ans were dispossessed of Sardinia by the Romans, and a new
tribute was so unreasonably imposed on them; it must be confessed,
continues Polybius, that the conduct of the Romans is entirely
unjustifiable on these two points, as being founded merely on violence and
injustice; and that, had the Carthaginians, without having recourse to
ambiguous and frivolous pretences, plainly demanded satisfaction upon
these two grievances, and, upon their being refused it, had declared war
against Rome, in that case, reason and justice had been entirely on their
side.

The interval between the conclusion of the first, and the beginning of the
second Punic war, was twenty-four years.

(M120) _The Beginning of the Second Punic War._--When war was resolved
upon, and proclaimed on both sides, Hannibal, who then was twenty-six or
twenty-seven years of age, before he discovered his grand design, thought
it incumbent on him to provide for the security of Spain and Africa.(723)
With this view, he marched the forces out of the one into the other, so
that the Africans served in Spain and the Spaniards in Africa. He was
prompted to this from a persuasion, that these soldiers, being thus at a
distance from their respective countries, would be fitter for service; and
more firmly attached to him, as they would be a kind of hostages for each
other's fidelity. The forces which he left in Africa amounted to about
forty thousand men, twelve hundred whereof were cavalry. Those of Spain
were something above fifteen thousand, of which two thousand five hundred
and fifty were horse. He left the command of the Spanish forces to his
brother Asdrubal, with a fleet of about sixty ships to guard the coasts;
and, at the same time, gave him the wisest directions for his conduct,
whether with regard to the Spaniards or the Romans, in case they should
attack him.

Livy observes, that Hannibal, before he set forward on this expedition,
went to Cadiz to discharge some vows which he had made to Hercules; and
that he engaged himself by new ones, in order to obtain success in the war
he was entering upon. Polybius gives us,(724) in few words, a very clear
idea of the distance of the several places through which Hannibal was to
march in his way to Italy. From New Carthage, whence he set out to the
Iberus, were computed two thousand two hundred furlongs.(725)(726) From
the Iberus to Emporium, a small maritime town, which separates Spain from
the Gauls, according to Strabo