ous
result of his enterprise, and his exiled enemies being recalled in
accordance with the treaty of surrender, the opposing party were
immediately restored to power.

Under these new councils, the first measure of the Carthaginians was
to impeach Hasdrubal on a charge of treason, for having involved his
country in these difficulties, and the next was to send a solemn
embassy to Rome, to acknowledge the fault of which their nation had
been guilty, to offer to surrender Hasdrubal into their hands, as the
principal author of the deed, and to ask what further satisfaction the
Romans demanded.

In the mean time, before these messengers arrived, the Romans had been
deliberating what to do. The strongest party were in favor of urging
on the quarrel with Carthage and declaring war. They had not, however,
come to any positive decision. They received the deputation,
therefore, very coolly, and made them no direct reply. As to the
satisfaction which the Carthaginians ought to render to the Romans for
having made war upon their ally contrary to the solemn covenants of
the treaty, they said that that was a question for the Carthaginians
themselves to consider. They had nothing at present to say upon the
subject. The deputies returned to Carthage with this reply, which, of
course, produced great uneasiness and anxiety.

The Carthaginians were more and more desirous now to do every thing in
their power to avert the threatened danger of Roman hostility. They
sent a new embassy to Rome, with still more humble professions than
before. The embassy set sail from Carthage with very little hope,
however, of accomplishing the object of their mission. They were
authorized, nevertheless, to make the most unlimited concessions, and
to submit to any conditions whatever to avert the calamity of another
war.

But the Romans had been furnished with a pretext for commencing
hostilities again, and there was a very strong party among them now
who were determined to avail themselves of this opportunity to
extinguish entirely the Carthaginian power. War had, accordingly, been
declared by the Roman senate very soon after the first embassy had
returned, a fleet and army had been raised and equipped, and the
expedition had sailed. When, therefore, the embassy arrived in Rome,
they found that the war, which it was the object of their mission to
avert, had been declared.

The Romans, however, gave them audience. The embassadors expressed
their willin