§21.10.1itaque, praeterquam quod admissi auditique sunt, ea quoque vana atque irrita legatio fuit.
Therefore, except for the fact that they were admitted and heard, that embassy also proved fruitless and in vain.
§21.10.2Hanno unus adversus senatum causam foederis magno silentio propter auctoritatem suam, §21.10.3non cum adsensu audientium egit, per deos foederum arbitros ac testis senatum obtestans, ne Romanum cum Saguntino suscitarent bellum; monuisse, praedixisse se, ne Hamilcaris progeniem ad exercitum mitterent; non manes, non stirpem eius conquiescere viri, nec umquam, donec sanguinis nominisque Barcini quisquam supersit, quietura Romana foedera.
Hanno alone spoke against the senate in defense of the treaty, amid a deep silence owing to his personal authority, but not with the assent of his audience, imploring the senate by the gods, the arbiters and witnesses of treaties, not to stir up a Roman war along with the Saguntine one; saying that he had warned and foretold that they should not send the offspring of Hamilcar to the army; that neither the ghost nor the offspring of that man were at peace, nor would the Roman treaties ever be secure as long as anyone of the Barcine blood and name survived.
§21.10.4“iuvenem flagrantem cupidine regni viamque unam ad id cernentem, si ex bellis bella serendo succinctus armis legionibusque vivat, velut materiam igni praebentes ad exercitus misistis.
"You sent to the army a young man burning with the desire for sovereignty and seeing only one way to it—if he should live surrounded by arms and legions, sowing war after war—as if you were offering fuel to a fire.
aluistis ergo hoc incendium, quo nunc ardetis.
You have, therefore, nourished this conflagration in which you are now burning.
§21.10.5Sagunturm vestri circumsedent exercitus, unde arcentur foedere; mox Carthaginem circumsedebunt Romanae legiones ducibus isdem diis, per quos priore bello rupta foedera sunt ulti.
Your armies are besieging Saguntum, from which they are excluded by the treaty; soon Roman legions will besiege Carthage, led by those same gods through whom they avenged the broken treaties in the previous war.
§21.10.6utrum hostem an vos an fortunam utriusque populi ignoratis? legatos ab sociis et pro sociis venientes bonus imperator vester in castra non admisit, ius gentium sustulit;
Are you ignorant of the enemy, of yourselves, or of the fortune of both nations? Your 'excellent commander' did not admit into his camp ambassadors coming from allies and on behalf of allies; he abolished the law of nations.
hi tamen, unde ne hostium quidem legati arcentur, pulsi ad vos venerunt; res ex foedere repetunt;
Yet these, repulsed from a place from which not even the envoys of enemies are excluded, have come to you; they demand restitution according to the treaty.
publica fraus absit, auctorem culpae et reum criminis deposcunt.
Let public fraud be absent; they demand the author of the guilt and the person accused of the crime.
§21.10.7quo lenius agunt, segnius incipiunt, eo, cum coeperint, vereor ne perseverantius saeviant.
The more gently they act, the more slowly they begin, the more I fear that, once they have begun, they will rage with greater persistence.
Aegates insulas Erycemque ante oculos proponite, quae terra marique per quattuor et viginti annos passi sitis.
Place before your eyes the Aegates Islands and Eryx, and what you suffered by land and sea for twenty-four years.
§21.10.8nec puer hic dux erat, sed pater ipse Hamilcar, Mars alter, ut isti volunt.
And this leader was no boy, but his father himself, Hamilcar, another Mars, as those people wish to call him.
sed Tarento, id est Italia, non abstinueramus ex foedere, sicut nunc Sagunto non abstinemus.
But we had not abstained from Tarentum, that is, from Italy, according to the treaty, just as now we do not abstain from Saguntum.
§21.10.9vicerunt ergo dii homines, et id de quo verbis ambigebatur, uter populus foedus rupisset, eventus belli velut aequus iudex, unde ius stabat, ei victoriam dedit.
Therefore, the gods conquered men, and that about which there was dispute in words—namely, which people had broken the treaty—the outcome of the war, like an impartial judge, awarded the victory to the side where justice stood.
§21.10.10Carthagini nunc Hannibal vineas turresque admovet, Carthaginis moenia quatit ariete: Sagunti ruinae — falsus utinam vates sim — nostris capitibus incident, susceptumque cum Saguntinis bellum habendum cum Romanis est.
It is to Carthage that Hannibal now moves his mantlets and siege-towers, and it is Carthage's walls that he shakes with the battering ram; the ruins of Saguntum—would that I were a false prophet—will fall upon our heads, and the war undertaken with the Saguntines must be waged against the Romans.
§21.10.11dedemus ergo Hannibalem? dicet aliquis.
'Shall we then surrender Hannibal?' someone will say.
scio meam levem esse in eo auctoritatem propter paternas inimicitias; sed et Hamilcarem eo perisse laetatus sum, quod, si ille viveret, bellum iam haberemus cum Romanis, et hunc iuvenem tamquam furiam facemque huius belli odi ac detestor; §21.10.12nec dedendum solum ad piaculum rupti foederis, sed, si nemo deposceret, devehendum in ultimas maris terrarumque oras, ablegandum eo, unde nec ad nos nomen famaque eius accidere neque ille sollicitare quietae civitatis statum posset.
I know that my authority in this matter is slight because of hereditary enmities; but I both rejoiced that Hamilcar perished for this reason—since, if he were alive, we would already have war with the Romans—and I hate and detest this young man as the fury and torch of this war; and he must not only be surrendered to expiate the broken treaty, but even if no one demanded him, he should be transported to the furthest shores of sea and land, banished to a place whence neither his name nor his fame could reach us, nor could he disturb the peace of a quiet state.
§21.10.13ego ita censeo, legatos extemplo Romam mittendos, qui senatui satisfaciant, alios, qui Hannibali nuntient, ut exercitum ab Sagunto abducat, ipsumque Hannibalem ex foedere Romanis dedant; tertiam legationem ad res Saguntinis reddendas decerno. ”
This is my opinion: ambassadors must be sent immediately to Rome to give satisfaction to the senate; others to announce to Hannibal that he should withdraw his army from Saguntum, and surrender Hannibal himself to the Romans according to the treaty; and I decree a third embassy to make restitution to the Saguntines."