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after Arbela.
95
them part of their territories near the Po. It was on this occasion that the Roman colonies of Cremona and Placentia were founded, the latter of which did such essential service to Rome in the second Punic war by the resistance which it made to the army of Hasdrubal. A muster-roll was made in this war of the effective military force of the Romans themselves, and of those Italian states that were subject to them. The return showed a force of seven hundred thousand foot and seventy thousand horse. Polybius, who mentions this muster, remarks, Ἐφ’ οὓς Ἀννίβας ἐλάττους ἔχων δισμυρίων, ἐπέβαλεν εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν.
218. Hannibal crosses the Alps and invades Italy.
