Though, as we have already hinted, there were many remote causes for this war, the more immediate one was the taking of Saguntum by the Carthaginian general, Hannibal. We shall speak of the fall of this city when we come to describe its ruins, which still remain.
Words, we are told, could never express the grief and consternation with which the news of the taking of Saguntum was received at Rome. The senate sent immediately deputies to Carthage to inquire whether Saguntum had been besieged by order of the republic; and, if so, to declare war: or, in case the siege had been undertaken solely by the authority of Hannibal, that he should be delivered up to the Romans. The senate not giving any answer to this demand, one of the deputies took up the folded lappet of his robe, and said in a proud voice, "I bring here either peace or war; the choice is left to yourselves." To this the senate answered, "We leave the choice to you." The deputy then declared, "I give you war then." "And we," answered the senate, "as heartily accept it; and we are resolved to prosecute it with the same cheerfulness." Such was the beginning of the second Punic war.
During this war Hannibal made his celebrated march over the Alps. He entered Italy, and fought the battles of Ticinus, Trebia, Thrasymene, and Cannæ. He besieged Capua, and then Rome. In the mean time Scipio conquers all Spain; and having been appointed consul, he sets sail for Africa, and carries the war into the bosom of the Carthaginian state. Success attended him every where.
When the council of "one hundred" found this, they deputed thirty of their body to the tent of the Roman general, when they all threw themselves prostrate upon the earth, such being the custom of the country, spoke to him in terms of great submission, and accused Hannibal of being the author of all their calamities, and promised, in the name of the senate, implicit obedience to whatever the Romans should be pleased to ordain.
Scipio answered, that though he was come into Africa for conquest, and not for peace, he would, nevertheless, grant them one, upon condition, that they should deliver up all the Roman prisoners and deserters; that they should recal their armies out of Gaul and Italy; that they should never set foot again in Spain; that they should retire out of all the islands between Italy and Africa; that they should deliver up all their ships except twenty; give the Romans five hundred thousand bushels of wheat; three hundred thousand of barley; and, moreover, pay to the Romans fifteen thousand talents.
These terms the Carthaginians consented to; but their compliance was only in appearance: their design being to gain time to recal Hannibal. That general was then in Italy. Rome was almost within his grasp. He had, perhaps, seized it, had he marched thither immediately on gaining the battle of Cannæ. The order to return home overwhelmed him with indignation and sorrow. "Never banished man," says Livy, "showed so much regret at leaving his native country as Hannibal did in going out of that of an enemy." He was exasperated almost to madness to see himself thus forced to quit his prey. Arriving in his own country—for we must hasten our narrative—that celebrated meeting between the two generals at Zama took place, which makes so conspicuous a figure in Roman and Carthaginian history.
The issue of this meeting was a battle, in which the Carthaginians, after an obstinate engagement, took to flight, leaving ten thousand men on the field of battle. Hannibal escaped in the tumult, and entering Carthage, owned that he was overthrown; that the disaster was irrecoverable; and that the citizens had no other choice left but to accept whatever terms the conqueror chose to impose.
After some difficulty and opposition in the Carthaginian senate, peace was agreed upon. The terms were exceedingly hard. They were these:—that the Carthaginians should continue free and preserve their laws, territories, and the cities they possessed in Africa during the war. That they should deliver up to the Romans all deserters, slaves, and captives belonging to them; all their ships, except ten triremes; all their tame elephants; and that they should not train up any more for war. That they should not make war out of Africa, nor even in that country, without obtaining leave for that purpose of the Roman people; should restore to Masinissa all they had dispossessed either him or his ancestors of; should furnish money and corn to the Roman auxiliaries, till their ambassadors should be returned from Rome; should pay to the Romans ten thousand Euboic talents[177] of silver in fifty annual payments, and give one hundred hostages, who should be nominated by Scipio.
These were hard terms indeed; and when Scipio burnt all the ships, to the amount of five hundred in the harbour of Carthage, these ships which had been the cause of all the power of Carthage, Carthage appeared to its inhabitants as if it never could recover; nor, indeed, did it ever do so. The blow was fatal.
This war lasted seventeen years: the peace which succeeded, fifty[178]. Twenty-five years after it was concluded, Hannibal poisoned himself at the court of Prusias.