Catherine de Medici

"When we think of the enormous number of volumes that have been published
on the question as to where Hannibal crossed the Alps, without our being able to
decide to-day whether it was (according to Whittaker and Rivaz) by Lyon, Geneva,
the Great Saint-Bernard, and the valley of Aosta; or (according to Letronne,
Follard, Saint-Simon and Fortia d'Urbano) by the Isere, Grenoble, Saint-Bonnet,
Monte Genevra, Fenestrella, and the Susa passage; or (according to Larauza) by
the Mont Cenis and the Susa; or (according to Strabo, Polybius and Lucanus) by
the Rhone, Vienne, Yenne, and the Dent du Chat; or (according to some
intelligent minds) by Genoa, La Bochetta, and La Scrivia,--an opinion which I
share and which Napoleon adopted,--not to speak of the verjuice with which the
Alpine rocks have been bespattered by other learned men,--is it surprising,
Monsieur le marquis, to see modern history so bemuddled that many important
points are still obscure, and the most odious calumnies still rest on names that
ought to be respected?"

- Excerpted from "Catherine de Medici"