The Young Carthaginian: A Story of The Times of Hannibal

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER IX: THE SIEGE OF SAGUNTUM

  A few days later the Carthaginian army were astonished by the issueof an order that the whole were to be in readiness to march upon thefollowing day. The greatest excitement arose when the news got abroad.None knew against whom hostilities were to be directed. No one had heardaught of the arrival of messengers announcing fresh insurrection amongthe recently conquered tribes, and all sorts of surmises were indulgedin as to the foe against whom this great force, the largest which hadever been collected by Carthage, were about to get in motion.

  The army now gathered around Carthagena amounted, indeed, to a hundredand fifty thousand men, and much surprise had for some time existedat the continual arrival of reinforcements from home, and at the largenumber of troops which had during the winter been raised and disciplinedfrom among the friendly tribes.

  Simultaneously with the issue of the order long lines of wagons, ladenwith military stores, began to pour out from the arsenals, and all daylong a procession of carts moved across the bridge over the canal in theisthmus to the mainland. The tents were struck at daylight, the baggageloaded up into the wagons told off to accompany the various bodies ofsoldiers, and the troops formed up in military order.

  When Hannibal rode on to the ground, surrounded by his principalofficers, a shout of welcome rose from the army; and he proceeded tomake a close inspection of the whole force. The officers then placedthemselves at the head of their respective commands, the trumpets gavethe signal, and the army set out on a march, as to whose direction anddistance few present had any idea, and from which few, indeed, were everdestined to return.

  There was no longer any occasion for secrecy as to the object of theexpedition. The generals repeated it to their immediate staffs, theseinformed the other officers, and the news speedily spread through thearmy that they were marching against Saguntum. The importance of thenews was felt by all. Saguntum was the near ally of Rome, and an attackupon that city could but mean that Carthage was entering upon anotherstruggle with her great rival.

  Saguntum lay about 140 miles north of Carthagena, and the army had tocross the range of mountains now known as the Sierra Morena, whichrun across the peninsula from Cape St. Vincent on the west to Cape St.Martin on the east. The march of so large an army, impeded as it wasby a huge train of wagons with stores and the machines necessary for asiege, was toilsome and arduous in the extreme. But all worked with thegreatest enthusiasm and diligence; roads were made with immense labourthrough forests, across ravines, and over mountain streams.

  Hannibal himself was always present, encouraging the men by his praises,and sharing all their hardships.

  At last the mountains were passed, and the army poured down intothe fertile plains of Valencia, which town, however, was not then inexistence. Passing over the site where it is now situated they continuedtheir march north until Saguntum, standing on its rocky eminence, cameinto view.

  During the march Malchus and his company had led the way, guided bynatives, who pointed out the easiest paths. As there were no enemies tobe guarded against, they had taken their full share in the labours ofthe army.

  The Saguntines were already aware of the approach of the expedition. Nosooner had it crossed the crest of the mountains than native runnershad carried the news of its approach, and the inhabitants had spent theintervening time in laying in great stores of provisions, and in makingevery preparation for defence. The garrison was small in comparison withthe force marching against it, but it was ample for the defence of thewalls, for its position rendered the city well nigh impregnable againstthe machines in use at the time, and was formidable in the extreme evenagainst modern artillery, for 2000 years afterwards Saguntum, with agarrison of 3000 men, resisted for a long time all the efforts of aFrench army under General Suchet. As soon as his force arrived near thetown Hannibal rode forward, and, in accordance with the custom of thetimes, himself summoned the garrison to surrender. Upon their refusalhe solemnly declared war by hurling his javelin against the walls. Thetroops at once advanced to the assault, and poured flights of arrows,masses of stones from their machines, javelins, and missiles of alldescriptions into the city, the defenders replying with equal vigourfrom the walls. At the end of the first day's fighting Hannibalperceived that his hopes of carrying the place by assault were vain--forthe walls were too high to be scaled, too thick to be shaken by anyirregular attack--and that a long siege must be undertaken.

  This was a great disappointment to him, as it would cause a longdelay that it would be scarce possible to commence the march which hemeditated that summer. As to advancing, with Saguntum in his rear, itwas not to be thought of, for the Romans would be able to land theirarmies there and to cut him off from all communication with Carthagenaand Carthage. There was, then, nothing to be done but to undertake thesiege in regular order.

