able to the
Romans. The Carthaginians, however, whose only object was to gain
time, made no objections to the conditions, but only concluded a truce
of forty-five days, during which an embassy was to be sent to Rome.
Before this truce was at an end, the Carthaginian populace plundered
some Roman vessels with provisions, which were wrecked off Carthage,
and even insulted the Roman envoys who came to demand reparation.
Scipio did not resent this conduct and allowed the Carthaginian
ambassadors, on their return from Rome, to pass on to Carthage
unmolested. About this time (it was the autumn of the year B.C. 203)
Hannibal arrived in Africa, and soon collected an army in numbers far
exceeding that of Scipio. He first made a successful campaign against
Massinissa. Scipio was at this time informed that the consul Tib.
Claudius Nero would come with an army to co-operate with him against
Hannibal.

Scipio, who wished to bring the war to a conclusion, and was unwilling
to share the glory with anyone else, determined to bring Hannibal to a
decisive battle. The Carthaginian at first avoided an engagement; but
when Scipio, in order to deceive the enemy, hastily retreated as if he
intended to take to flight, Hannibal followed him with his cavalry and
lost a battle in the neighborhood of Zama. A tribune of Scipio soon
afterward cut off a large convoy of provisions which was on its way to
the camp of Hannibal, and this suddenly threw him into such
difficulties that he began to negotiate with Scipio for peace. The
conditions, however, which Scipio now proposed were so humiliating,
that the Carthaginians would not accept them. Hannibal, therefore,
though he saw the impossibility of gaining any further advantages, was
compelled to decide the affair by a last and desperate effort. In a
personal interview between the two generals Scipio was inexorable as
to the conditions. Hannibal's army was in a bad condition; and in the
ensuing battle, to the west of Zama, the victory of Scipio was
complete. This defeat (in B.C. 202) was the death-blow to Carthage.

Scipio, on his return to Italy, was received with the greatest
enthusiasm; he entered Rome in triumph, and was henceforward
distinguished by the name of Africanus. He now for several years
continued to live at Rome, apparently without taking any part in
public affairs. In B.C. 199 he obtained the office of censor with P.
AElius Paetus, and in B.C. 194 he was made consul a second time with