He had found at Ephesus a Tyrian called Aristo, and in several less important commissions, had discovered him to possess a good degree of ingenuity.
This man he now loaded with presents and promises of rewards which were confirmed by the king himself, and sent him to Carthage with messages.

He told him the names of the persons whom it was necessary that he should see, and furnished him with secret tokens, by which they would know, with certainty, that the messages came from him.

On this Aristo's appearing at Carthage, the reason of his coming was not discovered by Hannibal's friends sooner than by his enemies.

At first, the subject was bruited about in their circles and at their tables; and at last some persons declared in the senate that "the banishment of Hannibal answered no purpose, if while resident in another country, he was still able to propagate designs for changing the administration, and disturbing the quiet of the state by his intrigues.

That a Tyrian stranger, named Aristo, had come with a commission from Hannibal and king Antiochus; that certain men daily held secret conferences with him, and were concocting that in private, the consequences of which would soon break out, to the ruin of the public." This produced a general outcry, that "Aristo ought to be summoned, and examined respecting the reason of his coming; and if he did not disclose it, to be sent to Rome, with ambassadors accompanying him: that they had already suffered enough of punishment in atonement of the headstrong rashness of one individual; that the faults of private citizens should be at their own risk, and the state should be preserved free, not only from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it." Aristo, being summoned, contended for his innocence; and urged, as his strongest defence, that he had brought no letter to any person whatever: but he gave no satisfactory reason for his coming, and was chiefly embarrassed by the fact which they urged, that he had conversed solely with men of the Barcine faction.