conciliated rather than conquered. The Barcine family knew how to rule as
well as how to fight.

HANNIBAL'S VOW.--Upon the death of Hasdrubal, which occurred 221 B.C.,
Hannibal, now twenty-six years of age, was by the unanimous voice of the
army called to be their leader. When a child of nine years he had been led
by his father to the altar; and there, with his hands upon the sacrifice,
the little boy had sworn eternal hatred to the Roman race. He was driven
on to his gigantic undertakings and to his hard fate, not only by the
restless fires of his warlike genius, but, as he himself declared, by the
sacred obligations of a vow that could not be broken.

HANNIBAL ATTACKS SAGUNTUM.--In two years Hannibal extended the
Carthaginian power to the Ebro. Saguntum, a Greek city upon the east coast
of Spain, alone remained unsubdued. The Romans, who were jealously
watching affairs in the peninsula, had entered into an alliance with this
city, and taken it, with other Greek cities in that quarter of the
Mediterranean, under their protection. Hannibal, although he well knew
that an attack upon this place would precipitate hostilities with Rome,
laid siege to it in the spring of 219 B.C. He was eager for the renewal of
the old contest. The Roman Senate sent messengers to him forbidding his
making war upon a city which was a friend and ally of the Roman people;
but Hannibal, disregarding their remonstrances, continued the siege, and,
after an investment of eight months, gained possession of the town.

The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand of the Senate that
they should give up Hannibal to them, and by so doing repudiate the act of
their general. The Carthaginians hesitated. Then Quintus Fabius, chief of
the embassy, gathering up his toga, said: "I carry here peace and war;
choose, men of Carthage, which ye will have." "Give us whichever ye will,"