No sooner had the operations commenced than agents from the Roman senate waited on Hannibal and begged him to abandon the siege.

Hannibal treated their remonstrance with disdain, at the same time writing to Carthage to say that it was absolutely necessary that the people of Saguntum, who were insolent and hostile, relying on the protection of Rome, should be punished.

The envoys then went to Carthage, where they made an animated protest against what they regarded as an unprovoked attack upon their allies.

Rome, in fact, was anxious at this moment to postpone the struggle with Carthage for the same reason that Hannibal was anxious to press it on.
She had but just finished a long struggle with the Gaulish tribes of Northern Italy, and was anxious to recover her strength before she engaged in another war.

It was for this very reason that Hannibal desired to force on the struggle.