Here, on a table-land, his troops were allowed a brief rest.
The hardships of the descent were fully as great, and the fertile valley of the Po was a welcome sight to the half-famished and exhausted soldiers.

Here they encamped, in September, and recruited their wearied energies.
This famous march of Hannibal from the Rhone lasted thirty-three days, and cost him 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry.
The Romans were still unprepared to meet Hannibal.

One army was in Spain under Gnaeus Scipio; the other in Sicily, on its way to Africa, under the Consul Sempronius.

The only troops immediately available were a few soldiers that had been left in the valley of the Po to restrain the Gauls, who had recently shown signs of defection.
Publius Cornelius Scipio, upon his return from Massilia, took command of these.

He met Hannibal first in October, 218, near the river Ticinus, a tributary of the Po.