§21.16.1sub idem fere tempus et legati, qui redierant ab Carthagine, Romam rettulerunt omnia hostilia esse, et Sagunti excidium nuntiatum est;
At about the same time, both the envoys who had returned from Carthage reported to Rome that everything was hostile, and the destruction of Saguntum was announced.
§21.16.2tantusque simul maeror patres misericordiaque sociorum peremptorum indigne et pudor non lati auxilii et ira in Carthaginienses metusque de summa rerum cepit, velut si iam ad portas hostis esset, ut tot uno tempore motibus animi turbati trepidarent magis quam consulerent:
And at the same time, so great a grief and pity for their allies unworthily destroyed, and shame for not having brought aid, and anger against the Carthaginians, and fear for the safety of the state seized the senators—just as if the enemy were already at the gates—that, troubled by so many emotions at one time, they trembled with fear rather than deliberated.
§21.16.3nam neque hostem acriorem bellicosioremque secum congressum nec rem Romanam tam desidem umquam fuisse atque inbellem.
For they felt that they had never clashed with a fiercer and more warlike enemy, nor had the Roman state ever been so sluggish and unwarready.
Sardos Corsosque §21.16.4et Histros atque Illyrios lacessisse magis quam exercuisse Romana arma, et cum Gallis tumultuatum verius quam belligeratum;
That the Sardinians and Corsicans, and the Histrians and Illyrians had provoked rather than exercised Roman arms, and with the Gauls there had been a tumult rather than a regular war.
§21.16.5Poenum hostem veteranum trium et viginti annorum militia durissima inter Hispanas gentes, semper victorem, duci acerrimo adsuetum, recentem ab excidio opulentissimae urbis Hiberum transire, §21.16.6trahere secum tot excitos Hispanorum populous, conciturum avidas semper armorum Gallicas gentes: cum orbe terrarum bellum gerendum in Italia ac pro moenibus Romanis esse.
On the other hand, the Carthaginian enemy, a veteran of twenty-three years of the hardest service among the Spanish tribes, always victorious, accustomed to the fiercest leader, fresh from the destruction of a most wealthy city, was crossing the Ebro, dragging with him so many excited Spanish peoples, and was about to rouse the Gallic tribes, who are always eager for arms; a war against the whole world would have to be waged in Italy and before the very walls of Rome.