"A defeat here would be as fatal to him as it would be to us, and I think it more likely that, when he finds we have marched away north, he will return to his ships and meet us in Italy." Malchus learned that everything had progressed favourably since the army had crossed the Rhone, the natives having offered no further opposition to their advance.

A civil war was going on in the region the army had now entered, between two rival princes, brothers, of the Allobroges.
Hannibal was requested to act as umpire in the quarrel, and decided in favour of the elder brother and restored order.

In return he received from the prince whom he reseated on his throne, provisions, clothing, and other necessaries for the army, and the prince, with his troops, escorted the Carthaginians some distance up into the Alps, and prevented the tribes dwelling at the foot of the mountains from attacking them.
The conquest of Catalonia, the passage of the Pyrenees, and the march across the south of Gaul, had occupied many months.

Summer had come and gone, autumn had passed, and winter was at hand.

It was the eighteenth of October when Hannibal led his army up the narrow valleys into the heart of the Alps.