nigmatic man.

Absorbed in the contemplation of the cortege which had come to bid
farewell to the legates, he had turned his back on Actaeon. 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.

"They think themselves strong; they think themselves safe, because Rome
protects them. They imagine Carthage dead, because her Senate of
shopkeepers is afraid to provoke an issue with an ally of Rome. They
have beheaded the Saguntine friends of the Carthaginian, those who of
old were friends of the Barcas, and used to go out to greet Hamilcar
when he passed near the city on his expeditions. They do not know that
there is one who will not sleep as long as peace exists. The world is
not wide enough for these two peoples; either the one or the other!"

As if the acclamations of the multitude shouting farewells toward the
small boat in which the legates were being borne to the liburna and the
trumpet blasts which burst forth from the poop of the vessel, were
whiplashes to the shepherd, with clenched teeth and eyes red with fury,
he shook his sinewy arms at the ship and muttered in menacing tones:

"Rome!----Rome!"

CHAPTER II

SAGUNTUM

The sun was high in the heavens when Actaeon walked toward the city along
the thoroughfare called the Road of the Serpent.

On his way he overtook wagons laden with leather bottles of oil and
amphorae of wine. The files of slaves bending under the weight of heavy
burdens, their feet covered with dust, drew to one side of the road to
give him passage, displaying that submission and shrinking which a
freeman always inspired. The Greek paused a moment before the oil mills,
watching the enormous stones revolved by chained slaves; then he
continued on his way skirting the bases of the hills, on the crests of
which rose the _speculae_, little red watchtowers, which, with their
fires, announced to the Acropolis of Saguntum the arrival of ships, or
any activity observed on the opposite slope where began the territory of
the hostile Turdetani.

The fertile fields of the immense domain were flooded by a golden shower
of morning sunshine. From the villages, from the country-houses, from
the innumerable dwellings scattered throughout the extensive valley,
streamed people to the Road of the Serpent, traveling toward the city.

The majority of the Saguntine people lived in the country, cultivating