To the armed soldier, carrying nothing with him but the instruments of war, what in reality was impervious or insurmountable?
That Saguntum might be taken, what dangers, what toils were for eight months undergone! Now, when their aim was Rome, the capital of the world, could any thing appear so dangerous or difficult as to delay their undertaking?
That the Gauls had formerly gained possession of that very country which the Carthaginian despairs of being able to approach.

That they must, therefore, either yield in spirit and valour to that nation which they had so often during those times overcome; or look forward, as the end of their journey, to the plain which spreads between the Tiber and the walls of Rome." 31.

He orders them, roused by these exhortations, to refresh themselves and prepare for the journey.

Next day, proceeding upward along the bank of the Rhone, he makes for the inland part of Gaul: not because it was the more direct route to the Alps, but believing that the farther he retired from the sea, the Romans would be less in his way; with whom, before he arrived in Italy, he had no intention of engaging.

After four days' march he came to the Island: there the streams of the Arar and the Rhone, flowing down from different branches of the Alps, after embracing a pretty large tract of country, flow into one.