His friends at Carthage persuaded the senate to refuse to listen to the envoys of Rome.

Another embassy was sent to Hannibal, but the general would not give them an interview, and, following the instructions they had received, the ambassadors then sailed to Carthage to make a formal demand for reparation, and for the person of Hannibal to be delivered over to them for punishment.
But the Barcine party were for the moment in the ascendancy; long negotiations took place which led to nothing, and all this time the condition of the Saguntines was becoming more desperate.

Five new ambassadors were therefore sent from Rome to ask in the name of the republic whether Hannibal was authorized by the Carthaginians to lay siege to Saguntum, to demand that he should be delivered to Rome, and, in case of refusal, to declare war.

The Carthaginian senate met in the temple of Moloch and there received the Roman ambassadors.

Q.Fabius, the chief man of the embassy, briefly laid the demands of Rome before the senate.