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 SCIPIO AFRICANUS MAJOR 23 tory 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. ^Elius Psetus, and in B.C. 194 he was made consul a second time with Tib. Sempronius Longus, and princeps senatus, a distinction with which he had already been honored in B.C. 196, and which was conferred upon him for the third time in B.C. 190. In B.C. 193, during one of the disputes between the Car- thaginians and Massinissa, Scipio was sent with two other commissioners to me- diate between the parties ; but nothing was settled, though, as Livy observes, Scipio might easily have put an end to the disputes. Scipio was the only Roman who thought it unworthy of the republic to support those Carthaginians who per- secuted Hannibal; and there was a tradition that Scipio, in B.C. 193, was sent on an embassy to Antiochus, and that he met Hannibal in his exile, who in the con- versation which took place, declared Scipio. the greatest of all generals. Whether the story of the conversation be true or not, the judgment ascribed to Hannibal is just ; for Scipio as a general was second to none but Hannibal himself. In the year B.C. 190, some discussions arose in the Senate as to what provinces should be assigned to the two consuls, Lselius and L. Cornelius Scipio, brother of the great Africanus. Africanus, although he was princeps senatus, offered to accompany his brother, as legate, if the Senate would give him Greece as his province, for this province conferred upon Lucius the command in the war against Antiochus. The offer was accepted, and the two brothers set out for Greece, and thence for Asia. Africanus took his son with him on this expedi- tion, but by some unlucky chance the boy was taken prisoner, and sent to Anti- ochus. The king offered to restore him to freedom, and to give a considerable sum of money, if the father would interpose his influence to obtain favorable terms for the king. Africanus refused ; but the king, notwithstanding, soon after sent the boy back to his father, who just then was suffering from illness and was absent from the camp. To show his gratitude, Africanus sent a mes- sage to Antiochus, advising him not to engage in a battle until he himself had returned to the Roman camp. After the great battle near Mount Sipylus, An- tiochus again applied to Scipio for peace, and the latter now used his influence with his brother Lucius and the council of war, on behalf of the king. The conditions of the peace were tolerably mild, but they were afterward made much more severe when the peace was ratified at Rome. The enemies of Africajius at Rome had now another charge against him. The peace with Antiochus, and the conditions proposed by Africanus and his brother Lucius, were regarded by the hostile party as the result of bribes from Antiochus, and of the liberation of the son of Africanus. A charge was there- fore brought against the two brothers, on their return to Rome, of having ac- cepted bribes of the king, and of having retained a part of the treasures which