Reactions in Rome after the fall of Sagunto

It was almost at the same time that the deputies, returning from Carthage, announced only hostile dispositions, and that the ruin of Saguntum was learned. (Then the senate, dismayed, and deeply touched by the fate of an allied people who had perished in an unworthy manner, blushed at not having helped them, and conceived fury against Carthage and fears for the future:it seemed that Hannibal was already at the gates of Rome:minds, troubled by so many emotions at once, were rather agitated than they took resolution.Never had we had to fight a more terrible and more bellicose; never had Rome shown so much inertia, such weakness. (4) The conquest of Sardinia, Corsica, Istria, Illyria, had been for the Roman arms a game of fencing , and not a real struggle. The Gauls had caused an uproar rather than a war; but the Carthaginians, those superb enemies who had grown old in the rough trade of arms, who, for twenty-three years, always victorious in Spain, never enjoyed only success under three generals, Amilcar, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal, now their fearless leader, the Carthaginians, very proud of the recent ruin of the richest city, have crossed the Hebre, dragging after them a host of Spanish nations, soon to be followed by the Gauls, always eager for war. We will have the whole universe to fight in Italy and under the walls of Rome