Scipio laughed, and added, "What would
you have said if you had conquered me?" "Then," replied the other, "I
would have placed Hannibal, not only before Alexander and Pyrrhus,
but before all other commanders." This answer, turned with Punic
dexterity, and conveying an unexpected kind of flattery, was highly
grateful to Scipio, as it set him apart from the crowd of commanders,
as one of incomparable eminence.

15. From Ephesus, Villius proceeded to Apamea, whither Antiochus, on
hearing of the coming of the Roman delegates, came to meet him. In
this congress, at Apamea, the debates were similar to those which
passed at Rome, between Quinctius and the king's ambassadors. The news
arriving of the death of Antiochus, the king's son, who, as just now
mentioned, had been sent into Syria, broke off the conference. There
was great mourning in the court, and excessive regret for this young
man; for he had given such indications of his character as afforded
evident proof that, had a longer life been allotted him, he would
have displayed the talents of a great and just prince. The more he
was beloved and esteemed by all, the more was his death a subject of
suspicion, namely, that his father, thinking that his heir trod too
closely on the heels of his own old age, had him taken off by poison,
by some eunuchs, who recommend themselves to kings by the perpetration
of such foul deeds. People mentioned also, as another motive for that
clandestine act of villany, that, as he had given Lysimachia to his
son Seleucus, he had no establishment of the like kind, which he
could give to Antiochus, for the purpose of banishing him also to
a distance, under pretext of doing him honour. Nevertheless, an
appearance of deep mourning was maintained in the court for several
days; and the Roman ambassador, lest his presence at that inauspicious
time might be troublesome, retired to Pergamus. The king, dropping the
prosecution of the war which he had begun, went back to Ephesus; and
there, keeping himself shut up in the palace, under colour of grief,
held secret consultations with a person called Minio, who was his
principal favourite. Minio was utterly ignorant of the state of all
foreign nations; and, accordingly, estimating the strength of the king
from his successes in Syria or Asia, he was confident that Antiochus
had not only superiority from the merits of his cause, and that the
demands of the Romans were highly unreasonable; but also, that he