DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0268
240
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. VI.
low, are yet sufficiently elevated, in a military
sense, not indeed at the very confluence of the
two rivers, the Po and the Trebia; but a little
higher up the latter, where the battle took place,
the 'stream is wide enough to form a line of
defence, and yet shallow enough to be in many
places fordable. Its sides, particularly on the
right as you ascend the stream, where Mago lay
in ambush, are still covered with reeds and
brush-wood. After these observations, merely
applying the present scenery to the historian’s
description, the reader need but open Livy, and
he will become a spectator of the action so bloody
and disastrous to the Bomans.
But the banks of the Trebia have been the
theatre of more contests than one, nor is the
last-mentioned, though, without doubt, the most
illustrious, either the most bloody or the most
decisive. It is well knowti that a memorable
battle between the French and the Russians,
under the command of Marshal Suwarrow, was
fought on the same spot, and was attended with
more important consequences. It is said to have
lasted two days, and to have been supported
with the utmost obstinacy on both sides. The
Russians, who advanced with their usual firm-
ness and impetuosity, were thrice driven back
in dismay : at length the Marshal, with the
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. VI.
low, are yet sufficiently elevated, in a military
sense, not indeed at the very confluence of the
two rivers, the Po and the Trebia; but a little
higher up the latter, where the battle took place,
the 'stream is wide enough to form a line of
defence, and yet shallow enough to be in many
places fordable. Its sides, particularly on the
right as you ascend the stream, where Mago lay
in ambush, are still covered with reeds and
brush-wood. After these observations, merely
applying the present scenery to the historian’s
description, the reader need but open Livy, and
he will become a spectator of the action so bloody
and disastrous to the Bomans.
But the banks of the Trebia have been the
theatre of more contests than one, nor is the
last-mentioned, though, without doubt, the most
illustrious, either the most bloody or the most
decisive. It is well knowti that a memorable
battle between the French and the Russians,
under the command of Marshal Suwarrow, was
fought on the same spot, and was attended with
more important consequences. It is said to have
lasted two days, and to have been supported
with the utmost obstinacy on both sides. The
Russians, who advanced with their usual firm-
ness and impetuosity, were thrice driven back
in dismay : at length the Marshal, with the