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Updated: May 2, 2025
The Saguntines, pale with the rage of impotence, endeavored in vain to stay the destruction. The besieging tower, rolling over a level tract impelled by men hidden behind it, moved from place to place, scattering death, and at times it drew so near that the besieged could hear the voices of the bowmen who shot through the loopholes.
The Greek, so strong and sure of himself on most occasions, felt intimidated in the presence of this enigmatic man. Absorbed in the contemplation of the cortége which had come to bid farewell to the legates, he had turned his back on Actæon. His eyes expressed hatred and scorn as he saw the bronze wolf of the Roman standard flash in the sunlight, hailed with enthusiasm by the Saguntines.
Every day was precious; Hannibal formed his resolution. He sent summary intimation to Carthage that the Saguntines were making aggressions on the Torboletes, subjects of Carthage, and he must therefore attack them; and without waiting for a reply he began in the spring of 535 the siege of a town which was in alliance with Rome, or, in other words, war against Rome.
His preparations had been silently made. The Saguntines, although uneasy, had no idea of any imminent danger, and the Carthaginian army collected in and around Carthagena were in entire ignorance that they were about to be called upon to take the field. "What say you, Malchus?" Hannibal asked that evening. "It is time now that I gave you a command.
The two spent the night amidst the piled up riches in the warehouse wrapped in costly tapestries, insensible to their surroundings, as if they were still in the rich villa on the domain, at the end of one of those banquets which had so scandalized many of the Saguntines. Days passed.
The consuls then at Rome were Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus, who, after the ambassadors were introduced into the senate, having made a motion on the state of public affairs, it was resolved that envoys should be sent into Spain to inspect the circumstances of the allies; and if they saw good reason, both to warn Hannibal that he should refrain from the Saguntines, the allies of the Roman people, and to pass over into Africa to Carthage, and report the complaints of the allies of the Roman people.
The Saguntines did every thing they could to prevent these treasures from falling into his hands.
He, when he had taken a great number of the cities of your enemies in Spain, on all occasions separated the Saguntines out of the mass of captives, and sent them back to their country; and lastly, by his arms he reduced to so low a state Turdetania, which harboured such animosity against us, that if that nation continued to flourish it was impossible that Saguntum could stand, that it not only was not an object of fear to us, but, and may I say it without incurring odium, not even to our posterity.
As there could be no doubt that by attacking them the Romans would be excited to arms, he first led his army into the territory of the Olcades, a people beyond the Iberus, rather within the boundaries than under the dominion of the Carthaginians, so that he might not seem to have had the Saguntines for his object, but to have been drawn on to the war by the course of events; after the adjoining nations had been subdued, and by the progressive annexation of conquered territory.
Having then laid waste their territory, he received the submission of the Carpetani also within a few days. And now all the country beyond the Iberus, excepting that of the Saguntines, was under the power of the Carthaginians.
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