The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty Six - Titus Livius
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10. That embassy, therefore, excepting that the ambassadors were
admitted and heard, proved likewise vain and fruitless. Hanno alone,
in opposition to the rest of the senate, pleaded the cause of the
treaty, amidst deep silence on account of his authority, and not from
the approbation of the audience. He said: that he had admonished and
forewarned them by the gods, the arbiters and witnesses of treaties,
that they should not send the son of Hamilcar to the army; that the
manes, that the offspring of that man could not rest in peace, nor
ever, while any one of the Barcine name and blood survived, would the
Roman treaties continue undisturbed. "You, supplying as it were fuel
to the flame, have sent to your armies a youth burning with the desire
of sovereign power, and seeing but one road to his object, if by
exciting war after war, he may live surrounded by arms and legions.
You have therefore fostered this fire, in which you now burn. Your
armies invest Saguntum, whence they are forbidden by the treaty: ere
long the Roman legions will invest Carthage, under the guidance of
those gods through whose aid they revenged in the former war the
infraction of the treaty. Are you unacquainted with the enemy, or with
yourselves, or with the fortune of either nation? Your good general
refused to admit into his camp ambassadors coming from allies and in
behalf of allies, and set at nought the law of nations. They, however,
after being there repulsed, where not even the ambassadors of enemies
are prohibited admittance, come to you: they require restitution
according to the treaty: let not guilt attach to the state, they
demand to have delivered up to them the author of the transgression,
the person who is chargeable with this offence. The more gently they
proceed,--the slower they are to begin, the more unrelentingly, I
fear, when they have once commenced, will they indulge resentment. Set
before your eyes the islands Aegates and Eryx, all that for
twenty-four years ye have suffered by land and sea. Nor was this boy
the leader, but his father Hamilcar himself, a second Mars, as these
people would have it: but we had not refrained from Tarentum, that is,
from Italy, according to the treaty; as now we do not refrain from
Saguntum. The gods and men have, therefore, prevailed over us; and as
to that about which there was a dispute in words, whether of the two
nations had infringed the treaty, the issue of the war, like an
equitable judge, hath awarded the victory to the party on whose side
justice stood. It is against Carthage that Hannibal is now moving his
vineae and towers: it is the wall of Carthage that he is shaking with
his battering-ram. The ruins of Saguntum (oh that I may prove a false
prophet!) will fall on our heads; and the war commenced against the
Saguntines must be continued against the Romans. Shall we, therefore,
some one will say, deliver up Hannibal? In what relates to him I am
aware that my authority is of little weight, on account of my enmity
with his father. But I both rejoice that Hamilcar perished, for this
reason, that, had he lived we should have now been engaged in a war
with the Romans; and this youth, as the fury and firebrand of this
war, I hate and detest. Nor ought he only to be given up in atonement
for the violated treaty; but even though no one demanded him, he ought
to be transported to the extremest shores of earth or sea, and
banished to a distance, whence neither his name nor any tidings of him
can reach us, and he be unable to disturb the peace of a tranquil
state. I therefore give my opinion, that ambassadors be sent
immediately to Rome to satisfy the senate; others to tell Hannibal to
lead away his army from Saguntum, and to deliver up Hannibal himself,
according to the treaty to the Romans; and I propose a third embassy
to make restitution to the Saguntines."
11. When Hanno had concluded, there was no occasion for any one to
contend with him in debate, to such a decree were almost all the
senators devoted to Hannibal; and they accused Hanno of having spoken
with more malignity than Flaccus Valerius, the Roman ambassador. It
was then said in answer to the Roman ambassadors, "that the war had
been commenced by the Saguntines, not by Hannibal; and that the Roman
people acted unjustly if they preferred the Saguntines to the most
ancient [Footnote: Alluding to the first treaty made in the year
that the kings were expelled from Rome.] alliance of the
Carthaginians." Whilst the Romans waste time in sending embassies,
Hannibal, because his soldiers were fatigued with the battles and the
works, allowed them rest for a few days, parties being stationed to
guard the vineae and other works. In the mean time he inflames their
minds, now by inciting their anger against the enemy, now with the
hope of reward. But when he declared before the assembled army, that
the plunder of the captured city should be given to the soldiers, to
such a degree were they all excited, that if the signal had been
immediately given, it appeared that they could not have been resisted
by any force. The Saguntines, as they had a respite from fighting,
neither for some days attacking nor attacked, so they had not, by
night or day, ever ceased from toiling, that they might repair anew
the wall in the quarter where the town had been exposed by the breach.