  The army formed an encampment in a circle round the town. A strong forcewas left to prevent the garrison from making a sortie, and the whole ofthe troops were then marched away in detachments to the hills to felland bring down the timber which would be required for the towers andwalls, the bareness of the rock rendering it impossible to construct theapproaches as usual with earth. In the first place, a wall, strengthenedby numerous small towers, was erected round the whole circumferenceof the rock; then the approaches were begun on the western side, whereattack was alone possible.

  This was done by lines of wooden towers, connected one with another bywalls of the same material; movable towers were constructed to be pushedforward against the great tower which formed the chief defence of thewall, and on each side the line of attack was carried onward by portablescreens covered with thick hide. In the meantime the Saguntines werenot idle. Showers of missiles of all descriptions were hurled upon theworking parties, great rocks from the machines on the walls crashedthrough the wooden erections, and frequent and desperate sorties weremade, in which the Carthaginians were almost always worsted. The natureof the ground, overlooked as it was by the lofty towers and walls, andswept by the missiles of the defenders, rendered it impossible for anyconsiderable force to remain close at hand to render assistance to theworkers, and the sudden attacks of the Saguntines several times drovethem far down the hillside, and enabled the besieged, with axe and fire,to destroy much of the work which had been so labouriously carried out.

  In one of these sorties Hannibal, who was continually at the front,overlooking the work, was seriously wounded by a javelin in the thigh.Until he was cured the siege languished, and was converted into ablockade, for it was his presence and influence alone which encouragedthe men to continue their work under such extreme difficulties,involving the death of a large proportion of those engaged. UponHannibal's recovery the work was pressed forward with new vigour, andthe screens and towers were pushed on almost to the foot of the walls.The battering rams were now brought up, and--shielded by massivescreens, which protected those who worked them from the darts and stonesthrown down by the enemy, and by lofty towers, from whose tops theCarthaginian archers engaged the Saguntines on the wall--began theirwork.

  The construction of walls was in those days rude and primitive, and theyhad little of the solidity of such structures in succeeding ages.The stones were very roughly shaped, no mortar was used, and thedisplacement of one stone consequently involved that of several others.This being the case it was not long before the heavy battering rams ofthe Carthaginians produced an effect on the walls, and a large breachwas speedily made. Three towers and the walls which connected them fellwith a mighty crash, and the besiegers, believing that the place waswon, advanced to the assault. But the Saguntines met them in the breach,and for hours a desperate battle raged there.

  The Saguntines hurled down upon the assailants trunks of trees bristlingwith spearheads and spikes of iron, blazing darts and falariques--greatblocks of wood with projecting spikes, and covered thickly with a massof pitch and sulphur which set on fire all they touched. Other speciesof falariques were in the form of spindles, the shaft wrapped roun
d withflax dipped in pitch. Hannibal fought at the head of his troops withdesperate bravery, and had a narrow escape of being crushed by anenormous rock which fell at his feet; but in spite of his effortsand those of his troops they were unable to carry the breach, and atnightfall fell back to their camp, having suffered very heavy losses.

  Singularly enough the French columns were repulsed in an effort tocarry a breach at almost the same spot, the Spaniards hurling among themstones, hand grenades of glass bottles and shells, and defending thebreach with their long pikes against all the efforts of Suchet's troops.

  Some days passed before the attack was renewed, as the troops were wornout by their labours. A strong guard in the meantime held the advancedworks against any sorties of the Saguntines.

  These, on their side, worked night and day, and by the time theCarthaginians again advanced the wall was rebuilt and the breach closed.But Hannibal had also been busy. Seeing that it was impossible forhis troops to win an entrance by a breach, as long as the Saguntinesoccupied every point commanding it, he caused a vast tower to be built,sufficiently lofty to overlook every point of the defences, arming eachof its stages with catapults and ballistas. He also built near the wallsa great terrace of wood higher than the walls themselves, and from thisand from the tower he poured such torrents of missiles into the townthat the defenders could no longer remain upon the walls. Five hundredArab miners now advanced, and these, setting to work with theirimplements, soon loosened the lower stones of the wall, and this againfell with a mighty crash and a breach was opened.

