Asdrubal not long after being assassinated by a Gaul,[223] in revenge for some injury he had received, the army immediately appointed Hannibal to the command; and sending advice to Carthage of what they had done, the senate was assembled, who unanimously confirmed the election then made by the soldiers.[224] Hannibal in a short time reduced all that part of Spain which lay between New Carthage and the river Iberus, except the city of Saguntum, which was in alliance with the Romans. But as he inherited his father’s hatred to the Romans, for their infamous behaviour to his country at the conclusion of the war with the mercenaries,[225] he made great preparations for the siege of Saguntum. The Romans (according to Polybius) receiving intelligence of his design,[226] sent ambassadors to him at New Carthage, who warned him of the consequences of either attacking the Saguntines, or crossing the Iberus, which, by the treaty with Asdrubal, had been made the boundary of the Carthaginian and Roman dominions in that country. Hannibal acknowledged his resolution to proceed against Saguntum, but the reasons he assigned for his conduct were so unsatisfactory to the ambassadors, that they crossed over to Carthage to know the resolution of their senate upon that subject. Hannibal in the mean time, according to the same author,[227] sent advice to Carthage of this embassy, and desired instructions how to act, complaining heavily that the Saguntines depending upon their alliance with the Romans, committed frequent depredations upon the Carthaginian subjects. We may conclude that the ambassadors met with as disagreeable a reception from the Carthaginian senate as they had done from Hannibal, and that he received orders from Carthage to proceed in his intended expedition. For Polybius,[228] reflecting upon some writers, who pretended to relate what passed in the Roman senate when the news arrived of the capture of Saguntum, and even inserted the debates which arose when the question was put, whether, or no, war should be declared against Carthage, treats their whole accounts as absurd and fictitious. “For how, says he, with indignation, could it possibly be, that the Romans, who had denounced war the year before at Carthage, if Hannibal should invade the Saguntine territories, should now after that city was taken by storm assemble to deliberate, whether war should be commenced against the Carthaginians or not.” Now as this declaration of war was conditional, and not to take place unless Hannibal should attack the Saguntines, it must have been made before that event happened, and consequently must be referred to the embassy above-mentioned. And as Hannibal undertook the siege of Saguntum notwithstanding the Roman menaces, he undoubtedly acted by orders from the Carthaginian senate.