Only in so speaking we may not pronounce an absolute censure on the general: we see well the defects of the plan of operations pursued by him, but we cannot determine whether he was in a position to foresee them--his route lay through an unknown land of barbarians--or whether any other plan, such as that of taking the coast road or of embarking at Cartagena or at Carthage, would have exposed him to fewer dangers.

The cautious and masterly execution of the plan in its details at any rate deserves our admiration, and to whatever causes the result may have been due -- whether it was due mainly to the favour of fortune, or mainly to the skill of the general--the grand idea of Hamilcar, that of taking up the conflict with Rome in Italy, was now realized.

It was his genius that projected this expedition; and as the task of Stein and Scharnhorst was more difficult and nobler than that of York and Blucher, so the unerring tact of historical tradition has always dwelt on the last link in the great chain of preparatory steps, the passage of the Alps, with a greater admiration than on the battles of the Trasimene lake and of the plain of Cannae.
Notes for Chapter IV 1.

Our accounts as to these events are not only imperfect but one- sided, for of course it was the version of the Carthaginian peace party which was adopted by the Roman annalists.

Even, however, in our fragmentary and confused accounts (the most important are those of Fabius, in Polyb.iii.