu­buis­sent, in­ter iumen­ta et ip­sa iacen­tia pas­sim mo­rien­tes; ma­xi­me­que om­nium vi­gi­liae con­fi­cie­bant per quad­ri­duum iam et tres noc­tes to­le­ra­tae. [8] Cum om­nia ob­ti­nen­ti­bus aquis ni­hil ubi in sic­co fes­sa ster­ne­rent cor­po­ra in­ve­ni­ri pos­set, cu­mu­la­tis in aqua sar­ci­nis in­su­per in­cum­be­bant, [9] aut iumen­to­rum iti­ne­re to­to prostra­to­rum pas­sim acer­vi, tan­tum quod exsta­ret aqua quae­ren­ti­bus ad quie­tem par­vi tem­po­ris, ne­ces­sa­rium cu­bi­le da­bant.

[10] Ip­se Han­ni­bal, aeger ocu­lis ex ver­na pri­mum in­tem­pe­rie va­rian­te ca­lo­res fri­go­ra­que, ele­phan­to qui unus su­per­fue­rat quo al­tius ab aqua exsta­ret vec­tus, [11] vi­gi­liis ta­men et noc­tur­no umo­re pa­lustri­que cae­lo gra­van­te ca­put, et quia me­den­di nec lo­cus nec tem­pus erat, al­te­ro ocu­lo ca­pi­tur.