Excerpt from A Treatise on Hannibal's Passage of the Alps: In Which His Route Is Traced Over the Little Mont Cenis

In the course of a series of excursions in the Alps, the attention of the Author had naturally been drawn to the subject of Hannibal's passage of those mountains. On a subsequent examination of Polybius' account of that expedition, it appeared almost certain that the prominent and distinguishing characteristics of the pass which Hannibal crossed could only be found on the pass of the Mont Cenis. A general acquaintance with the passes, by which it had been conjectured that Hannibal entered Italy, led at first to this conclusion. The close proximity to the plains of Piedmont of the summit of the pass which Hannibal crossed, the precipitous nature of the descent into Italy, and the immense losses which the Carthaginians incurred in consequence, all tended to identify this pass with that of the Mont Cenis. It was also beyond a doubt, that from neither the Great nor the Little St Bernard, nor from the Mont Genevre, was it possible to sec the Italian plain. None of the roads over these passes, nor any accessible point in their neighbourhood, could command the view which the Carthaginian army saw from the crest of the Alps. The situation of the Mont Cenis, as might be judged from the map, rendered it, however, not improbable, that such a view might be obtained from the immediate neighbourhood of the road over its summit. As this route, then, had a considerable amount of a priori probability in its favour, a probability shared by no other pass, it seemed likely that an examination of it in detail might lead to its complete identification with the line of Hannibal's march into Italy. Accordingly, in the month of July, 1852, and in the months of April and May, 1853.

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