obscure, but it was probably in
answer to a request from the Saguntines.

*Hannibal.* Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221, Hannibal, son of
Hamilcar, then in his twenty-sixth year, was appointed to the command in
Spain. Thereupon, relying upon the army which his predecessors and he
himself had built up in Spain and upon the resources of the Carthaginian
dominions there, he resolved to take a step which would inevitably lead to
war with Rome, namely, to attack Saguntum.

*The siege of Saguntum: 219 B. C.* Using as a pretext a dispute between
the Saguntines and some of his Spanish allies, he laid siege to the town
in 219 B. C. and captured it after a siege of eight months. A Roman
embassy appeared at Carthage to demand the surrender of Hannibal and his
staff as the price of averting war with Rome. But the anti-Roman party was
in the majority and the Carthaginian senate accepted the responsibility
for the act of their general, whatever its consequences might be. The
Roman ambassador replied with the declaration of war.

*The Roman plan of campaign.* The most fateful result of the First Punic
War had been the destruction of the maritime supremacy of Carthage. She
never subsequently thought of contesting Rome's dominion on the sea, and
consequently, while extending her empire in Spain and Africa she had
neglected to rebuild her navy. This fact was to be of decisive importance
in the coming struggle. Rome, relying upon it, planned an offensive war.
One army, under the consul Publius Cornelius Scipio, was to proceed to
Spain, supported by the fleet of Massalia, and to detain Hannibal there,
while a second army, under the other consul, Tiberius Sempronius, was
assembled in Sicily to embark for Africa.

*The plan of Hannibal.* But the Romans had not taken into account the
military genius of Hannibal, whose audacious plan of carrying the war into
Italy upset their calculations. Realizing that he could not transport his
army to Italy by sea, he was prepared to cross the Pyrenees, traverse
southern Gaul and, crossing the Alps, descend upon Italy from the north.
Among the Gauls of the Po valley he hoped to find recruits for his army,
and expected that, once he was in Italy, the Roman allies would seize this
opportunity of recovering their independence. Deprived of their support
Rome would have to yield. His ultimate object was not the destruction of
Rome, but the breaking up of the Roman federation in Italy, and the
reduct