Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 21
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

18. When these arrangements had been made,¹ in order that, before going to war, they might observe all the formalities, they dispatched into Africa an embassy consisting of certain older men, to wit, Quintus Fabius, Marcus Livius, Lucius Aemilius,² Gaius Licinius, and Quintus Baebius, to demand of the Carthaginians whether Hannibal had attacked Saguntum with the sanction of [2] the state; and if, as seemed likely to be the case, they should avow the act and stand to it as their public policy, to declare war on the [3] Carthaginian People. As soon as the Romans had come to Carthage and the senate had granted them an audience, Quintus Fabius asked only the one question contained in [4] his instructions. Then one of the Carthaginians replied: “There was something headlong, Romans, even in your former embassy, when you demanded that we surrender Hannibal on the ground that he was laying siege to Saguntum on his own responsibility; [p. 51]but your present embassy, though expressed thus far³ more mildly, is in reality [5] more harsh. For on that occasion Hannibal was both accused and his surrender called for; at present you are trying to wring a confession from us, and, as though we had pleaded guilty, demand [6] instant satisfaction. But to me it would seem that you ought to ask, not whether Saguntum was besieged as the result of private or of public policy, but whether justly [7] or unjustly. For it belongs to us to enquire what our fellow citizen has done on our authority or his own, and to punish him; with you the only question we have to discuss is this, whether what he did was permissible under [8] the treaty. Well then, since you wish that a distinction should be drawn between the things that generals do by direction of the state and the acts for which they are themselves responsible, let me remind you that we have a [9??] treaty with you, which Gaius Lutatius, your consul, made, wherein, although the allies of both sides were protected, there was no provision made regarding the Saguntines, for as yet they were not [10] your allies. 'But,' you will say, 'in that treaty which was made with Hasdrubal, the Saguntines are expressly cared for.' To this I shall make no other answer than the one that I have learnt from you. For you denied that you were bound by the treaty which Gaius Lutatius, the consul, originally entered into with us, because it had been made without the senate's sanction or the people's command; accordingly a new treaty, having the approval of the state, was [11] entered into. Now, if you are not bound by your treaties, unless they are concluded at your own instance or command, no more could the [p. 53]treaty of Hasdrubal, which he made without our⁴ knowledge, be binding [12] upon us. Cease then to prate of Saguntum and the Ebro, and bring forth at last the thought with which your mind has long been [13] in travail!” Then the Roman, gathering up his toga into a fold, said, “We bring you here both war and peace; choose which you will!” When he had said these words, they cried out with no less truculence that he might give them whichever [14] he liked; and on his shaking out the fold again, and announcing that he gave them war, they all replied that they accepted it, and in that same spirit in which they accepted it were resolved to wage it.