Sci pio Africanus and Hannibal. - Owing to illness Sulpicius stopped at Pergamum, whilst Villius went on to Ephesus, as he heard that the king had commenced hostilities in Pisidia. He made a short stay there, and as Hannibal happened to be there at the time he made a point of paying frequent visits to him in order to ascertain his future plans and if possible remove anv aDDrehension from his mind as to dancer threateninz him trom Kome. 1v otning else was aiscussea in tnese interviews, put they had one result, which though really undesigned might have been deliberately aimed at, for they lowered Hannibal's authority with the king and cast suspicion upon all that he said or did. Claudius, following Acilius who wrote in Greek, says that Publius Scipio Africanus was one of the commissioners, and that he had conversations with Hannibal. One of these he reports. Africanus asked Hannibal whom he considered to be the greatest commander, and the reply was,“Alexander of Macedon, for with a small force he routed innumerable armies and traversed the most distant shores of the world which no man ever hoped to visit." Africanus then asked him whom he would put second, and Hannibal replied,“Pyrrhus;he was the first who taught how to lay out a camp, and moreover no one ever showed more cleverness in the choice of positions and the disposition of troops. He possessed, too, the art of winning popularity to such an extent that the nations of Italy preferred the rule of a foreign king to that of the Roman people who had so long held the foremost place in that country." On Scipio's again asking him whom he regarded as the third Hannibal, without any hesitation. replied,“ Myse e1f .”Scipio smiled and asked,“what would yo u say if you lhad vanquished me?”“In that case,'’ replied H annibal.“I should sav that I suruassed Alexander and J f几 Pyrrhus, and all other commanders in the world." Scipio was delighted with the turn which the speaker had with true Carthaginian adroitness given to his answer, and the unexpected flattery it conveyed, because Hannibal had set him apart from the ordinary run of military captains as an incomparable commander.