d. The envoys then went to Carthage, where they made an animated
protest against what they regarded as an unprovoked attack upon their
allies. Rome, in fact, was anxious at this moment to postpone the
struggle with Carthage for the same reason that Hannibal was anxious to
press it on.

She had but just finished a long struggle with the Gaulish tribes of
Northern Italy, and was anxious to recover her strength before she
engaged in another war. It was for this very reason that Hannibal
desired to force on the struggle. His friends at Carthage persuaded the
senate to refuse to listen to the envoys of Rome. Another embassy was
sent to Hannibal, but the general would not give them an interview,
and, following the instructions they had received, the ambassadors then
sailed to Carthage to make a formal demand for reparation, and for the
person of Hannibal to be delivered over to them for punishment.

But the Barcine party were for the moment in the ascendancy; long
negotiations took place which led to nothing, and all this time the
condition of the Saguntines was becoming more desperate. Five new
ambassadors were therefore sent from Rome to ask in the name of the
republic whether Hannibal was authorized by the Carthaginians to lay
siege to Saguntum, to demand that he should be delivered to Rome, and,
in case of refusal, to declare war. The Carthaginian senate met in the
temple of Moloch and there received the Roman ambassadors. Q. Fabius,
the chief man of the embassy, briefly laid the demands of Rome before
the senate. Cestar, one of the Barcine leaders, replied, refusing the
demands. Fabius then rose.

"I give you the choice--peace or war?"

"Choose yourself," the Carthaginians cried.

"Then I choose war," Fabius said.

"So be it," the assembly shouted.

And thus war was formally declared between the two Republics. But
Saguntum had now fallen. The second wall had been breached by the time
Hannibal had returned from his expedition, and an assault was ordered.
As before, the Saguntines fought desperately, but after a long struggle
the Carthaginians succeeded in winning a footing upon the wall.

The Saguntines, seeing that further resistance was vain, that the
besiegers had already won the breach, that there was no chance of
assistance from Rome, and having, moreover, consumed their last
provisions, sought for terms. Halcon, the Saguntine general, and a noble
Spaniard named Alorcus, on the part of Hannibal, met in the b