Headquarters preparations; Hannibal is wounded

While Rome was preparing and deliberating, Saguntum was already being attacked with the greatest vigor. It was the most powerful of the cities beyond the Hebre, about a mile from the sea:originally a colony of the island of Zacynthos, it had received the admixture of some Rutules from the city of Ardee. Soon its prosperity had risen to the highest pitch, either by the riches which both the sea and the land lavished on it, or by the increase of its population, or by the austerity of principles which made it keep until at the last moment sworn faith to his allies. Hannibal, who has appeared on his territory, at the head of a threatening army, which has brought desolation to the countryside, comes to attack the city from three sides at once. An angle of the wall overlooked a valley smoother and more open than all the surrounding terrain. It was through this that he proposed to conduct the galleries which were to enable him to beat the wall with rams. As long as we were far from the walls, the ground helped to transport the mantlets; but almost insurmountable difficulties presented themselves when it came to effecting the attacks. First, an immense tower dominated all the works; and, as the weakness of this place was suspect, the walls there presented more strength and elevation than elsewhere. Finally, the warrior elite, at the post of peril and honor, put up greater resistance. First a hail of darts pushes the enemy back, without leaving the workers the slightest safety. Soon they no longer limited themselves to throwing their javelins from the top of the walls and the tower; they grow bolder to the point of falling on the works, on the enemy posts; and in these frays almost as many Carthaginians perished as Saguntines. Hannibal himself, who advanced to the foot of the wall with too little precaution, was seriously wounded in the thigh by a line that knocked him down. Immediately among his people, terror, confusion; the works and galleries were nearly abandoned.