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Updated: May 2, 2025
Hannibal, who had lost a whole year through the obstinate resistance of the Saguntines, had as usual retired for the winter of 535-6 to Cartagena, to make all his preparations on the one hand for the attack of Italy, on the other for the defence of Spain and Africa; for, as he, like his father and his brother-in-law, held the supreme command in both countries, it devolved upon him to take measures also for the protection of his native land.
The legions which Rome was sending to the support of the Saguntines would arrive at any moment. The crowd received this specious fabrication with cold insensibility. The sufferings of the siege had deadened their feelings. Besides, they had been fired so many times with hope of the coming of the Romans that they doubted and would not believe until they saw the fleet itself.
I prefer to grow old here in this sweet and tranquil life, at the side of my Sónnica, loving peace like any one of those Saguntines who dwells in the merchants' ward." "Peace? Peace?" A strident and brutal shout of laughter, like that which Actæon had heard on the steps of Aphrodite's temple when the Roman legates were embarking, broke the silence of the roadway.
But the Barcine party were for the moment in the ascendancy; long negotiations took place which led to nothing, and all this time the condition of the Saguntines was becoming more desperate.
Now, although there is no resemblance between the government of the good and merciful God and the cruel purposes and conduct of a heathen warrior, and we shrink from bringing the two into any kind of juxtaposition, still, the advice of the wise Alorcus to the Saguntines is good advice for every sinful man, in reference to his relations to Eternal Justice. We are all of us at the mercy of God.
Each of these sallies cost Hannibal's army severe losses. The Africans had begun to tell with superstitious dread of a naked giant, wearing a lion's skin, and brandishing a tree-trunk, who charged at the head of the Saguntines, and at each blow ploughed a broad furrow through the assailants.
The besieged, unable to resist the cavalry on open ground, began slowly to retire. When night closed in they reoccupied the breach, commenting with joyful shouts upon the victory which mitigated their disappointment over the non-appearance of the Romans. Actæon, with those Saguntines who had most distinguished themselves in the battles, set to work fortifying the city.
We request that you would permit us so to do; and, if you think proper, that you would, by your authority, perpetuate and ratify the advantages which your generals have conferred upon us." The senate replied to the Saguntines, "that the destruction and restoration of Saguntum would form a monument to all the nations of the world of social faith preserved on both sides.
For who entertains a doubt, but if, when the Saguntines were besieged, and implored our protection, we had assisted them with vigour, as our fathers did the Mamertines, we should have averted the whole weight of the war upon Spain; which, by our dilatory proceedings, we suffered to our extreme loss to fall upon Italy?
Such of the Saguntines as had trafficked with the tribes of the interior recognized the new arrivals from the walls.
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