A still more desperate storming than the former then assailed them;
nor whilst all quarters resounded with various clamours, could they
satisfactorily know where first or principally they should lend
assistance. Hannibal, as an encouragement, was present in person,
where a movable tower, exceeding in height all the fortifications of
the city, was urged forward. When being brought up it had cleared the
walls of their defenders by means of the catapultae and ballistae
ranged through all its stories, then Hannibal, thinking it a
favourable opportunity, sends about five hundred Africans with
pickaxes to undermine the wall: nor was the work difficult, since the
unhewn stones were not fastened with lime, but filled in their
interstices with clay, after the manner of ancient building. It fell,
therefore, more extensively than it was struck, and through the open
spaces of the ruins troops of armed men rushed into the city. They
also obtain possession of a rising ground; and having collected
thither catapultae and ballistae, so that they might have a fort in
the city itself, commanding it like a citadel, they surround it with a
wall: and the Saguntines raise an inner wall before the part of the
city which was not yet taken. On both sides they exert the utmost
vigour in fortifying and fighting: but the Saguntines, by erecting
these inner defences, diminish daily the size of their city. At the
same time, the want of all supplies increased through the length of
the siege, and the expectation of foreign aid diminished, since the
Romans, their only hope, were at such a distance, and all the country
round was in the power of the enemy. The sudden departure of Hannibal
against the Oretani and Carpetani [Footnote: The Carpetani have
already been mentioned, chap. v. The Oretani, then neighbours,
occupied the country lying between the sources of the Baetis and the
Anas, or what are now called the Guadalquiver and Guadiana. In a part
of Orospeda they deduced their name from a city called Oretum, the
site of which has been brought to light in a paltry village to which
the name of Oreto still remains.--_D'Anville_.] revived for a
little their drooping spirits; which two nations, though, exasperated
by the severity of the levy, they had occasioned, by detaining the
commissaries, the fear of a revolt, having been suddenly checked by
the quickness of Hannibal, laid down the arms they had taken up.
12. Nor was the siege of Saguntum, in the mean time, less vigorously
maintained; Maharbal, the son of Himilco, whom Hannibal had set over
the army, carrying on operations so actively that neither the townsmen
nor their enemies perceived that the general was away. He both engaged
in several successful battles, and with three battering-rams overthrew
a portion of the wall; and showed to Hannibal, on his arrival the
ground all covered with fresh ruins. The army was therefore
immediately led against the citadel itself, and a desperate combat was
commenced with much slaughter on both sides, and part of the citadel
was taken. The slight chance of a peace was then tried by two persons;
Alcon a Saguntine, and Alorcus a Spaniard. Alcon, thinking he could
effect something by entreaties, having passed over, without the
knowledge of the Saguntines, to Hannibal by night, when his tears
produced no effect, and harsh conditions were offered as from an
exasperated conqueror, becoming a deserter instead of an advocate,
remained with the enemy; affirming that the man would be put to death
who should treat for peace on such terms. For it was required that
they should make restitution to the Turdetani; and after delivering up
all their gold and silver, departing from the city each with a single
garment, should take up their dwelling where the Carthaginian should
direct. Alcon having denied that the Saguntines would accept such
terms of peace, Alorcus, asserting that when all else is subdued, the
mind becomes subdued, offers himself as the proposer of that peace.
