When the Carthaginian Council hesitated at the proposal of the Roman embassy, their spokesman, _Quintus Fabius_, said that he carried in his bosom peace or war: they might chose either. They answered, "We take what you give us;" whereupon the Roman opened his toga, saying, "I give you war!" The Carthaginians shouted, "So let it be!" THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.--When the treaty of _Catulus_ was made (241), all patriots at Carthage felt that it was only a truce. They must have seen that Rome would never be satisfied with any thing short of the abject submission of so detested and dangerous a rival. There was a peace party, an oligarchy, at Carthage; and it was their selfishness which ultimately brought ruin upon the state. But the party which saw that the only safety was in aggressive action found a military leader in _Hannibal_,--a leader not surpassed, and perhaps not equaled, by any other general of ancient or modern times. He combined skill with daring, and had such a command over men, that under the heaviest reverses his influence was not broken. If he was cruel, it is doubtful whether he went beyond the practices sanctioned by the international law of the time and by Roman example. When a boy nine years old, at his father's request he had sworn upon the altar never to be the friend of the Roman people. That father he saw fall in battle at his side. The oath he kept, for Rome never had a more unyielding or a more powerful enemy. HANNIBAL IN ITALY.--In the summer of 218, _Hannibal_ crossed the _Ebro_, conquered the peoples between the _Ebro_ and the _Pyrenees_, and, leaving his brother _Hasdrubal_ in Spain, pushed into _Gaul_ with an army of fifty thousand foot, twelve thousand horse, and thirty-seven elephants. He crossed the swift _Rhone_ in the face of the Gauls who disputed the passage, and then made his memorable march over the _Alps_, probably by the way now known as the _Little St. Bernard_ pass. Through ice and snow, climbing over crags and circling abysses, amid perpetual conflicts with the rough mountaineers who rolled stones down on the toiling soldiers, the army made its terrible journey into Northern Italy. Fifteen days were occupied in the passage. Half the troops, with all the draught-animals and beasts of burden, perished on the way. The _Cisalpine Gauls_ welcomed Hannibal as a deliverer. No sooner had the valiant consul, _Cornelius Scipio_, been defeated in a cavalry battle on the _Ticinus_, a northern branch of the _Po_ (218), and, severely wounded, retreated to _Placentia_, and his rash colleague, _Sempronius_, been defeated with great loss in a second battle on the _Trebia_, than the Gauls joined _Hannibal_, and reinforced him with sixty thousand troops inured to war. Hannibal, by marching through the swampy district of the _Arno_, where he himself lost an eye, flanked the defensive position of the Romans. The consul _Flaminius_ was decoyed into a narrow pass; and, in the battle of _Lake Trasumenus_ (217), his