Hanno marched five miles, when he found a spot where the river was smooth and favourable for the passage.  The troops set to at once to cut trees; rafts were formed of these, and the troops passed over.  The Spanish corps, accustomed to the passage of rivers, simply stripped, and putting their broad shields of hides beneath them, passed the river by swimming.  Once across Hanno gave his men twenty-four hours’ rest, and then, calculating that Hannibal’s preparations would be complete, he marched down the river until he reached a hill, whose summit was visible from Hannibal’s camp at daybreak.  Upon this he lit a signal fire.

The moment the smoke was seen in the camp Hannibal gave orders for the troops to embark.  The light infantry took to their little canoes, the cavalry embarked in the larger vessels, and, as these were insufficient to carry all the horses, a great many of the animals were made to enter the river attached by ropes to the vessels.  The heavier craft started highest up, in order that they might to some extent break the roughness of the waves and facilitate the passage of the canoes.

The din was prodigious.  Thousands of men tugged at the oars, the roughly made canoes were dashed against each other and often upset, while from the opposite bank rose loudly the defiant yells of the natives, prepared to dispute to the last the landing of the flotilla.  Suddenly these cries assumed a different character.  A mass of smoke was seen to rise from the tents of the enemy’s camp, and Hanno’s division poured down upon their rear.  The Arecomici, taken wholly by surprise, were seized with a panic, and fled hastily in all directions, leaving the bank clear for the landing of Hannibal.  The whole of the army were brought across at once and encamped that night on the river.

In the morning Hannibal sent off five hundred Numidian horse to reconnoitre the river below, and ascertain what Scipio’s army, which was known to have landed at its mouth, was doing.  He then assembled his army and introduced to them some chiefs of the tribes beyond the Alps, who had a day or two before arrived in the camp with the agents he had sent to their country.  They harangued the soldiers, an interpreter translating their speeches, and assured them of the welcome they would meet in the rich and fertile country beyond the Alps, and of the alacrity with which the people there would join them against the Romans.

Hannibal himself then addressed the soldiers, pointed out to them that they had already accomplished by far the greatest part of their journey, had overcome every obstacle, and that there now remained but a few days’ passage over the mountains, and that Italy, the goal of all their endeavours, would then lie before them.

The soldiers replied with enthusiastic shouts, and Hannibal, after offering up prayers to the gods on behalf of the army, dismissed the soldiers, and told them to prepare to start on the following day.  Soon after the assembly had broken up the Numidian horse returned in great confusion, closely pressed by the Roman cavalry, who had been sent by Scipio to ascertain Hannibal’s position and course.  The hostile cavalry had charged each other with fury.  A hundred and forty of the Romans and two hundred of the Numidians were slain.