Cestar, one of the Barcine leaders, replied, refusing the demands.

Fabius then rose.
"I give you the choice--peace or war ?" "Choose yourself," the Carthaginians cried.
"Then I choose war," Fabius said.
"So be it," the assembly shouted.
And thus war was formally declared between the two Republics.

But Saguntum had now fallen.

The second wall had been breached by the time Hannibal had returned from his expedition, and an assault was ordered.
As before, the Saguntines fought desperately, but after a long struggle the Carthaginians succeeded in winning a footing upon the wall.
The Saguntines, seeing that further resistance was vain, that the besiegers had already won the breach, that there was no chance of assistance from Rome, and having, moreover, consumed their last provisions, sought for terms.

Halcon, the Saguntine general, and a noble Spaniard named Alorcus, on the part of Hannibal, met in the breach.
Alorcus named the conditions which Hannibal had imposed--that the Saguntines should restore to the Torbolates the territory they had taken from them, and that the inhabitants, giving up all their goods and treasures, should then be permitted to leave the town and to found a new city at a spot which Hannibal would name.
The Saguntines, who were crowding round, heard the terms.