The senate received intelligence that Annibal was in Bithynia, and immediately sent ambassadors, amongst whom was Lucius Quintus Flaminius, to demand him of Prusias. The king was unwilling to betray Annibal and violate the laws of hospitality, but at the same time he dreaded the power of Rome. Annibal extricated him from his embarrassment, and when he heard that his house was besieged on every side, and all means of escape fruitless, he took a dose of poison, which he always carried with him in a ring on his finger; and as he breathed his last, he exclaimed, _Solvamus diuturnâ curâ populum Romanum, quando mortem senis expectare longum censet_. He died in his 70th year, according to some, about 182 years B.C. That year was famous for the death of the three greatest generals of the age, Annibal, Scipio, and Philopœmen. The death of so formidable a rival was the cause of great rejoicing in Rome; he had always been a professed enemy to the Roman name, and ever endeavoured to destroy its power. If he shone in the field, he also distinguished himself by his studies. He was taught Greek by Sosilus, a Lacedæmonian, and he even wrote some books in that language on different subjects. It is remarkable that the life of Annibal, whom the Romans wished so many times to destroy by perfidy, was never attempted by any of his soldiers or countrymen. He made himself as conspicuous in the government of the state as at the head of armies, and though his enemies reproached him with the rudeness of laughing in the Carthaginian senate, while every senator was bathed in tears for the misfortunes of the country, Annibal defended himself by saying that he, who had been bred all his life in a camp, ought to be dispensed with all the more polished feelings of a capital. He was so apprehensive for his safety, that when he was in Bithynia his house was fortified like a castle, and on every side there were secret doors which could give immediate escape if his life was ever attempted. When he quitted Italy, and embarked on board a vessel for Africa, he so strongly suspected the fidelity of his pilot, who told him that the lofty mountains which appeared at a distance was a promontory of Sicily, that he killed him on the spot; and when he was convinced of his fatal error, he gave a magnificent burial to the man whom he had so falsely murdered, and called the promontory by his name. The labours which he sustained, and the inclemency of the weather to which he exposed himself in crossing the Alps, so weakened one of his eyes, that he ever after lost the use of it. The Romans have celebrated the humanity of Annibal, who, after the battle of Cannæ, sought the body of the fallen consul amidst the heaps of slain, and honoured it with a funeral becoming the dignity of Rome. He performed the same friendly offices to the remains of Marcellus and Tiberius Gracchus, who had fallen in battle. He often