Now at that time he was a soldier of Hannibal's, but publicly the
friend and host of the Saguntines. Having openly delivered his weapon
to the guards of the enemy and passed the fortifications, he was
conducted, as he had himself requested, to the Saguntine praetor;
whither when there was immediately a general rush of every description
of people, the rest of the multitude being removed, an audience of the
senate is given to Alorcus; whose speech was to the following effect:
13. "If your citizen Alcon, as he came to implore a peace from
Hannibal, had in like manner brought back to you the terms of peace
proposed by Hannibal, this journey of mine would have been
unnecessary; by which circumstance I should not have had to come to
you as the legate of Hannibal, nor as a deserter. Since he has
remained with your enemies, either through your fault or his own,
(through his own, if he counterfeited fear; through yours, if among
you there be danger to those who tell the truth,) that you may not be
ignorant that there are some terms of safety and peace for you, I have
come to you in consideration of the ancient ties of hospitality which
subsist between us. But that I speak what I address to you for your
sake and that of no other, let even this be the proof: that neither
while you resisted with your own strength, nor while you expected
assistance from the Romans, did I ever make any mention of peace to
you. But now, after you have neither any hope from the Romans, nor
your own arms nor walls sufficiently defend you, I bring to you a
peace rather necessary than just: of effecting which there is thus
some hope, if, as Hannibal offers it in the spirit of a conqueror, you
listen to it as vanquished; if you will consider not what is taken
from you as loss, (since all belongs to the conqueror,) but whatever
is left as a gift. He takes away from you your city, which, already
for the greater part in ruins, he has almost wholly in his possession;
he leaves you your territory, intending to mark out a place in which
you may build a new town; he commands that all the gold and silver,
both public and private, shall be brought to him; he preserves
inviolate your persons and those of your wives and children, provided
you are willing to depart from Saguntum, unarmed, each with two
garments. These terms a victorious enemy dictates. These, though harsh
and grievous, your condition commends to you. Indeed I do not despair,
when the power of every thing is given him, that he will remit
something from these terms. But even these I think you ought rather to
endure, than suffer, by the rights of war, yourselves to be
slaughtered, your wives and children to be ravished and dragged into
captivity before your faces."
14. When an assembly of the people, by the gradual crowding round of
the multitude, had mingled with the senate to hear these proposals,
the chief men suddenly withdrawing before an answer was returned, and
throwing all the gold and silver collected, both from public and
private stores, into a fire hastily kindled for that purpose, the
greater part flung themselves also into it. When the dismay and
agitation produced by this deed had pervaded the whole city, another
noise was heard in addition from the citadel. A tower, long battered,
had fallen down; and when a Carthaginian cohort, rushing through the
breach, had made a signal to the general that the city was destitute
of the usual outposts and guards, Hannibal, thinking that there ought
to be no delay at such an opportunity, having attacked the city with
his whole forces, took it in a moment, command being given that all
the adults should be put to death; which command, though cruel, was
proved in the issue to have been almost necessary. For to whom of
those men could mercy have been shown, who, either shut up with their
wives and children, burned their houses over their own heads, or
abroad in arms made no end of fighting, except in death.
15. The town was taken, with immense spoil. Though the greater part of
the goods had been purposely damaged by their owners, and resentment
had made scarce any distinction of age in the massacre, and the
captives were the booty of the soldiers; still it appears that some
money was raised from the price of the effects that were sold, and
that much costly furniture and garments were sent to Carthage. Some
have written that Saguntum was taken in the eighth month after it
began to be besieged; that Hannibal then retired to New Carthage, into
winter quarters; and that in the fifth month after he had set out from
Carthage he arrived in Italy. If this be so, it was impossible that
Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius could have been consuls, to
whom both at the beginning of the siege the Saguntine ambassadors were
despatched, and who, during their office, fought with Hannibal; the
one at the river Ticinus, and both some time after at the Trebia.
Either all these events took place in a somewhat shorter period, or
Saguntum was not begun to be besieged, but taken at the beginning of
the year in which Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius were
consuls. For the battle at Trebia could not have been so late as the
year of Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius, since Flaminius entered
on the office at Ariminum, having been created by the consul Tiberius
Sempronius; who, having repaired to Rome after the battle at Trebia
for the purpose of creating consuls, returned when the election was
finished to the army into winter quarters.
16. Nearly about the same time, both the ambassadors who had returned
from Carthage brought intelligence to Rome that all appearances were
hostile, and the destruction of Saguntum was announced. Then such
grief, and pity for allies so undeservingly destroyed, and shame that
aid was withheld, and rage against the Carthaginians, and fear for the
issue of events, as if the enemy were already at the gates, took at
once possession of the senators, that their minds, disturbed by so
many simultaneous emotions, trembled with fear rather than
deliberated. For they considered that neither had a more spirited or
warlike enemy ever encountered them nor had the Roman state been ever
so sunk in sloth, and unfit for war: that the Sardinians, the
Corsicans, the Istrians, and the Illyrians, had rather kept in a state
of excitement than exercised the Roman arms; and with the Gauls it had
been more properly a tumult than a war. That the Carthaginian, a
veteran enemy, ever victorious during the hardest service for
twenty-three years among the tribes of Spain, first trained to war
under Hamilcar, then Hasdrubal, now Hannibal, a most active leader,
and fresh from the destruction of a most opulent city, was passing the
Iberus; that along with them he was bringing the numerous tribes of
Spain, already aroused, and was about to excite the nations of Gaul,
ever desirous of war; and that a war against the world was to be
maintained in Italy and before the walls of Rome.
