The generals repeated it to their immediate staffs, these informed the other officers, and the news speedily spread through the army that they were marching against Saguntum.

The importance of the news was felt by all.

Saguntum was the near ally of Rome, and an attack upon that city could but mean that Carthage was entering upon another struggle with her great rival.
Saguntum lay about 140 miles north of Carthagena, and the army had to cross the range of mountains now known as the Sierra Morena, which run across the peninsula from Cape St.Vincent on the west to Cape St.
Martin on the east.

The march of so large an army, impeded as it was by a huge train of wagons with stores and the machines necessary for a siege, was toilsome and arduous in the extreme.

But all worked with the greatest enthusiasm and diligence; roads were made with immense labour through forests, across ravines, and over mountain streams.
Hannibal himself was always present, encouraging the men by his praises, and sharing all their hardships.
At last the mountains were passed, and the army poured down into the fertile plains of Valencia, which town, however, was not then in existence.