第 18 页

and sharing all their hardships.

At last the mountains were passed, and the army poured down into

the fertile plains of Valencia, which town, however, was not then in

existence. Passing over the site where it is now situated they continued

their march north until Saguntum, standing on Its rocky eminence, came

into view.

During the march Malchus and his company had led the way, guided by

natives, who pointed out the easiest paths. As there were no enemies to

be guarded against, they had taken their full share in the labours of

the army.

The Saguntines were already aware of the approach of the expedition. No

sooner had it crossed the crest of the mountains than native runners

had carried the news of its approach, and the inhabitants had spent the

intervening time in laying in great stores of provisions, and in making

every preparation for defence. The garrison was small in comparison with

the force marching against it, but it was ample for the defence of the

walls, for its position rendered the city well nigh impregnable against

the machines in use at the time, and was formidable in the extreme even

against modern artillery, for 2000 years afterwards Saguntum, with a

garrison of 3000 men, resisted for a long time all the efforts of a

French army under General Suchet. As soon as his force arrived near the

town Hannibal rode forward, and, in accordance with the custom of the

times, himself summoned the garrison to surrender. Upon their refusal

he solemnly declared war by hurling his javelin against the walls. The

troops at once advanced to the assault, and poured flights of arrows,

masses of stones from their machines, javelins, and missiles of all

descriptions into the city, the defenders replying with equal vigour

from the walls. At the end of the first day's fighting Hannibal

perceived that his hopes of carrying the place by assault were vain--for

the walls were too high to be scaled, too thick to be shaken by any

irregular attack--and that a long siege must be undertaken.

This was a great disappointment to him, as it would cause a long

delay that it would be scarce possible to commence the march which he

meditated that summer. As to advancing, with Saguntum in his rear, it

was not to be thought of, for the Romans would be able to land their

armies there and to cut him off from all communication with Carthagena

and Carthage. There was, then, nothing to be done but to undertake the

siege in regular order.

The army formed an encampment in a circle round the town. A strong force

was left to prevent the garrison from making a sortie, and the whole of

the troops were then marched away in detachments to the hills to fell

and bring down the timber which would be required for the towers and

walls, the bareness of the rock rendering it impossible to construct the

approaches as usual with earth. In the first place, a wall, strengthened

by numerous small towers, was erected round the whole circumference

of the rock; then the approaches were begun on the western side, where

attack was alone possible.

This was done by lines of wooden towers, connected one with another by

walls of the same material; movable towers were constructed to be pushed

forward against the great tower which formed the chief defence of the

wall, and on each side the line of attack was carried onward by portable

screens covered with thick hide. In the meantime the Saguntines were

not idle. Showers of missiles of all descriptions were hurled upon the

working parties, great rocks from the machines on the walls crashed

through the wooden erections, and frequent and desperate sorties were

made, in which the Carthaginians were almost always worsted. The nature

of the ground, overlooked as it was by the lofty towers and walls, and

swept by the missiles of the defenders, rendered it impossible for any

considerable force to remain close at hand to render assistance to the

workers, and the sudden attacks of the Saguntines several times drove

them far down the hillside, and enabled the besieged, with axe and fire,

to destroy much of the work which had been so labouriously carried out.

In one of these sorties Hannibal, who was continually at the front,

overlooking the work, was seriously wounded by a javelin in the thigh.

Until he was cured the siege languished, and was converted into a

blockade, for it was his presence and influence alone which encouraged

the men to continue their work under such extreme difficulties,

involving the death of a large proportion of those engaged. Upon

Hannibal's recovery the work was pressed forward with new vigour, and

the screens and towers were pushed on almost to the foot of the walls.

The battering rams were now brought up, and--shielded by massive

screens, which protected those who worked them from the darts and stones

thrown down by the enemy, and by lofty towers, from whose tops the

Carthaginian archers engaged the Saguntines on the wall--began their

work.

The construction of walls was in those days rude and primitive, and they

had little of the solidity of such structures in succeeding ages.

The stones were very roughly shaped, no mortar was used, and the

displacement of one stone consequently involved that of several others.

This being the case it was not long before the heavy battering rams of

the Carthaginians produced an effect on the walls, and a large breach

was speedily made. Three towers and the walls which connected them fell

with a mighty crash, and the besiegers, believing that the place was

won, advanced to the assault. But the Saguntines met them in the breach,

and for hours a desperate battle raged there.

The Saguntines hurled down upon the assailants trunks of trees bristling

with spearheads and spikes of iron, blazing darts and falariques--great

blocks of wood with projecting spikes, and covered thickly with a mass

of pitch and sulphur which set on fire all they touched. Other species

of falariques were in the form of spindles, the shaft wrapped round with

flax dipped in pitch. Hannibal fought at the head of his troops with

desperate bravery, and had a narrow escape of being crushed by an

enormous rock which fell at his feet; but in spite of his efforts

and those of his troops they were unable to carry the breach, and at

nightfall fell back to their camp, having suffered very heavy losses.

Singularly enough the French columns were repulsed in an effort to

carry a breach at almost the same spot, the Spaniards hurling among them

stones, hand grenades of glass bottles and shells, and defending the

breach with their long pikes against all the efforts of Suchet's troops.

Some days passed before the attack was renewed, as the troops were worn

out by their labours. A strong guard in the meantime held the advanced

works against any sorties of the Saguntines.

These, on their side, worked night and day, and by the time the

Carthaginians again advanced the wall was rebuilt and the breach closed.

