The Battle of Trebbia or the Napoleonic Battle of the Trebbia ( 17 -- 20 June 1799 ) was fought near the Trebbia River in northern Italy between the joint Russian and Habsburg Austrian army under Alexander Suvorov and the Republican French army of Jacques MacDonald . The Battle of the Trebia ( or Trebbia ) was the first major battle of the Second Punic War , fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and the Roman Republic in December of 218 BC , on or around the winter solstice . The battle took place in the flat country of the Province of Piacenza on the left bank of the Trebbia River , a shallow , braided stream , not far south from its confluence ( from the south ) with the Po river .
The Battle of the Trebia occurred on the left bank of the Trebbia River.