Siege of Saguntum Flashcards
Hannibal infesto exercitu ingressus fines, vastatis passim agris, urbem triperto aggressus est.
Hannibal, entering their territory with a hostile army, laid waste to the fields on all sides and attacked the city on three fronts.
Tum vineas agere constituit ut aries moenibus admoveri posset.
Then he decided to draw up mantlets so that a battering-ram could be moved up to the battlements.
Per moenia tamen turres ingentes imminebant et murus praecipue emunitus erat ut Saguntini urbem sine periculo ac timore defenderent.
However throughout the fortifications huge towers jutted out and the wall had been especially fortified so that the Saguntines might defend their city without danger and fear.
Ac primo missilibus summoverunt hostem; deinde tela neque de moenibus neque de turribus micaverunt, sed eruptionem in stationes operaque hostium fecerunt; quibus certaminibus haud ferme plures Saguntini cadebant quam Poeni.
And at first they drove off the enemy with missiles; then thrown weapons hurtled neither from the battlements nor from the towers, but they sallied forth upon the guard-posts and siege-works of the enemy; in these skirmishes hardly any more Saguntines fell than Carthaginians.
Vero Hannibal ipse, dum murum incautius subit, adversum femur tragula graviter ictus cecidit.
Indeed, Hannibal himself, while he was rather recklessly walking along beneath the wall, fell after being grievously struck in the front of his thigh by a javelin.
Per paucos dies Poeni urbem obsidebant ut vulnus ducis curaretur.
For a few days the Carthaginians laid siege to the city so that their general’s wound might be healed.
Itaque acrius de integro coortum est bellum pluribusque partibus.
And so the rather bitter war arose afresh and on several [rather many/more] fronts.
Poeni multitudine hominum abundabant – creduntur enim ad centum quinquaginta milia habuisse in armis – sed oppidani omnia tueri atque protegere non sufficiebant, et multifariam distinebantur.
The Carthaginians were overflowing with a great number of men — for they are believed to have had around about 150,000 [men] in arms — but the townsfolk were not numerous enough to keep an eye on and protect everything, and they began to be stretched thin on many sides.
Jam percutiebantur arietibus muri multaeque partes quassatae erant; tres deinceps turres quantumque inter eas muri erat cum fragore ingenti prociderunt.
Now the walls were being pounded with battering-rams and many sections had been shaken; three towers one after another and as much of the wall as was between them fell in with a huge crash.
Post eam ruinam, Poeni crediderunt oppidum esse captum, et utrimque aggredientes et defensores in pugnam procurrerunt.
After this collapse, the Carthaginians believed that the town was taken, and on both sides those attacking and the defenders rushed forth into the fray.
Duae acies, velut in patenti campo, inter ruinas muri tectaque urbis constiterunt.
The two battlelines, as if on an open field, stood firm among the ruins of the wall and the buildings of the city.
Hinc spes, hinc desperatio animos movet.
On this side, hope filled their minds, on that side, hopelessness.
Clamorem repente oppidani tollunt hostesque in ruinas muri expellunt; inde fusos fugatosque in castra redigunt.
Suddenly the townsfolk raised a cry and drove the enemy out upon the debris of the wall; thereupon they drove them, routed and put to flight, back to their camp.
Hannibal, quod milites fessos proeliis operibusque habebat, eis quietem paucorum dierum dedit.
Because Hannibal had soldiers who were tired from the battles and siege-works, he granted them a few days’ rest.
