annibal gave the city some days of respite. The
besiegers remained non-combatant in their camp, watching Saguntum from
afar. The slingers came out in the mornings to exercise their arms by
shooting against the wall, but aside from this, and from the arrow-shots
with which they replied from the city, there was no further exchange of
hostilities between the besiegers and the besieged.

Bands of cavalry overran the domain foraging, and the immense multitude
of ferocious tribes finished the work of destruction, sacking the villas
and country-houses. The groves were cleared away; each day they chopped
down new trees in order to supply the camp with wood, and in these
denuded spaces the tiled roofs and towers could no longer be seen. Only
smoking and blackened ruins appeared here and there through the deserted
fields. A mosaic on a level with the ground was often the only vestige
of an elegant villa razed to its foundations by the invaders.

The beleaguered people saw Hannibal's army rapidly swelling. Each day
new tribes arrived. It seemed as if all Iberia, subjugated by the
prestige of Hannibal, were coming to camp around Saguntum, fired by the
fame of its riches. They came on foot or on horseback, dirty, savage,
covered with skins or dressed in esparto, carrying crescent-shaped
shields and short two-edged swords, eager to fight, and bringing with
them showy presents for the African, whose glory dazzled them.

Such of the Saguntines as had trafficked with the tribes of the interior
recognized the new arrivals from the walls. They came from very far;
some there were who had marched more than a month to reach Saguntum, and
they pointed out the Lusitanians, athletic of figure, of whom horrible
tales of ferocity were told; the Galicians, who lived on fish and by
washing and melting the gold of their rivers; the Asturians, who worked
in iron; and the gloomy Basques whose language other nations could not
understand. Mixed with them came fresh tribes from Baetica, who had been
slow in answering the Carthaginian's call; agile infantry, of olive
skin, their hair hanging down their backs, dressed in short white skirts
with broad purple borders, and carrying large round shields which served
them as floats in crossing streams. The camp stretched along the river
and spread over the extensive valley, scattering finally in groups of
tents and huts as far as the eye could see. It was a veritable city,
larger than Saguntum, which advanced a