Hannibal has spent the past two years of his command consolidating his holdings and completing the conquest of Hispania south of the Ebro.

However, Rome, fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, makes an alliance with the Hellenized Iberian coastal city of Saguntum, which lies a considerable distance south of the River Ebro and claims the city as its protectorate.

After great tension within the city government, culminating in the assassination of the supporters of Carthage, Hannibal lays siege to the city in 219 BCE.

The city calls in vain for Roman aid, band following a prolonged eight month siege and a bloody struggle, in which Hannibal himself is wounded and the army practically destroyed, the Carthaginians finally take control of the city.

Many of the Saguntians choose to commit suicide rather than face subjugation by the Carthaginians.

Livy reports that it was agreed in the treaty that the Iber should be the boundary between both empires and that the liberty of the Saguntines should be preserved.

Rome demands justice from Carthage.

In view of Hannibal's great popularity, the Carthaginian government does not repudiate Hannibal's actions, and the war he seeks is declared at the end of the year.

Having thus punctuated the long apprenticeship under his father and brother-in-law, Hannibal now determines to carry the war into the heart of Italy by a rapid march through Hispania and southern Gaul.

…Sagunto.

Suchet had launched an invasion of the province of Valencia in September, besieging the castle of Sagunto and defeating Blake's relief attempt.

The Spanish defenders capitulate on 25 October.

Alfonso issues the Sandhurst Manifesto, in which he sets the ideological basis of the Bourbonic Restoration, on December 1, 1874.

It is drafted in reply to a birthday greeting from his followers, a manifesto proclaiming himself the sole representative of the Spanish monarchy.

Brigadier General Arsenio Martínez Campos, who has long been working more or less openly for the king, leads some battalions of the central army to Sagunto when Field Marshal Serrano leaves Madrid to take command of the northern army in the Carlist War at the end of 1874, rallies to his own flag the troops sent against him, and enters Valencia in the king's name.

Thereupon the President resigns, and his power is transferred to the king's plenipotentiary and adviser, conservative politician Antonio Cánovas del Castillo.

The December 29, 1874, military coup of Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed republic and enables the rise of the young Prince Alfonso.