A few days later the Carthaginian army were astonished by the issue
of an order that the whole were to be in readiness to march upon the
following day. The greatest excitement arose when the news got abroad.
None knew against whom hostilities were to be directed. No one had heard
aught of the arrival of messengers announcing fresh insurrection among
the recently conquered tribes, and all sorts of surmises were indulged
in as to the foe against whom this great force, the largest which had
ever been collected by Carthage, were about to get in motion.
The army now gathered around Carthagena amounted, indeed, to a hundred
and fifty thousand men, and much surprise had for some time existed
at the continual arrival of reinforcements from home, and at the large
number of troops which had during the winter been raised and disciplined
from among the friendly tribes.
Simultaneously with the issue of the order long lines of wagons, laden
with military stores, began to pour out from the arsenals, and all day
long a procession of carts moved across the bridge over the canal in the
isthmus to the mainland. The tents were struck at daylight, the baggage
loaded up into the wagons told off to accompany the various bodies of
soldiers, and the troops formed up in military order.
When Hannibal rode on to the ground, surrounded by his principal
officers, a shout of welcome rose from the army; and he proceeded to
make a close inspection of the whole force. The officers then placed
themselves at the head of their respective commands, the trumpets gave
the signal, and the army set out on a march, as to whose direction and
distance few present had any idea, and from which few, indeed, were ever
destined to return.
There was no longer any occasion for secrecy as to the object of the
expedition. The generals repeated it to their immediate staffs, these
informed the other officers, and the news speedily spread through the
army that they were marching against Saguntum. The importance of the
news was felt by all. Saguntum was the near ally of Rome, and an attack
upon that city could but mean that Carthage was entering upon another
struggle with her great rival.
Saguntum lay about 140 miles north of Carthagena, and the army had to
cross the range of mountains now known as the Sierra Morena, which
run across the peninsula from Cape St. Vincent on the west to Cape St.
Martin on the east. The march of so large an army, impeded as it was
by a huge train of wagons with stores and the machines necessary for a
siege, was toilsome and arduous in the extreme. But all worked with the
greatest enthusiasm and diligence; roads were made with immense labour
through forests, across ravines, and over mountain streams.
Hannibal himself was always present, encouraging the men by his praises,
and sharing all their hardships.
At last the mountains were passed, and the army poured down into
the fertile plains of Valencia, which town, however, was not then in
existence. Passing over the site where it is now situated they continued
their march north until Saguntum, standing on its rocky eminence, came
into view.
During the march Malchus and his company had led the way, guided by
natives, who pointed out the easiest paths. As there were no enemies to
be guarded against, they had taken their full share in the labours of
the army.
The Saguntines were already aware of the approach of the expedition. No
sooner had it crossed the crest of the mountains than native runners
had carried the news of its approach, and the inhabitants had spent the
intervening time in laying in great stores of provisions, and in making
every preparation for defence. The garrison was small in comparison with
the force marching against it, but it was ample for the defence of the
walls, for its position rendered the city well nigh impregnable against
the machines in use at the time, and was formidable in the extreme even
against modern artillery, for 2000 years afterwards Saguntum, with a
garrison of 3000 men, resisted for a long time all the efforts of a
French army under General Suchet. As soon as his force arrived near the
town Hannibal rode forward, and, in accordance with the custom of the
times, himself summoned the garrison to surrender. Upon their refusal
he solemnly declared war by hurling his javelin against the walls. The
troops at once advanced to the assault, and poured flights of arrows,
masses of stones from their machines, javelins, and missiles of all
descriptions into the city, the defenders replying with equal vigour
from the walls. At the end of the first day's fighting Hannibal
perceived that his hopes of carrying the place by assault were vain--for
the walls were too high to be scaled, too thick to be shaken by any
irregular attack--and that a long siege must be undertaken.
This was a great disappointment to him, as it would cause a long
delay that it would be scarce possible to commence the march which he
meditated that summer. As to advancing, with Saguntum in his rear, it
was not to be thought of, for the Romans would be able to land their
armies there and to cut him off from all communication with Carthagena
and Carthage. There was, then, nothing to be done but to undertake the
siege in regular order.
The army formed an encampment in a circle round the town. A strong force
was left to prevent the garrison from making a sortie, and the whole of
the troops were then marched away in detachments to the hills to fell
and bring down the timber which would be required for the towers and
walls, the bareness of the rock rendering it impossible to construct the
approaches as usual with earth. In the first place, a wall, strengthened
by numerous small towers, was erected round the whole circumference
of the rock; then the approaches were begun on the western side, where
attack was alone possible.
