1When Hanno had finished, there was no need for anyone at all to contend with him in a speech: so nearly was the whole senate Hannibal's; 1and they charged that Hanno had spoken with more hostility than Valerius Flaccus, the Roman envoy. 2Then the reply was given to the Roman envoys that the war had been started by the Saguntines, not by Hannibal; 2and that the Roman people were acting unjustly if they preferred the Saguntines to their very ancient alliance with the Carthaginians. 2While the Romans were wasting time sending embassies, Hannibal, because his soldiers were worn out by battles and siege-works, gave them a few days' rest, posting pickets to guard the sheds and other works.
3Meanwhile he fires their spirits, now by spurring their anger against the enemy, now with the hope of rewards; 4and when he proclaimed before an assembly that the plunder of the captured city would belong to the soldiers, they were all so fired up that, if the signal had been given at once, it seemed that no force could resist them. 5The Saguntines, though they had had rest from battles for some days, neither provoking nor provoked, had never ceased from work by night or by day, so as to build a new wall on the side where the town had been laid open by the collapse. 6Then an assault considerably fiercer than before fell upon them, and they could not well tell where first or chiefly to bring help, since everything resounded with various shouts.
7Hannibal himself was present to urge his men on where a movable tower, higher than all the city's fortifications, was being brought up. 7When this had been moved up and, with catapults and ballistas placed on all its storeys, had cleared the walls of defenders, then Hannibal, thinking it his opportunity, sends about five hundred Africans with pickaxes to undermine the wall from the bottom. 8Nor was the work difficult, because the rubble had not been bonded with mortar but daubed with clay, in the old style of building. 9And so it collapsed more widely than where it was being cut, and through the gaps opened by the collapse columns of armed men went into the city.
10They also seize a piece of high ground, and bringing catapults and ballistas there, they surround it with a wall, so as to have a fort within the city itself, overhanging it like a citadel; 10and the Saguntines build an inner wall in front of the part of the city not yet captured. 11On both sides they fortify and fight with the utmost force; 11but by defending the inner parts the Saguntines make their city smaller day by day. 12At the same time the scarcity of everything grows through the long siege, and the expectation of help from outside diminishes, since the Romans, their only hope, were so far away, and all around was in the enemy's hands.
13For a short while, however, their weakened spirits were revived by Hannibal's sudden departure against the Oretani and Carpetani; these two peoples, provoked by the harshness of a levy, had held back the recruiting officers and given cause to fear a revolt, but, overwhelmed by Hannibal's speed, they laid down the arms they had taken up.