17. The provinces had already been previously named for the consuls;
and having been now ordered to cast lots for them, Spain fell to
Cornelius, and Africa with Sicily to Sempronius. Six legions were
decreed for that year, and as many of the allies as should seem good
to the consuls, and as great a fleet as could be equipped. Twenty-four
thousand Roman infantry were levied, and one thousand eight hundred
horse: forty thousand infantry of the allies, and four thousand four
hundred horse: two hundred and twenty ships of three banks of oars,
and twenty light galleys, were launched. It was then proposed to the
people, "whether they willed and commanded that war should be declared
against the people of Carthage;" and for the sake of that war a
supplication was made through the city, and the gods were implored
that the war which the Roman people had decreed might have a
prosperous and fortunate issue. The forces were thus divided between
the consuls. To Sempronius two legions were given, (each of these
consisted of four thousand infantry and three hundred horse,) and
sixteen thousand of the infantry of the allies, and one thousand eight
hundred horse: one hundred and sixty ships of war, and twelve light
galleys. With these land and sea forces Tiberius Sempronius was
despatched to Sicily, in order to transport his army to Africa if the
other consul should be able to prevent the Carthaginian from invading
Italy. Fewer troops were given to Cornelius, because Lucius Manlius,
the praetor, also had been sent with no weak force into Gaul. The
number of ships in particular was reduced to Cornelius. Sixty of five
banks of oars were assigned to him, (for they did not believe that the
enemy would come by sea, or would fight after that mode of warfare,)
and two Roman legions with their regular cavalry, and fourteen
thousand of the infantry of the allies, with one thousand six hundred
horse. The province of Gaul being not as yet exposed to the
Carthaginian invasion, had, in the same year, two Roman legions, ten
thousand allied infantry, one thousand allied cavalry, and six hundred
Roman.
18. These preparations having been thus made, in order that every
thing that was proper might be done before they commenced war, they
send Quintus Fabius, Marcus Livius, Lucius Aemilius, Caius Licinius,
and Quintus Baebius, men of advanced years, as ambassadors into
Africa, to inquire of the Carthaginians if Hannibal had laid siege to
Saguntum by public authority; and if they should confess it, as it
seemed probable they would, and defend it as done by public authority,
to declare war against the people of Carthage. After the Romans
arrived at Carthage, when an audience of the senate was given them,
and Quintus Fabius had addressed no further inquiry than the one with
which they had been charged, then one of the Carthaginians replied:
"Even your former embassy, O Romans, was precipitate, when you
demanded Hannibal to be given up, as attacking Saguntum on his own
authority: but your present embassy, though so far milder in words, is
in fact more severe. For then Hannibal was both accused, and required
to be delivered up: now both a confession of wrong is exacted from us,
and, as though we had confessed, restitution is immediately demanded.
But I think that the question is not, whether Saguntum was attacked by
private or public authority, but whether it was with right or wrong.
For in the case of our citizen, the right of inquiry, whether he has
acted by his own pleasure or ours, and the punishment also, belongs to
us. The only dispute with you is, whether it was allowed to be done by
the treaty. Since, therefore, it pleases you that a distinction should
be made between what commanders do by public authority, and what on
their own suggestion, there was a treaty between us made by the consul
Lutatius; in which, though provision was made for the allies of both,
there is no provision made for the Saguntines, for they were not as
yet your allies. But in that treaty which was made with Hasdrubal, the
Saguntines are excepted; against which I am going to say nothing but
what I have learned from you. For you denied that you were bound by
the treaty which Caius Lutatius the consul first made with us, because
that it had neither been made by the authority of the senate nor the
command of the people; and another treaty was therefore concluded anew
by public authority. If your treaties do not bind you unless they are
made by your authority and your commands, neither can the treaty of
Hasdrubal, which he made without our knowledge, be binding on us.
