23. Cheered by this vision, he transported his forces in three divisions across the Iberus, having sent emissaries before him to conciliate by gifts the minds of the Gauls, in the quarter through which his army was to be led, and to examine the passes of the Alps. He led ninety thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry across the Iberus. He then subdued the Ilergetes, the Bargusii, the Ausetani, and that part of Lacetania which lies at the foot of the Pyrenaean mountains; and he placed Hanno in command over all this district, that the narrow gorges which connect Spain with Gaul might be under his power. Ten thousand infantry, and a thousand cavalry, were given to Hanno for the defence of the country he was to occupy. After the army began to march through the passes of the Pyrenees, and a more certain rumour of the Roman war spread through the barbarians, three thousand of the Carpetanian infantry turned back: it clearly appeared that they were not so much swayed by the prospect of the war as by the length of the journey and the insuperable passage of the Alps. Hannibal, because it was hazardous to recall or detain them by force, lest the fierce minds of the rest might also be irritated, sent home above seven thousand men, whom also he had observed to be annoyed with the service, pretending that the Carpetani had also been dismissed by him. 24. Then, lest delay and ease might unsettle their minds, he crosses the Pyrenees with the rest of his forces, and pitches his camp at the town Illiberis. The Gauls, though they had heard that the war was directed against Italy, yet because there was a report that the Spaniards on the other side of the Pyrenees had been reduced by force, and that strong forces had been imposed on them, being roused to arms through the fear of slavery, assembled certain tribes at Ruscino. When this was announced to Hannibal, he, having more fear of the delay than of the war, sent envoys to say to their princes, "that he wished to confer with them; and that they should either come nearer to Illiberis, or that he would proceed to Ruscino, that their meeting might be facilitated by vicinity: for that he would either be happy to receive them into his camp, or would himself without hesitation come to them: since he had entered Gaul as a friend, and not as an enemy, and would not draw the sword, if the Gauls did not force him, before he came to Italy." These proposals, indeed, were made by his messengers. But when the princes of the Gauls, having immediately moved their camp to Illiberis, came without reluctance to the Carthaginian, being won by his presents, they suffered his army to pass through their territories, by the town of Ruscino, without any molestation.