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The Roman Republic and Carthaginian Empire at the start of the Second Punic War, 218 BC. The route followed by Hannibal from New Carthage to the lower Rhône and across the Alps is shown in red. While Hannibal's exact route through the Alps is subject to uncertainty, the most direct approach is along the Rhône to the Drôme River and around to the north of Mt. Viso, across the Col de la Traversette, to the Po River Valley in northern Italia. Scipio's advance on Massilia (Marseilles) by sea and subsequent retreat to Pisa is traced with double arrows. The site of the Trebbia Battlefield is located just east of the Ticinus River. Adapted from M. Healy, Cannae 216 BC, Campaign Series, D.G. Chandler (Ed.), Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford, U.K., 1999, and plate one in The Warmaker, published by IUniverse 2008.
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Environmental evidence favors the southern route from the Rhône to the Durance Basin, thence through the Queyras north of Mt. Viso to the Upper Po River.
(Courtesy of Prof. Pierre Tricart, University of Grenoble, France; click on image for larger version)
Showing the main cols Hannibal might have transited into Italia from the Col du Clapier in the north to the Col de Agnel in the south. The Col de Montgenèvre was the preferred route used by Gallic and Roman armies. The Col de la Traversette (arrow) is the proposed southern route as discussed in: "Hannibal's Odyssey; Environmental Background to the Alpine Invasion of Italia," Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ., 221 pp.