When suddenly, to our great surprise, you sent us this Publius Scipio, in seeing whom declared consul, and in having it in our power to carry word back to our countrymen that we have seen it, for on him our hopes and safety entirely rest, we consider ourselves the most fortunate of all the Saguntines.

He, when he had taken a great number of the cities of your enemies in Spain, on all occasions separated the Saguntines out of the mass of captives, and sent them back to their country; and lastly, by his arms he reduced to so low a state Turdetania, which harboured such animosity against us, that if that nation continued to flourish it was impossible that Saguntum could stand, that it not only was not an object of fear to us, but, and may I say it without incurring odium, not even to our posterity.

We see the city of those persons demolished, to gratify whom Hannibal destroyed Saguntum.

We receive tribute from their lands, which is not more acceptable to us from the advantage we derive from it than from revenge.

In consideration of these benefits, than which we could not hope or wish for greater from the immortal gods, the senate and people of Saguntum have sent us ten ambassadors to you to return their thanks; and at the same time to offer you their congratulations on your having carried on your operations in Spain and Italy so successfully of late years, that you have subdued by your arms, and have gotten possession of Spain, not only as far as the river Iberus, but also to where the ocean forms the limit of the remotest regions of the world; while in Italy you have left nothing to the Carthaginian except so much space as the rampart of his camp encloses.