*

Peace was made, and, as was inevitable, the terms were less favourable
than when the fate of both countries hung in the balance. Naturally, the
Carthaginians threw the blame on Hannibal, and naturally also, being
filled with the meanest qualities that belong to mankind, when they
found that all was in confusion and no one knew where to turn, they sent
for the man they had abandoned and abused, and bade him set them on
their feet again. In a moment all the wrongs he had suffered at their
hands were forgotten; he accepted the position of dictator or _suffete_,
he caused more humane laws to be passed, and not only saved the people
from ruin and enabled the merchants again to sell their goods, but paid
the large sum demanded as a war indemnity by Rome within the year.

Having done what no other man in Carthage, probably no other man in his
age, could possibly have done, it is needless to remark that his
fellow-citizens grew jealous of him, and listened without anger to
Rome's demand for his surrender, made, it is just to say, in spite of
the indignation of Scipio. To save himself from the people for whom he
had 'done and dared' everything he escaped by night, leaving a sentence
of banishment to be passed on him and the palace of his fathers to be
wrecked. Perhaps--who knows?--he may have wished to save his country
from the crowning shame of giving him up to walk by the chariot wheels
in the triumph of Scipio Africanus.

* * * * *

The remaining years of his life--nearly twenty-five, it is said--are so
sad that one can hardly bear to write about them. The first place at
which he sought refuge was at Ephesus, with Antiochus the Great, lord,
at least in name, of a vast number of mixed races from Asia Minor to the
river Oxus. Here, still keeping in mind the master passion of his life,
he tried to induce Antiochus to form a league by which Rome could be
attacked on all sides. But the king, who had little in him of greatness
but his name, made war before his preparations were half finished, and
gave the chief commands to incapable men, leaving Hannibal to obey
orders instead of issuing them. One by one the allies forsook the king
and joined Rome--even Carthage sending help to the Roman fleet. In 196
B.C. the battle of Magnesia put an end to the war, and the dominions of
Antiochus became a Roman province.

Once more the surrender of Hannibal was made one of the terms of the
treaty, and on