This was done by lines of wooden towers, connected one with another by
walls of the same material; movable towers were constructed to be pushed
forward against the great tower which formed the chief defence of the
wall, and on each side the line of attack was carried onward by portable
screens covered with thick hide. In the meantime the Saguntines were
not idle. Showers of missiles of all descriptions were hurled upon the
working parties, great rocks from the machines on the walls crashed
through the wooden erections, and frequent and desperate sorties were
made, in which the Carthaginians were almost always worsted. The nature
of the ground, overlooked as it was by the lofty towers and walls, and
swept by the missiles of the defenders, rendered it impossible for any
considerable force to remain close at hand to render assistance to the
workers, and the sudden attacks of the Saguntines several times drove
them far down the hillside, and enabled the besieged, with axe and fire,
to destroy much of the work which had been so labouriously carried out.
In one of these sorties Hannibal, who was continually at the front,
overlooking the work, was seriously wounded by a javelin in the thigh.
Until he was cured the siege languished, and was converted into a
blockade, for it was his presence and influence alone which encouraged
the men to continue their work under such extreme difficulties,
involving the death of a large proportion of those engaged. Upon
Hannibal's recovery the work was pressed forward with new vigour, and
the screens and towers were pushed on almost to the foot of the walls.
The battering rams were now brought up, and--shielded by massive
screens, which protected those who worked them from the darts and stones
thrown down by the enemy, and by lofty towers, from whose tops the
Carthaginian archers engaged the Saguntines on the wall--began their
work.
The construction of walls was in those days rude and primitive, and they
had little of the solidity of such structures in succeeding ages.
The stones were very roughly shaped, no mortar was used, and the
displacement of one stone consequently involved that of several others.
This being the case it was not long before the heavy battering rams of
the Carthaginians produced an effect on the walls, and a large breach
was speedily made. Three towers and the walls which connected them fell
with a mighty crash, and the besiegers, believing that the place was
won, advanced to the assault. But the Saguntines met them in the breach,
and for hours a desperate battle raged there.
The Saguntines hurled down upon the assailants trunks of trees bristling
with spearheads and spikes of iron, blazing darts and falariques--great
blocks of wood with projecting spikes, and covered thickly with a mass
of pitch and sulphur which set on fire all they touched. Other species
of falariques were in the form of spindles, the shaft wrapped round with
flax dipped in pitch. Hannibal fought at the head of his troops with
desperate bravery, and had a narrow escape of being crushed by an
enormous rock which fell at his feet; but in spite of his efforts
and those of his troops they were unable to carry the breach, and at
nightfall fell back to their camp, having suffered very heavy losses.
Singularly enough the French columns were repulsed in an effort to
carry a breach at almost the same spot, the Spaniards hurling among them
stones, hand grenades of glass bottles and shells, and defending the
breach with their long pikes against all the efforts of Suchet's troops.
Some days passed before the attack was renewed, as the troops were worn
out by their labours. A strong guard in the meantime held the advanced
works against any sorties of the Saguntines.
These, on their side, worked night and day, and by the time the
Carthaginians again advanced the wall was rebuilt and the breach closed.
But Hannibal had also been busy. Seeing that it was impossible for
his troops to win an entrance by a breach, as long as the Saguntines
occupied every point commanding it, he caused a vast tower to be built,
sufficiently lofty to overlook every point of the defences, arming each
of its stages with catapults and ballistas. He also built near the walls
a great terrace of wood higher than the walls themselves, and from this
and from the tower he poured such torrents of missiles into the town
that the defenders could no longer remain upon the walls. Five hundred
Arab miners now advanced, and these, setting to work with their
implements, soon loosened the lower stones of the wall, and this again
fell with a mighty crash and a breach was opened.
The Carthaginians at once swarmed in and took possession of the wall;
but while the besiegers had been constructing their castle and terrace,
the Saguntines had built an interior wall, and Hannibal saw himself
confronted with a fresh line of defences.
As preparations were being made for the attack of the new defences
messengers arrived saying that the Carpatans and Orotans, furious at the
heavy levies of men which had been demanded from them for the army, had
revolted. Leaving Maharbal to conduct the siege in his absence, Hannibal
hurried away with a portion of his force, and returned in two months,
having put down the revolt and severely punished the tribesmen.
While the siege had been continuing the Romans had been making vain
efforts to induce the Carthaginians to desist. No sooner had the
operations commenced than agents from the Roman senate waited on
Hannibal and begged him to abandon the siege. Hannibal treated their
remonstrance with disdain, at the same time writing to Carthage to say
that it was absolutely necessary that the people of Saguntum, who were
insolent and hostile, relying on the protection of Rome, should be
punished. 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 breach.
Alorcus named the conditions which Hannibal had imposed--that the
Saguntines should restore to the Torbolates the territory they had
taken from them, and that the inhabitants, giving up all their goods and
treasures, should then be permitted to leave the town and to found a new
city at a spot which Hannibal would name.
