Tib. Sempronius Longus, and princeps senatus, a distinction with which
he had already been honored in B.C. 196, and which was conferred upon
him for the third time in B.C. 190. In B.C. 193, during one of the
disputes between the Carthaginians and Massinissa, Scipio was sent
with two other commissioners to mediate between the parties; but
nothing was settled, though, as Livy observes, Scipio might easily
have put an end to the disputes. Scipio was the only Roman who thought
it unworthy of the republic to support those Carthaginians who
persecuted Hannibal; and there was a tradition that Scipio, in B.C.
193, was sent on an embassy to Antiochus, and that he met Hannibal in
his exile, who in the conversation which took place, declared Scipio
the greatest of all generals. Whether the story of the conversation be
true or not, the judgment ascribed to Hannibal is just; for Scipio as
a general was second to none but Hannibal himself.

In the year B.C. 190, some discussions arose in the Senate as to what
provinces should be assigned to the two consuls, Laelius and L.
Cornelius Scipio, brother of the great Africanus. Africanus, although
he was princeps senatus, offered to accompany his brother, as legate,
if the Senate would give him Greece as his province, for this province
conferred upon Lucius the command in the war against Antiochus. The
offer was accepted, and the two brothers set out for Greece, and
thence for Asia. Africanus took his son with him on this expedition,
but by some unlucky chance the boy was taken prisoner, and sent to
Antiochus. The king offered to restore him to freedom, and to give a
considerable sum of money, if the father would interpose his influence
to obtain favorable terms for the king. Africanus refused; but the
king, notwithstanding, soon after sent the boy back to his father, who
just then was suffering from illness, and was absent from the camp. To
show his gratitude, Africanus sent a message to Antiochus, advising
him not to engage in a battle until he himself had returned to the
Roman camp. After the great battle near Mount Sipylus, Antiochus again
applied to Scipio for peace, and the latter now used his influence
with his brother Lucius and the council of war, on behalf of the king.
The conditions of the peace were tolerably mild, but they were
afterward made much more severe when the peace was ratified at Rome.

The enemies of Africanus at Rome had now another charge against him.
The peace wi