Dear Mother and Father,
I have splendid news! I am returning home! The bad news is… the attack failed. I think this is because we all suffered greatly on the journey. We had only just reached Italian soil and already we had lost 77,000.
The first big obstacle was the River Rhone. First me and some other men were sent across to ambush the fierce Gaulish tribe as they ran to attack the rest of the army. When the infantry finally came across, as we expected, the tribesman poured out of their huts to slaughter the army. We charged to intercept and when we were spotted, the tribesman ran the other way. Last to come across were the elephants. This took over III days to complete this task, as we had to build massive earth covered rafts to transport them.
As we continued on our long trek to Rome, General Hannibal had a choice; Go over the Alps or take the heavily guarded coast. He chose the Alps and this was to be the downfall of his journey.
On the way we crushed the Allobrogians, because they were friends of the Romans.
We entered the Alps at the start of winter and by the time we made the summit it was snowing hard. Very hard. If we had stopped once it would have killed every one of us.
On the way down we discovered the path blocked by a landslide. Using all of his experience, Hannibal combined fire and water to crack the boulders in half and create a path for us to get through. Nearly 1000 men lost their lives every day and