The Saguntines, who were crowding round, heard the terms. Many of the
principal senators at once left the place, and hurrying into their
houses carried the gold and silver which they had there, and also some
of that in the public treasury, into the forum, and piling up a vast
heap of wood set it alight and threw themselves into the flames. This
act caused a tremendous commotion in the city. A general tumult broke
out, and Hannibal, seeing that his terms were refused, poured his troops
across the breach, and after a short but desperate fight captured the
city. In accordance with the cruel customs of the times, which, however,
were rarely carried into effect by Hannibal, the male prisoners were
all put to the sword, as on this occasion he considered it necessary
to strike terror into the inhabitants of Spain, and to inflict a lesson
which would not be forgotten during his absence in the country.
The siege had lasted eight months. The booty taken was enormous. Every
soldier in the army had a rich share of the plunder, and a vast sum was
sent to Carthage; besides which the treasure chests of the army were
filled up. All the Spanish troops had leave given them to return to
their homes for the winter, and they dispersed highly satisfied with the
booty with which they were laden. This was a most politic step on the
part of the young general, as the tribesmen, seeing the wealth with
which their countrymen returned, no longer felt it a hardship to fight
in the Carthaginian ranks, and the levies called out in the spring went
willingly and even eagerly.
Hannibal returned with his African troops to spend the winter at
Carthagena. He was there joined by the emissaries he had sent to
examine Southern Gaul and the passes of the Alps, to determine the most
practicable route for the march of the army, and to form alliances
with the tribes of Southern Gaul and Northern Italy. Their reports were
favourable, for they had found the greatest discontent existing among
the tribes north of the Apennines, who had but recently been conquered
by the Romans.
Their chiefs, smarting under the heavy yoke of Rome, listened eagerly
to the offers of Hannibal's agents, who distributed large sums of money
among them, and promised them, in return for their assistance, not only
their freedom from their conqueror, but a full share in the spoils of
Rome. The chiefs replied that they would render any assistance to the
Carthaginians as soon as they passed the Alps, and that they would then
join them with all their forces. The reports as to the passes of the
Alps were less satisfactory. Those who had examined them found that the
difficulties they offered to the passage of an army were enormous, and
that the tribes who inhabited the lower passes, having suffered in
no way yet at the hands of Rome, would probably resist any army
endeavouring to cross.
By far the easiest route would be to follow the seashore, but this was
barred against the Carthaginians by the fact that the Massilians (the
people of Marseilles) were the close allies of Rome. They had admitted
Roman colonists among them, and carried on an extensive trade with the
capital. Their town was strong, and their ports would be open to the
Roman fleets. The tribes in their neighourhood were all closely allied
with them.
Hannibal saw at once that he could not advance by the route by the sea
without first reducing Marseilles. This would be an even more difficult
operation than the siege of Saguntum, as Rome would be able to send any
number of men by sea to the aid of the besieged, and the great struggle
would be fought out in Southern Gaul instead of, as he wished, in Italy.
Thus he decided to march by a route which would take him far north of
Marseilles, even although it would necessitate a passage through the
terrible passes of the Alps.
During the winter Hannibal laboured without intermission in preparing
for his expedition. He was ever among his soldiers, and personally saw
to everything which could conduce to their comfort and well being. He
took a lively interest in every minute detail which affected them; saw
that their clothing was abundant and of good quality, inspected their
rations, and saw that these were well cooked.
It was this personal attention to the wants of his soldiers which, as
much as his genius as a general, his personal valour, and his brilliant
qualities, endeared him to his troops. They saw how anxious he was for
their welfare; they felt that he regarded every man in his army as a
friend and comrade, and in return they were ready to respond to every
appeal, to make every sacrifice, to endure, to suffer, to fight to the
death for their beloved leader. His troops were mercenaries--that is,
they fought for pay in a cause which in no way concerned them--but
personal affection for their general supplied in them the place of the
patriotism which inspires modern soldiers, and transformed these semi
barbarous tribesmen into troops fit to cope with the trained legionaries
of Rome.
Hannibal was far in advance of any of the generals of his time in all
matters of organization. His commissariat was as perfect as that of
modern armies. It was its duty to collect grain from the country through
which the army marched, to form magazines, to collect and drive with the
troops herds of cattle, to take over the provisions and booty brought
in by foraging parties, and, to see to the daily distribution of rations
among the various divisions.
Along the line of communication depots were formed, where provisions,
clothing, and arms were stored in readiness for use, and from which the
whole army could, in case of necessity, be supplied with fresh clothing
and shoes. A band of surgeons accompanied the army, at the head of whom
was Synhalus, one of the most celebrated physicians of the time. So
perfect were the arrangements that it is said that throughout the
long campaign in Italy not a single day passed but that the troops,
elephants, and animals of all descriptions accompanying the army
received their daily rations of food.