s the third: on which
Hannibal made no scruple to assign that rank to himself. Here Scipio could
not forbear laughing: "But what would you have said," continued Scipio,
"had you conquered me?" "I would," replied Hannibal, "have ranked myself
above Alexander, Pyrrhus, and all the generals the world ever produced."
Scipio was not insensible of so refined and delicate a flattery, which he
no ways expected; and which, by giving him no rival, seemed to insinuate,
that no captain was worthy of being put in comparison with him.

The answer, as told by Plutarch,(826) is less witty, and not so probable.
In this author, Hannibal gives Pyrrhus the first place, Scipio the second,
and himself the third.

Hannibal, sensible of the coldness with which Antiochus received him, ever
since his conferences with Villius or Scipio, took no notice of it for
some time, and seemed insensible of it.(827) But at last he thought it
advisable to come to an explanation with the king, and to open his mind
freely to him. "The hatred (says he) which I bear to the Romans, is known
to the whole world. I bound myself to it by an oath, from my most tender
infancy. It is this hatred that made me draw the sword against Rome during
thirty-six years. It is that, which, even in times of peace, has caused me
to be driven from my native country, and forced me to seek an asylum in
your dominions. For ever guided and fired by the same passion, should my
hopes be frustrated here, I will fly to every part of the globe, and rouse
up all nations against the Romans. I hate them, and will hate them
eternally; and know that they bear me no less animosity. So long as you
shall continue in the resolution to take up arms against them, you may
rank Hannibal in the number of your best friends. But if other counsels
incline you to peace, I declare to you, once for all, address yourself to
others for advice, and not to me." Such a speech, which came from his
heart, and expressed the greatest sincerity, struck the king, and seemed
to remove all his suspicions; so that he now resolved to give Hannibal the
command of part of his fleet.

But what havoc is not flattery capable of making in courts and in the
minds of princes!(828) Antiochus was told, "that it was imprudent in him
to put so much confidence in Hannibal, an exile, a Carthaginian, whose
fortune or genius might suggest to him, in one day, a thousand different
projects: that besides, this very fame which Hannibal had acqui