But Saguntum, a town on the east coast of Spain, defied Hannibal’s efforts and remained unconquered. As the inhabitants watched the growing power of the young Carthaginian leader, they grew afraid, lest they in the end should be forced to yield. So they appealed to Rome for help. In the winter of 220 B.C. a Roman embassy was therefore sent to Spain, bearing a message from the Senate for Hannibal. The young leader received it with no goodwill. Did it not come from the country he had sworn to hate, and had not his hatred grown, until now it had become the burning passion of his life? But although the Roman ambassadors found Hannibal in no pleasant mood, they did not attempt to pacify him. Haughtily they gave their message that he should not attack Saguntum, or dare to cross the river Ebro, beyond which the Carthaginians had not yet advanced. Hannibal listened with undisguised disdain to the demands of the Senate, and dismissed the ambassadors from his camp without an answer. In the spring of 219 B.C., it was plain that he meant to defy Rome, for he laid siege to Saguntum. For eight months the city held out. When their provisions failed, and starvation stared them in the face, they still refused to surrender, believing that Rome would send help. But at length all hope of relief faded. Then the Spanish chiefs determined to die rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. So they ordered a fire to be kindled in the market-place, and into it they flung all the treasures which were left in the city. After the treasures were consumed, they themselves leaped into the flames and were burned to death. When tidings of the fall of Saguntum reached Rome, she sent an embassy to Carthage, at the head of which was a noble named Fabius. Fabius demanded that Hannibal and his officers should be given up, otherwise Rome would declare war against Carthage. While the Carthaginians hesitated, Fabius rose, and gathering up the folds of his toga, as though in them he held the fate of the city, he cried, ‘I carry here peace and war. Choose, men of Carthage, which ye will.’ ‘Give us whatever ye wish,’ answered the Senate. Then shaking out the folds of his toga Fabius answered, ‘Then here I give ye war,’ and without another word he left the Senate-house. ‘With that spirit with which ye give it, shall we wage it,’ cried the Carthaginians, while the ambassador strode away. As the shout of the Assembly followed him, Fabius knew that the men of Carthage did not dread his gift. CHAPTER LVII HANNIBAL PREPARES TO INVADE ITALY The Romans thought it would be an easy matter to send an army to Spain to punish the young general for his daring defiance of the Senate. But as they soon found, it was not so simple as they had deemed. Hannibal had ambitions beyond the wildest imaginations of the Romans, and before they had sent an army to Spain, he had left the country to invade Italy, for this was his great ambition.