bal at Zama, and called upon
them to neglect all disputes and lawsuits, and follow him to the
Capitol, there to return thanks to the immortal gods, and pray that they
would grant the Roman state other citizens like himself. Scipio struck a
chord which vibrated in every heart; their veneration for the hero
returned; and he was followed by such crowds to the Capitol that the
Tribunes were left alone in the rostra. Having thus set all the laws at
defiance, Scipio immediately quitted Rome, and retired to his country
seat at Liternum. The Tribunes wished to renew the prosecution, but
Gracchus wisely persuaded them to let it drop. Scipio never returned to
Rome. He would neither submit to the laws, nor aspire to the sovereignty
of the state, and he therefore resolved to expatriate himself forever.
He passed his remaining days in the cultivation of his estate at
Liternum, and at his death is said to have requested that his body might
be buried there, and not in his ungrateful country (B.C. 183).

Hannibal perished in the same year as his great opponent. Scipio was the
only member of the Senate who opposed the unworthy persecution which the
Romans employed against their once dreaded foe. Each of these great men,
possessing true nobility of soul, could appreciate the other's merits. A
story is told that Scipio was one of the embassadors sent to Antiochus
at Ephesus, at whose court Hannibal was then residing, and that he there
had an interview with the great Carthaginian, who declared him the
greatest general that ever lived. The compliment was paid in a manner
the most flattering to Scipio. The latter had asked, "Who was the
greatest general?" "Alexander the Great," was Hannibal's reply. "Who was
the second?" "Pyrrhus." "Who was the third?" "Myself," replied the
Carthaginian. "What would you have said, then, if you had conquered me?"
asked Scipio, in astonishment. "I should then have placed myself above
Alexander, Pyrrhus, and all other generals."

After the defeat of Antiochus, Hannibal, as we have already seen, took
up his abode with Prusias, king of Bithynia, and there found for some
years a secure asylum. But the Romans could not be at ease so long as
Hannibal lived, and T. Flamininus was at length dispatched to the court
of Prusias to demand the surrender of the fugitive. The Bithynian king
was unable to resist; but Hannibal, who had long been in expectation of
such an event, took poison to avoid falling into the hands of hi