Dismissing this matter I will now continue my narrative.
At the time of which we are speaking the Carthaginians were masters of all that part of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Africa&groupId=300&placeId=294">Africa</a> which looks towards the Mediterranean from the Altars of Philaenus<note place="end" resp="tr" id="note5"><emph rend="bold">the Altars of Philaenus:</emph>Originally the boundary between <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Egypt&groupId=556&placeId=368">Egypt</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cyrene&groupId=521&placeId=985">Cyrene</a>.</note>on the Greater Syrtis as far as the Pillars of Hercules.
The length of this coast-line is more than sixteen thousand stades.
Crossing the straits at the Pillars of Hercules they had similarly subdued all Iberia as far as the point on the coast of the Mediterranean where the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pyrenees&groupId=921&placeId=1650">Pyrenees</a>, which separate the Celts from the Iberians, end.
This spot is about eight thousand stades distant from the mouth of this sea at the Pillars of Hercules,
the distance being three thousand stades from the Pillars to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=New Carthage&groupId=791&placeId=1430">New Carthage</a>, from which place Hannibal started for <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a>, two thousand six hundred stades from hence to the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Ebro&groupId=549&placeId=1031">Ebro</a>,
and from the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Ebro&groupId=549&placeId=1031">Ebro</a> to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Emporium&groupId=565&placeId=1056">Emporium</a> one thousand six hundred stades.
From <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Emporium&groupId=565&placeId=1056">Emporium</a> to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Narbo&groupId=786&placeId=1423">Narbo</a> it is about six hundred stades, and from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Narbo&groupId=786&placeId=1423">Narbo</a> to the passage of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhone&groupId=933&placeId=1667">Rhone</a> about sixteen hundred, this part of the road having now been carefully measured by the Romans and marked with milestones at every eighth stade.
From the passage of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhone&groupId=933&placeId=1667">Rhone</a>, following the bank of the river in the direction of its source as far as the foot of the pass across the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alps&groupId=313&placeId=609">Alps</a> to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a>, the distance is fourteen hundred stades,
and the length of the actual pass which would bring Hannibal down into the plain of the Po, about twelve hundred.
So that to arrive there he had, starting from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=New Carthage&groupId=791&placeId=1430">New Carthage</a>, to march about nine thousand stades.
Of this, as far as distance goes, he had nearly traversed the half, but if we look to difficulty far the largest part lay before him.
Walbank Commentary