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Hannibars Passage over the Alps. 681 which according to Polybius were traversed in this march, do not compel us to fix the passage of the Rhone north of the Durance, though there were seven hundred stadia from that river to the Isere. Polybius distinguishes the inhabitants of the Island, whom he merely terms barbarians without naming them, from the AUobriges, through whose territory Hannibal marched to the foot of the Alps, and from whose hostility the barbarians of the Island protected him (c. 50.) The AUobriges or AUobroges appear to have been driven north- ward from their original seats, in which they were known to Apollodorus as a most powerful nation (Steph. Byz. iXXo- (ipvyes:);, and in the time of Livy to have been confined to the country north of the Isere. This state of things he has transferred to the time of Hannibal. His AUobroges inhabit the Island of the barbarians of Polybius, which is south of his own Island: incohint prope AUobroges. Livy'^s Island, formed by the Rhone and the Saone (Arar), is described in a manner which will not apply to that of Polybius, even if the name Arar is altered to Isara. It is not a tract resembling the Delta of the Nile, but only a considerable district {agri aliquantum). But the kingdom about which the contest decided by Hannibal has arisen is that of the AUobroges : they become HannibaVs friends and allies. It is not however said that he marches through their territory : after he has composed their dissentions, he turns to the left toward the Tricastini, and meets with no obstacle till he reaches the Druentia : a description which, except with regard to the Druentia, agrees with that of Polybius, on the sup- position that Hannibal did not cross the Isere, and that Polybius took this river for the Rhone. As an additional proof that Polybius did not conceive Hannibal to have marched through the Island, Uckert very sagaciously refers to the description of those difficult and almost inaccessible mountains (opi/ IvairpoGola kuI ^i/creV/^oXa Kal ax^doi^ ws elTreli^ dTrposiTo) which formed its third side ; and compares this with the vindication of Hannibars prudence against those who exaggerated the difficulties of his passage : (ra Trepl tyj^ eptjuxia^, en S* epvjmvoTrjTo^ Kal Svax^'p'^^^ ^^^ tottwv, eK^rjkov TTOiel to x/zetf^o? aJrcoi;. c. 48.)