  The Carthaginians at once swarmed in and took possession of the wall;but while the besiegers had been constructing their castle and terrace,the Saguntines had built an interior wall, and Hannibal saw himselfconfronted with a fresh line of defences.

  As preparations were being made for the attack of the new defencesmessengers arrived saying that the Carpatans and Orotans, furious at theheavy levies of men which had been demanded from them for the army, hadrevolted. Leaving Maharbal to conduct the siege in his absence, Hannibalhurried away with a portion of his force, and returned in two months,having put down the revolt and severely punished the tribesmen.

  While the siege had been continuing the Romans had been making vainefforts to induce the Carthaginians to desist. No sooner had theoperations commenced than agents from the Roman senate waited onHannibal and begged him to abandon the siege. Hannibal treated theirremonstrance with disdain, at the same time writing to Carthage to saythat it was absolutely necessary that the people of Saguntum, who wereinsolent and hostile, relying on the protection of Rome, should bepunished. The envoys then went to Carthage, where they made an animatedprotest against what they regarded as an unprovoked attack upon theirallies. Rome, in fact, was anxious at this moment to postpone thestruggle with Carthage for the same reason that Hannibal was anxious topress it on.

  She had but just finished a long struggle with the Gaulish tribes ofNorthern Italy, and was anxious to recover her strength before sheengaged in another war. It was for this very reason that Hannibaldesired to force on the struggle. His friends at Carthage persuaded thesenate to refuse to listen to the envoys of Rome. Another embassy wassent to Hannibal, but the general would not give them an interview,and, following the instructions they had received, the ambassadors thensailed to Carthage to make a formal demand for reparation, and for theperson of Hannibal to be delivered over to them for punishment.

  But the Barcine party were for the moment in the ascendancy; longnegotiations took place which led to nothing, and all this time thecondition of the Saguntines was becoming more desperate. Five newambassadors were therefore sent from Rome to ask in the name of therepublic whether Hannibal was authorized by the Carthaginians to laysiege to Saguntum, to demand that he should be delivered to Rome, and,in case of refusal, to declare war. The Carthaginian senate met in thetemple of Moloch and there received the Roman ambassadors. Q. Fabius,the chief man of the embassy, briefly laid the demands of Rome beforethe senate. Cestar, one of the Barcine leaders, replied, refusing thedemands. Fabius then rose.

  "I give you the choice--peace or war?"

  "Choose yourself," the Carthaginians cried.

  "Then I choose war," Fabius said.

  "So be it," the assembly shouted.

  And thus war was formally declared between the two Republics. ButSaguntum had now fallen. The second wall had been breached by the timeHannibal had returned from his expedition, and an assault was ordered.As before, the Saguntines fought desperately, but after a long strugglethe Carthaginians succeeded in winning a footing upon the wall.

  The Saguntines, seeing that further resistance was vain, that thebesiegers had already won the breach, that there was no chance ofassistance from Rome, and having, moreover, consumed their lastprovisions, sought for terms. Halcon, the Saguntine general, and a nobleSpaniard named Alorcus, on the part of Hannibal, met in the breach.Alorcus named the conditions which Hannibal had imposed--that theSaguntines should restore to the Torbolates the territory they hadtaken from them, and that the inhabitants, giving up all their goods andtreasures, should then be permitted to leave the town and to found a newcity at a spot which Hannibal would name.

  The Saguntines, who were crowding round, heard the terms. Many of theprincipal senators at once left the place, and hurrying into theirhouses carried the gold and silver which they had there, and also someof that in the public treasury, into the forum, and piling up a vastheap of wood set it alight and threw themselves into the flames. Thisact caused a tremendous commotion in the city. A general tumult brokeout, and Hannibal, seeing that his terms were refused, poured his troopsacross the breach, and after a short but desperate fight captured thecity. In accordance with the cruel customs of the times, which, however,were rarely carried into effect by Hannibal, the male prisoners wereall put to the sword, as on this occasion he considered it necessaryto strike terror into the inhabitants of Spain, and to inflict a lessonwhich would not be forgotten during his absence in the country.

