*** This anecdote is probably apocryphal, but it could be true. Both Livy and Appian included it in their histories.
Two of the greatest generals met in the Battle of Zama in 202 B.C. The battle ended the Second Punic War and made Rome the dominant power in the western Mediterranean. In the battle, Scipio defeated Hannibal outside Carthage in north Africa. He was called Scipio Africanus after that. Years later, the two generals met. The conversation was cordial as both shared memories of the war. At the end of the conversation, Scipio asked Hannibal who he thought the greatest general in history were. Hannibal said he thought the greatest general in history was Alexander of Macedonia because he defeated much larger armies and went to the “remotest lands” (Livy). When asked who was number two, Hannibal picked Pyrrhus of Epirus. King Pyrrhus was a general who had come to Italy to aid a city threatened by Rome. Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in two pyrrhic victories, but was defeated in the third. Hannibal chose him because he was the first to construct fortified camps and he was great at using terrain to his benefit. He also mentioned that Pyrrhus was able to flip Italian cities away from Rome, even though he was a foreign king. Ouch! Hannibal put himself at number three because “ when I was a young man I conquered Spain and crossed the Alps with an army, the first after Hercules. I invaded Italy and struck terror into all of you, laid waste 400 of your towns, and often put your city in extreme peril, all this time receiving neither money nor reinforcements from Carthage.” (Appian) At this point, Scipio was getting perturbed that Hannibal had not picked him. Scipio, thinking “dude, I beat you at Zama!”, asked him where he would put himself if he had won at Zama. Hannibal declared that if he had beat Scipio, he would consider himself the greatest general in history. Scipio probably chuckled at that back-handed compliment and the two parted in friendship.
- Livy and Appian
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