21.6
War had
not been formally declared against this city, but there were already grounds
for war. The seeds of quarrel were being sown amongst her neighbours,
especially amongst the Turdetani. When the man who had sown the seed
showed himself ready to aid and abet the quarrel, and his object plainly was
not to refer the question to arbitration, but to appeal to force, the Saguntines
sent a deputation to Rome to beg for help in a war which was inevitably
approaching. The consuls for the time being were P. Cornelius Scipio and
Tiberius Sempronius Longus. After introducing the envoys they invited the
senate to declare its opinion as to what policy should be adopted. It was
decided that commissioners should be sent to Spain to investigate the
circumstances, and if they considered it necessary they were to warn
Hannibal not to interfere with the Saguntines, who were allies of Rome; then
they were to cross over to Africa and lay before the Carthaginian council the
complaints which they had made. But before the commission was despatched
news came that the siege of Saguntum had, to every one's surprise, actually
commenced. The whole position of affairs required to be reconsidered by the
senate; some were for assigning Spain and Africa as separate fields of action
for the two consuls, and thought that the war ought to be prosecuted by land
and sea; others were for confining the war solely to Hannibal in Spain; others
again were of opinion that such an immense task ought not to be entered
upon hastily, and that they ought to await the return of the commission from
Spain. This latter view seemed the safest and was adopted, and the
commissioners, P. Valerius Flaccus and Q. Baebius Tamphilus, were
despatched without further delay to Hannibal. If he refused to abandon
hostilities they were to proceed to Carthage to demand the surrender of the
general to answer for his breach of treaty.