  The siege had lasted eight months. The booty taken was enormous. Everysoldier in the army had a rich share of the plunder, and a vast sum wassent to Carthage; besides which the treasure chests of the army werefilled up. All the Spanish troops had leave given them to return totheir homes for the winter, and they dispersed highly satisfied with thebooty with which they were laden. This was a most politic step on thepart of the young general, as the tribesmen, seeing the wealth withwhich their countrymen returned, no longer felt it a hardship to fightin the Carthaginian ranks, and the levies called out in the spring wentwillingly and even eagerly.

  Hannibal returned with his African troops to spend the winter atCarthagena. He was there joined by the emissaries he had sent toexamine Southern Gaul and the passes of the Alps, to determine the mostpracticable route for the march of the army, and to form allianceswith the tribes of Southern Gaul and Northern Italy. Their reports werefavourable, for they had found the greatest discontent existing amongthe tribes north of the Apennines, who had but recently been conqueredby the Romans.

  Their chiefs, smarting under the heavy yoke of Rome, listened eagerlyto the offers of Hannibal's agents, who distributed large sums of moneyamong them, and promised them, in return for their assistance, not onlytheir freedom from their conqueror, but a full share in the spoils ofRome. The chiefs replied that they would render any assistance to theCarthaginians as soon as they passed the Alps, and that they would thenjoin them with all their forces. The reports as to the passes of theAlps were less satisfactory. Those who had examined them found that thedifficulties they offered to the passage of an army were enormous, andthat the tribes who inhabited the lower passes, having suffered inno way yet at the hands of Rome, would probably resist any armyendeavouring to cross.

  By far the easiest route would be to follow the seashore, but this wasbarred against the Carthaginians by the fact that the Massilians (thepeople of Marseilles) were the close allies of Rome. They had admittedRoman colonists among them, and carried on an exten
sive trade with thecapital. Their town was strong, and their ports would be open to theRoman fleets. The tribes in their neighourhood were all closely alliedwith them.

  Hannibal saw at once that he could not advance by the route by the seawithout first reducing Marseilles. This would be an even more difficultoperation than the siege of Saguntum, as Rome would be able to send anynumber of men by sea to the aid of the besieged, and the great strugglewould be fought out in Southern Gaul instead of, as he wished, in Italy.Thus he decided to march by a route which would take him far north ofMarseilles, even although it would necessitate a passage through theterrible passes of the Alps.

  During the winter Hannibal laboured without intermission in preparingfor his expedition. He was ever among his soldiers, and personally sawto everything which could conduce to their comfort and well being. Hetook a lively interest in every minute detail which affected them; sawthat their clothing was abundant and of good quality, inspected theirrations, and saw that these were well cooked.

  It was this personal attention to the wants of his soldiers which, asmuch as his genius as a general, his personal valour, and his brilliantqualities, endeared him to his troops. They saw how anxious he was fortheir welfare; they felt that he regarded every man in his army as afriend and comrade, and in return they were ready to respond to everyappeal, to make every sacrifice, to endure, to suffer, to fight to thedeath for their beloved leader. His troops were mercenaries--that is,they fought for pay in a cause which in no way concerned them--butpersonal affection for their general supplied in them the place of thepatriotism which inspires modern soldiers, and transformed these semibarbarous tribesmen into troops fit to cope with the trained legionariesof Rome.

  Hannibal was far in advance of any of the generals of his time in allmatters of organization. His commissariat was as perfect as that ofmodern armies. It was its duty to collect grain from the country throughwhich the army marched, to form magazines, to collect and drive with thetroops herds of cattle, to take over the provisions and booty broughtin by foraging parties, and, to see to the daily distribution of rationsamong the various divisions.

  Along the line of communication depots were formed, where provisions,clothing, and arms were stored in readiness for use, and from which thewhole army could, in case of necessity, be supplied with fresh clothingand shoes. A band of surgeons accompanied the army, at the head of whomwas Synhalus, one of the most celebrated physicians of the time. Soperfect were the arrangements that it is said that throughout thelong campaign in Italy not a single day passed but that the troops,elephants, and animals of all descriptions accompanying the armyreceived their daily rations of food.