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Updated: May 19, 2025
Saguntum defended itself, as only Spanish towns know how to conduct defence: had the Romans showed but a tithe of the energy of their clients, and not trifled away their time during the eight months' siege of Saguntum in the paltry warfare with Illyrian brigands, they might, masters as they were of the sea and of places suitable for landing, have spared themselves the disgrace of failing to grant the protection which they had promised, and might perhaps have given a different turn to the war.
I know your country, and I am ashamed of my city when I see such fools as those. Do you know who is to blame for these follies that dishonor us? Sónnica, that Sónnica whom they call 'the rich, an old-time courtesan who will succeed in making Saguntum a reproach, destroying the traditions of the city, and the simple, healthful customs of other times."
The lion skin, and his enormous stature, attracted the gaze of all. His club rose and fell, crashing into the groups of fugitives and opening great swaths through their ranks. "It is Hercules!" the besiegers shouted, with superstitious terror. "The god of Saguntum has come out against us!" The presence of the giant accelerated the dispersion even more than the blows of the Saguntines.
The Church of Nuestra Senora del Pilar is situated on the ramparts of the town, and the Aragonese fondly believe this portion of the town defences to be impregnable. I had promised Donna Pelliccia to go and see her at Valentia, and on my way I saw the ancient town of Saguntum on a hill at some little distance. How the muleteer and the priest objected to this proposal!
Though you do not deserve to be allowed the same conditions as before, you now request even to be benefited by your treachery. Neither did our fathers first make war respecting Sicily, nor did we respecting Spain. In the former case the danger which threatened our allies the Mamertines, and in the present the destruction of Saguntum, girded us with just and pious arms.
It was a Roman vessel which at daybreak next morning was to set sail, bearing the ambassadors sent by the great Republic to settle the political disorders which agitated Saguntum. In the second basin, a tranquil square of water where boats were constructed and repaired, sounded the hammers of the calkers striking against the wood.
His father had brought him to Saguntum when a child, and the Grecian customs produced such an effect in him that, when he had grown to manhood it became his most earnest desire to return to the city on the coast, and there he lived with a few servants of his tribe and his magnificent horses, deaf to the affectionate calls of the old chieftain drawing near to death, and being esteemed by the Saguntines as almost a fellow citizen.
I am anxious to try whether the earth has suddenly, in these twenty years, sent forth a new race of Carthaginians, or whether these are the same who fought at the islands Aegates, and whom you permitted to defeat from Eryx, valued at eighteen denarii a head; and whether this Hannibal be, as he himself gives out, the rival of the expeditions of Hercules, or one left by his father the tributary and taxed subject and slave of the Roman people; who, did not his guilt at Saguntum drive him to frenzy, would certainly reflect, if not upon his conquered country, at least on his family, and his father, and the treaties written by the hand of Hamilcar; who, at the command of our consul, withdrew the garrison from Eryx; who, indignant and grieving, submitted to the harsh conditions imposed on the conquered Carthaginians; who agreed to depart from Sicily, and pay tribute to the Roman people.
Moreover the number of defenders was insufficient to garrison the extensive precincts of Saguntum, while the besieger had at his disposal an immense armed multitude which could hurl itself against several places at once. One night in the Forum, Actæon encountered Sónnica, who was seeking him, followed by Alcon the Prudent.
When affairs went on so prosperously in Spain, the Romans began to feel ashamed that Saguntum, on account of which the war had originated, should continue for now the eighth year in the power of the enemy. Accordingly, having expelled by force the Carthaginian garrison, they retook that town, and restored it to such of the ancient inhabitants as had survived the fury of the war.
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