igorous
preparations making by the Carthaginians for war--reached Rome, the
whole city was thrown into consternation. The senate and the people
held tumultuous and disorderly assemblies, in which the events which
had occurred, and the course of proceeding which it was incumbent on
the Romans to take, were discussed with much excitement and clamor.
The Romans were, in fact, afraid of the Carthaginians. The campaigns
of Hannibal in Spain had impressed the people with a strong sense of
the remorseless and terrible energy of his character; they at once
concluded that his plans would be formed for marching into Italy, and
they even anticipated the danger of his bringing the war up to the
very gates of the city, so as to threaten _them_ with the destruction
which he had brought upon Saguntum. The event showed how justly they
appreciated his character.

Since the conclusion of the first Punic war, there had been peace
between the Romans and Carthaginians for about a quarter of a century.
During all this time both nations had been advancing in wealth and
power, but the Carthaginians had made much more rapid progress than
the Romans. The Romans had, indeed, been very successful at the onset
in the former war, but in the end the Carthaginians had proved
themselves their equal. They seemed, therefore, to dread now a fresh
encounter with these powerful foes, led on, as they were now to be, by
such a commander as Hannibal.

They determined, therefore, to send a second embassy to Carthage, with
a view of making one more effort to preserve peace before actually
commencing hostilities. They accordingly elected five men from among
the most influential citizens of the state--men of venerable age and
of great public consideration--and commissioned them to proceed to
Carthage and ask once more whether it was the deliberate and final
decision of the Carthaginian senate to avow and sustain the action of
Hannibal. This solemn embassage set sail. They arrived at Carthage.
They appeared before the senate. They argued their cause, but it was,
of course, to deaf and unwilling ears. The Carthaginian orators
replied to them, each side attempting to throw the blame of the
violation of the treaty on the other. It was a solemn hour, for the
peace of the world, the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, and the
continued happiness or the desolation and ruin of vast regions of
country, depended on the issue of the debate. Unhappily, the breach
was on