Liv. 21.7.1Dum ea Rōmānī parant cōnsultantque, iam Saguntum summā vī oppugnābātur.While the Romans were preparing and deliberating on these things, Saguntum was already being attacked with all possible force. Liv. 21.7.2Cīvitās ea longē opulentissima ultrā Hibērum fuit, sita passūs mīlle ferme ā marīa.That city was by far the wealthiest beyond the Ebro, situated about a mile from the sea. Liv. 21.7.2Oriundī ā Zacynthō īnsulā dīcuntur, mīxtīque etiam ab Ardeā Rutulōrum quīdam generis;Its people are said to have come originally from the island of Zacynthus, and some of Rutulian stock from Ardea were also mixed with them; Liv. 21.7.3cēterum in tantās brevī crēverant opēs seu maritimīs seu terrestribus frūctibus seu multitūdinis incrēmentō seu disciplīnae sānctitāte, quā fidem sociālem ūsque ad perniciem suam coluērunt.but in a short time they had grown to such great wealth, whether through the produce of sea or land, or the increase of their numbers, or the integrity of their discipline, by which they kept faith with their allies even to their own destruction. Liv. 21.7.4Hannibal īnfestō exercitū ingressus fīnīs pervastātīs passim agrīs urbem tripertītō adgreditur.Hannibal, having entered their territory with his army ready for war and laid waste the fields far and wide, attacks the city on three sides.
Liv. 21.7.5Angulus mūrī erat in plāniōrem patentiōremque quam cētera circā vallem vergēns.There was a corner of the wall sloping down towards a valley more level and open than the rest of the ground around. Liv. 21.7.5Adversus eum vīneās agere īnstituit, per quās ariēs moenibus admovērī posset.Against it he began to move up siege-sheds, under cover of which a battering-ram could be brought up to the walls. Liv. 21.7.6Sed ut locus procul mūrō satis aequus agendīs vīneīs fuit, ita haudquāquam prosperē, postquam ad effectum operis ventum est, coeptīs succēdēbat.But though the ground at a distance from the wall was level enough for moving the sheds, the undertaking went by no means well once it came to carrying out the work. Liv. 21.7.7Et turris ingēns imminēbat, et mūrus, ut in suspectō locō, suprā cēterae modum altitūdinis ēmūnītus erat, et iuventūs dēlēcta, ubi plūrimum perīculī ac timōris ostendēbātur, ibi vī maiōre obsistēbant.A huge tower overhung the spot, and the wall, as was natural in a vulnerable place, had been built up beyond the height of the rest, and picked young men resisted with greater force where the most danger and fear were threatened.
Liv. 21.7.8Ac prīmō missilibus submovēre hostem nec quicquam satis tūtum mūnientibus patī;At first they drove the enemy back with missiles and allowed those working on the siege-works no safety at all; Liv. 21.7.8deinde iam nōn prō moenibus modo atque turrī tēla micāre, sed ad ērumpendum etiam in statiōnēs operaque hostium animus erat;then weapons were no longer flashing only in front of the walls and the tower, but they even had the spirit to sally out against the outposts and works of the enemy; Liv. 21.7.9quibus tumultuāriīs certāminibus haud ferme plūrēs Saguntīnī cadēbant quam Poenī.and in these disorderly skirmishes, as a rule, hardly more Saguntines fell than Carthaginians. Liv. 21.7.10Ut vērō Hannibal ipse, dum mūrum incautius subit, adversum femur tragulā graviter ictus cecidit, tanta circā fuga ac trepidātiō fuit, ut nōn multum abesset, quīn opera ac vīneae dēsererentur.But when Hannibal himself, while approaching the wall too incautiously, fell badly wounded in the front of the thigh by a javelin, there was such flight and panic all around that the siege-works and sheds were very nearly abandoned.