Cease, therefore, to make mention of Saguntum and the Iberus, and let
your mind at length bring forth that with which it has long been in
labour." Then the Roman, having formed a fold in his robe, said, "Here
we bring to you peace and war; take which you please." On this speech
they exclaimed no less fiercely in reply: "he might give which he
chose;" and when he again, unfolding his robe, said "he gave war,"
they all answered that "they accepted it, and would maintain it with
the same spirit with which they accepted it."
19. This direct inquiry and denunciation of war seemed more consistent
with the dignity of the Roman people, both before and now, especially
when Saguntum was destroyed, than to cavil in words about the
obligation of treaties. For if it was a subject for a controversy of
words, in what was the treaty of Hasdrubal to be compared with the
former treaty of Lutatius, which was altered? Since in the treaty of
Lutatius, was expressly added, "that it should only be held good if
the people sanctioned it;" but in the treaty of Hasdrubal, neither was
there any such exception; and that treaty during its life had been so
established by the silence of so many years, that not even after the
death of its author was any change made in it. Although even were they
to abide by the former treaty, there had been sufficient provision
made for the Saguntines by excepting the allies of both states; for
neither was it added, "those who then were," nor "those who should
afterwards be admitted." and since it is allowable to admit new
allies, who could think it proper, either that no people should be
received for any services into friendship? or that, being received
under protection, they should not be defended? It was only stipulated,
that the allies of the Carthaginians should not be excited to revolt,
nor, revolting of their own accord, be received. The Roman
ambassadors, according as they had been commanded at Rome, passed over
from Carthage into Spain, in order to visit the nations, and either to
allure them into an alliance, or dissuade them from joining the
Carthaginians. They came first to the Bargusii, by whom having been
received with welcome, because they were weary of the Carthaginian
government, they excited many of the states beyond the Iberus to the
desire of a revolution. Thence they came to the Volciani, whose reply
being celebrated through Spain, dissuaded the other states from an
alliance with the Romans; for thus the oldest member in their council
made answer: "What sense of shame have ye, Romans, to ask of us that
we should prefer your friendship to that of the Carthaginians, when
you, their allies, betrayed the Saguntines with greater cruelty than
that with which the Carthaginians, their enemies, destroyed them?
There, methinks, you should look for allies, where the massacre of
Saguntum is unknown. The ruins of Saguntum will remain a warning as
melancholy as memorable to the states of Spain, that no one should
confide in the faith or alliance of Rome." Having been then commanded
to depart immediately from the territory of the Volciani, they
afterwards received no kinder words from any of the councils of Spain:
they therefore pass into Gaul, after having gone about through Spain
to no purpose.
20. Among the Gauls a new and alarming spectacle was seen, by reason
of their coming (such is the custom of the nation) in arms to the
assembly. When, extolling in their discourse the renown and valour of
the Roman people, and the wide extent of their empire, they had
requested that they would refuse a passage through their territory and
cities to the Carthaginian invading Italy; such laughter and yelling
is said to have arisen, that the youths were with difficulty composed
to order by the magistrates and old men. So absurd and shameless did
the request seem, to propose that the Gauls, rather than suffer the
war to pass on to Italy, should turn it upon themselves and expose
their own lands to be laid waste instead of those of others. When the
tumult was at length allayed, answer was returned to the ambassadors,
"that they had neither experienced good from the Romans, nor wrong
from the Carthaginians, on account of which they should either take up
arms in behalf of the Romans, or against the Cathaginians. On the
contrary, they had heard that men of their nation had been driven from
the lands and confines of Italy by the Roman people, that they had to
pay a tribute, and suffered other indignities." Nearly the same was
said and heard in the other assemblies of Gaul; nor did they hear any
thing friendly or pacific before they came to Marseilles. There, every
thing found out by the care and fidelity of the allies was made known
to them--"that the minds of the Gauls had been already prepossessed by
Hannibal, but that not even by him would that nation be found very
tractable, (so fierce and untameable are their dispositions,) unless
the affections of the chiefs should every now and then be conciliated
with gold, of which that people are most covetous." Having thus gone
round through the tribes of Spain and Gaul, the ambassadors return to
Rome not long after the consuls had set out for their provinces. They
found the whole city on tiptoe in expectation of war, the report being
sufficiently confirmed, that the Carthaginians had already passed the
Iberus.