Proud and cruel nation! every thing must be yours, and at your disposal! You are to prescribe to us with whom we shall make war; with whom we shall make peace! You are to set bounds; to shut us up between hills and rivers: but you—you are not to observe the limits which yourselves have fixed. Pass not the Iberus. What next? Touch not the Saguntines. Saguntum is upon the Iberus; move not a step towards that city.

HANNIBAL’S SPEECH TO HIS SOLDIERS.

Saguntum was a celebrated city of Hispania Taraconensis, on the west side of the Iberus, about a mile from the sea-shore. It was founded by a colony of Zacynthians, and by some of the Rutili of Ardea196.

Saguntum, according to Livy, acquired immense riches, partly from its commerce both by land and sea, and partly from its just laws and excellent police.

Saguntum was under the protection of the Romans, if not numbered amongst its cities; and when by a treaty made between that people and the Carthaginians, the latter were permitted to carry their arms as far as the Iberus, this city was excepted.

The moment Hannibal was created general, he lost no time, for fear of being prevented by death, as his father had been. Though the Spaniards had so much advantage over him, with regard to the number of forces, their army amounting to upwards of one hundred thousand men, yet he chose his time and posts so happily, that he entirely defeated them. After this every thing submitted to his arms. But he still forbore laying siege to Saguntum, carefully avoiding every occasion of a rupture with the Romans, till he should be furnished with all things necessary for so important an enterprise;—pursuant to the advice of his father. He applied himself particularly to engage the affections of the citizens and allies, and to gain their confidence, by allotting them a large share of the plunder taken from the enemy, and by paying them all their arrears.

The Saguntines, on their side, sensible of the danger with which they were threatened, from the continued successes of Hannibal, advertised the Romans of them. Upon this, deputies were nominated by the latter, and ordered to go and take a personal information upon the spot; they commanded them also to lay their complaints before Hannibal, if it should be thought proper; and in case he should refuse to do justice, that then they should go directly to Carthage, and make the same complaints. In the meantime, Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum, promising himself great advantages from the taking of this city. He was persuaded that this would deprive the Romans of all hopes of carrying the war into Spain; that this new conquest would secure the old ones; and that no enemy would be left behind him; that he should find money enough in it for the execution of his designs; that the plunder of the city would inspire his soldiers with great ardour, and make them follow him with greater cheerfulness; and that, lastly, the spoils which he should send to Carthage would gain him the favour of the citizens. Animated by these motives, he carried on the siege with the utmost vigour.

News was soon carried to Rome, that Saguntum was besieged. But the Romans, instead of flying to its relief, lost their time in fruitless debates, and equally insignificant disputations. The Saguntines were now reduced to the last extremity, and in want of all things. An accommodation was thereupon proposed; but the conditions on which it was offered, appeared so harsh, that the Saguntines could not so much as think of accepting them. Before they gave their final answer, the principal senators, bringing their gold and silver, and that of the public treasury, into the market-place, threw both into a fire, lighted for that purpose, and afterwards themselves! At the same time, a tower which had been long assaulted by the battering-rams, falling with a dreadful noise, the Carthaginians entered the city by the breach, and soon made themselves masters of it, and cut to pieces all the inhabitants, who were of sufficient age to bear arms.

“Words,” says Polybius, “could never express the grief and consternation with which the news of the taking, and cruel fate of Saguntum, was received at Rome. Compassion for an unfortunate city, shame for their having failed to succour such faithful allies, a just indignation against the Carthaginians, the authors of all these calamities; the strong alarms, raised by the successes of Hannibal, whom the Romans fancied they saw already at their gates; all these sentiments were so violent, that, during the first moments of them, the Romans were unable to come to any resolution, or do any thing, but give way to the torrent of their passion, and sacrifice floods of tears to the memory of a city, which lay in ruins because of its inviolable fidelity to the Romans, and had been betrayed by their imprudent delays, and unaccountable indolence. When they were a little recovered, an assembly of the people was called, and war unanimously declared against the people of Carthage.”

The conqueror afterwards rebuilt it, and placed a garrison there, with all the noblemen whom he had detained as hostages, from the several neighbouring nations of Spain197.

The city remained in a deplorable state of distress under the Carthaginians, till the year of Rome 538, when Scipio, having humbled the power of Carthage in Spain, in process of time recovered Saguntum, and made it, as Pliny says, “a new city.” By the Romans it was treated with every kind of distinction; but at some period, not ascertained by historians, it was reduced to ruins.

The city of Morviedro is supposed to be situated on the ruins of Saguntum; the name of which being derived from Muri veteres, Muros viejos, “old walls.” It abounds with vestiges of antiquity. Several Celtiberian and Roman inscriptions are seen; but of all the numerous statues that the temples, and other public edifices of Saguntum once had, only one remains, of white marble, without a head; besides the fragment of another.

The traces of the walls of its circus are, nevertheless, still discernible; though its mosaic pavement is destroyed. A greater portion of the theatre remains than of any other Roman monument.

A writer on Spanish antiquities in 1684, gives the following account of this city, whereby we may learn that at that time there were many more remains of antiquity then there are at present. “The Roman inscriptions,” says he, “that are scattered up and down in the public and private buildings, and the medals and other monuments of antiquity, that have been found there, being endless, I shall only present my reader with that which is over one of the gates of the town, in honour of the emperor Claudius:—

“SENATVS. POPVLVSQUE.
SAGVNTINORVM.
CLAVDIO.
INVICTO. PIO. FEL. IMP.
CAES. PONT. MAX.
TRIB. POT. P.P.
PROCOS.

“And upon another gate, near the cathedral, is a head of Hannibal, cut in stone. From hence, if you mount still higher up the rock, you come to an amphitheatre, which has twenty-six rows of seats one above another, all cut in the rock; and in the other parts the arches are so thick and strong, that they are little inferior to the rock itself. There are remains of prodigious aqueducts, and numbers of vast cisterns under ground. As this country has been celebrated by Titus Livius, and Polybius, for its fertility, I shall take notice of one or two of its productions, which are peculiar to it. First then, the winter figs, which Pliny speaks of, are to be met with in great perfection at this day; and are almost as remarkable for their flavour and sweetness, as for their hanging upon the trees in the middle of the winter. Their pears also have a higher reputation than any others. There are cherry-trees that are full of fine fruit in January: and in a place near Canet, about half a league off, they raised a melon that weighed thirty pounds198.”