But Hannibal had also been busy. Seeing that it was impossible for

his troops to win an entrance by a breach, as long as the Saguntines

occupied every point commanding it, he caused a vast tower to be built,

sufficiently lofty to overlook every point of the defences, arming each

of its stages with catapults and ballistas. He also built near the walls

a great terrace of wood higher than the walls themselves, and from this

and from the tower he poured such torrents of missiles into the town

that the defenders could no longer remain upon the walls. Five hundred

Arab miners now advanced, and these, setting to work with their

implements, soon loosened the lower stones of the wall, and this again

fell with a mighty crash and a breach was opened.

The Carthaginians at once swarmed in and took possession of the wall;

but while the besiegers had been constructing their castle and terrace,

the Saguntines had built an interior wall, and Hannibal saw himself

confronted with a fresh line of defences.

As preparations were being made for the attack of the new defences

messengers arrived saying that the Carpatans and Orotans, furious at the

heavy levies of men which had been demanded from them for the army, had

revolted. Leaving Maharbal to conduct the siege in his absence, Hannibal

hurried away with a portion of his force, and returned in two months,

having put down the revolt and severely punished the tribesmen.

While the siege had been continuing the Romans had been making vain

efforts to induce the Carthaginians to desist. No sooner had the

operations commenced than agents from the Roman senate waited on

Hannibal and begged him to abandon the siege. Hannibal treated their

remonstrance with disdain, at the same time writing to Carthage to say

that it was absolutely necessary that the people of Saguntum, who were

insolent and hostile, relying on the protection of Rome, should be

punished. The envoys then went to Carthage, where they made an animated

protest against what they regarded as an unprovoked attack upon their

allies. Rome, in fact, was anxious at this moment to postpone the

struggle with Carthage for the same reason that Hannibal was anxious to

press it on.

She had but just finished a long struggle with the Gaulish tribes of

Northern Italy, and was anxious to recover her strength before she

engaged in another war. It was for this very reason that Hannibal

desired to force on the struggle. His friends at Carthage persuaded the

senate to refuse to listen to the envoys of Rome. Another embassy was

sent to Hannibal, but the general would not give them an interview,

and, following the instructions they had received, the ambassadors then

sailed to Carthage to make a formal demand for reparation, and for the

person of Hannibal to be delivered over to them for punishment.

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. Five new

ambassadors were therefore sent from Rome to ask in the name of the

republic whether Hannibal was authorized by the Carthaginians to lay

siege to Saguntum, to demand that he should be delivered to Rome, and,

in case of refusal, to declare war. The Carthaginian senate met in the

temple of Moloch and there received the Roman ambassadors. Q. Fabius,

the chief man of the embassy, briefly laid the demands of Rome before

the senate. Cestar, one of the Barcine leaders, replied, refusing the

demands. Fabius then rose.

"I give you the choice--peace or war?"

"Choose yourself," the Carthaginians cried.

"Then I choose war," Fabius said.

"So be it," the assembly shouted.

And thus war was formally declared between the two Republics. But

Saguntum had now fallen. The second wall had been breached by the time

Hannibal had returned from his expedition, and an assault was ordered.

As before, the Saguntines fought desperately, but after a long struggle

the Carthaginians succeeded in winning a footing upon the wall.

The Saguntines, seeing that further resistance was vain, that the

besiegers had already won the breach, that there was no chance of

assistance from Rome, and having, moreover, consumed their last

provisions, sought for terms. Halcon, the Saguntine general, and a noble

Spaniard named Alorcus, on the part of Hannibal, met in the breach.

Alorcus named the conditions which Hannibal had imposed--that the

Saguntines should restore to the Torbolates the territory they had

taken from them, and that the inhabitants, giving up all their goods and

treasures, should then be permitted to leave the town and to found a new

city at a spot which Hannibal would name.

The Saguntines, who were crowding round, heard the terms. Many of the

principal senators at once left the place, and hurrying into their

houses carried the gold and silver which they had there, and also some

of that in the public treasury, into the forum, and piling up a vast

heap of wood set it alight and threw themselves into the flames. This

act caused a tremendous commotion in the city. A general tumult broke

out, and Hannibal, seeing that his terms were refused, poured his troops

across the breach, and after a short but desperate fight captured the

city. In accordance with the cruel customs of the times, which, however,

were rarely carried into effect by Hannibal, the male prisoners were

all put to the sword, as on this occasion he considered it necessary

to strike terror into the inhabitants of Spain, and to inflict a lesson

which would not be forgotten during his absence in the country.

The siege had lasted eight months. The booty taken was enormous. Every

soldier in the army had a rich share of the plunder, and a vast sum was

sent to Carthage; besides which the treasure chests of the army were

filled up. All the Spanish troops had leave given them to return to

their homes for the winter, and they dispersed highly satisfied with the

booty with which they were laden. This was a most politic step on the

part of the young general, as the tribesmen, seeing the wealth with

which their countrymen returned, no longer felt it a hardship to fight

in the Carthaginian ranks, and the levies called out in the spring went

willingly and even eagerly.

Hannibal returned with his African troops to spend the winter at

Carthagena He was there joined by the emissaries he had sent to

examine Southern Gaul and the passes of the Alps, to determine the most

practicable route for the march of the army, and to form alliances

with the tribes of Southern Gaul and Northern Italy. Their reports were

favourable, for they had found the greatest discontent existing among

the tribes north of the Apennines, who had but recently been conquered

by the Romans.

Their chiefs, smarting under the heavy yoke of Rome, listened eagerly

to the offers of Hannibal's agents, who distributed large sums of money

among them, and promised them, in return for their assistance, not only

their freedom from their conqueror, but a full share in the spoils of

Rome. The chiefs replied that they would render any assistance to the

Carthaginians as soon as they passed the Alps, and that they would then