I remember reading a story when I was younger about an encounter between Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and Hannibal Barca sometime after the battle of Zama where Africanus asked Hannibal who he considered the greatest general of all time. According to this book, Hannibal answered that Alexander was the greatest general, Pyhrrus of Epirus was the 2nd greatest, and that Hannibal himself was the third greatest, before detailing that if Hannibal had won at Zama he would have considered himself the greatest.
Now, I recently re-read this book and noticed it seemed to have some iffy claims, so I was wondering if anyone had an answer to this. It was always one of my favorite anecdotes so I'd really appreciate knowing if there's any truth to it.
The encounter is first detailed by [Livy] (http://www.livius.org/li-ln/livy/periochae/periochae031.html). Plutarch, has two different accounts, with the one in the biography of [Flamininus] (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/flaminin.html) being the same, but he actually accounts a different version in [Pyrrhus] (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/pyrrhus.html), where he leaves out Alexander entirely. The story is also expanded on in Appian's [Syrian Wars] (http://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-syrian-wars/appian-the-syrian-wars-2/) where he puts a number of additional words into their mouths.
In that sense, the greatest question is just how reliable Livy is. Livy lived over 100 years after the events he's writing about, and there doesn't seem to be any prior mention of this incident. Of course, it's possible that those sources were lost in the intervening years, so we have no way to judge their credibility. One can see that the story itself morphed over the years, even when copying from past sources, so even if there was some event in which something similar happened, it indicates that ancient sources regarding this specific example are not very clear on details. Livy in particular really likes anecdotes and moralizing, so it's a bit difficult to say.
Looking at the story itself, one major problem is simply that most conversations are unlikely to be recorded, and they are probably significantly over-represented in histories because they make for interesting stories. The chain of events requires that someone is present at the conversation, finds it memorable, is willing to write it down, and keeps it saved for a hundred years until Livy finds it. Appian claims there were "bystanders", who arguably could have recorded it, but neither Livy nor Plutarch clarify their sources. Furthermore, all of them were Roman writers who might have had some desire to make Hannibal seem haughty. It perfectly fits the Roman view of Hannibal as "Worthy enemy, but too proud."
Overall, I can't say that it didn't happen, but there seems to be very little evidence suggesting that it did.