Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (; ; 236/235–) was a Roman general and statesman who was one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders and strategists of all time, his crowning achievement was the defeat of Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, which earned him the honorific epithet Africanus ("the African").
Born into a distinguished patrician family in Rome, Scipio followed his father Publius Scipio to war against Carthage, and survived the disastrous Roman defeat at Cannae. In 210 BC, despite never having held consular office, he was elected to take command of Rome's forces in Hispania, following the death of his father and uncle in battle. His campaign culminated in the victory at Ilipa in 206 BC against Hannibal's brother Mago Barca, leading to the Roman conquest of Carthaginian Iberia. Elected consul in 205 BC, Scipio launched an invasion of the Carthaginian homeland in Africa, compelling the Carthaginians to recall Hannibal. Following failed negotiations, Scipio routed Hannibal's army at Zama, forcing Carthage to sue for peace and bringing to an end the Second Punic War.
Despite his triumphs and heroic status among the Roman public, Scipio had many political opponents, in particular Cato the Elder. In 187 BC, Scipio and his brother Lucius were subjected to trials for bribes they supposedly received from the Seleucid king Antiochus III during the Roman–Seleucid War. Disillusioned, he left Rome and retired to his villa in Liternum, where he died circa 183 BC.
Early years
Family
Scipio Africanus was born as Publius Cornelius Scipio in 236 BC to his then-homonymous father and Pomponia into the family of the Cornelii Scipiones. His family was one of the major still-extant patrician families and had held multiple consulships within living memory: his great-grandfather Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus and grandfather Lucius Cornelius Scipio were both consuls and censors. His mother's brothers Manius Pomponius Matho and Marcus Pomponius Matho were consuls in 233 and 231 respectively, his father's brother Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus was consul in 222, and his father was in 218.
Early military service
The Second Punic War started in early 218 BC when the Roman ultimatum to Carthage demanding that Hannibal withdraw from Saguntum in Spain was rejected. Scipio's father was consul that year and the younger Scipio joined him in the campaign to stop Hannibal's march on Italy. In a short cavalry engagement between Scipio's father and Hannibal at the river Ticinus near modern Pavia, Polybius claims that the son saved his father's life after the father was encircled by enemy horsemen.; . Pliny the Elder, writing in the 1st century AD, mentions that Scipio refused the civic crown for the deed. . Other sources credit an unnamed Ligurian slave.
Two years later, in 216 BC, Scipio served as military tribune. He survived the disastrous Battle of Cannae – his father-in-law, the consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus, was slain there. – and, after the battle, rallied survivors at Canusium. According to Livy, when he heard that Lucius Caecilius Metellus and other young nobles were discussing a plan to abandon the republic and go overseas to serve as mercenaries, Scipio stormed into the meeting and forced all of them at sword-point to swear to Jupiter and the Capitoline triad that they would never abandon Rome.. See also, on Metellus, . This story is probably a late invention, as it does not appear in Polybius. Ridley cites .
The next year, in 213 BC, he was elected curule aedile and served with his cousin Marcus Cornelius Cethegus.. , wrongly dates this to 212 BC; patricians held the curule aedileship in odd years, implying 213. Broughton also dismisses the "story that Scipio won election both for himself and his brother" – originating in – as "intrinsically improbable" and notes its general scholarly rejection. . His candidacy was opposed by one of the plebeian tribunes on the grounds that he had not yet reached the minimum age, but the voters expressed such enthusiastic support for Scipio that the tribune desisted.
Second Punic War
Campaign in Hispania
From the start of the war through to 211 BC, Scipio's father, Publius Cornelius Scipio, and uncle – Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus – were in command of Rome's armies in Spain. They made some headway when the Carthaginians were forced to withdraw a considerable portion of their forces to handle a revolt by Syphax of Numidia. Through the seven years from 218, the brothers had successfully extended Roman control deep into Carthaginian territory. However, disaster struck in 211 BC when the brothers divided their forces to attack three separate Carthaginian armies and were defeated in detail. The brothers fell in separate battles against the Carthaginians, who were led by Hasdrubal Barca, Mago Barca, and Hasdrubal Gisco; the two Barcas were Hannibal's brothers.
Initially, Gaius Claudius Nero – who was praetor in 212 BC – was sent to contain the situation., citing . But in 210 BC, the assembly elected Scipio to take command. Modern scholars dismiss the Livian narrative of senatorial indecision and have instead suggested that the senate chose Scipio but forced a popular vote to legitimise an irregular command. Giving Scipio command was an extraordinary act, as he at this point had never held a praetorship or consulship, but was regardless granted imperium pro consule, taking command on his arrival to Spain in the early autumn. He was the first person to have been given proconsular imperium without having held consular office. He went to Spain with some 10,000 reinforcements and was joined by another commander, Marcus Junius Silanus, who was dispatched pro praetore and soon assumed command of Nero's army.
Seeking to defeat the three Carthaginian armies in detail, the next year, 209 BC, saw Scipio's first major campaign: he besieged Qart-Hadast (modern Cartagena), which was a major Carthaginian logistics hub and of substantial strategic importance. In the battle, he captured the city by sending a wading party across the lagoon to the city's north when it reached low tide, he told the troops that he had a vision in which the god Neptune had promised aid; this alleged vision played a role in the rapid development of a Scipionic legend around him and his family. Storming the city rapidly and with little ability to tell combatants and civilians apart, Scipio ordered his men to massacre all they encountered and pillage any structures; Polybius viewed the massacre as intended to terrorise the local population into rapidly surrendering and included an anecdote of Romans being so thorough as to cut even the dogs and other animals in half. He then forced the surrender of Mago in the citadel and rapidly switched his tune, sparing the remaining citizens and only enslaving the town's non-citizens. He then took the three hundred Spanish hostages into his custody, giving them gifts, guaranteeing their safety and that of their families, and promising them freedom if their respective communities would ally with Rome.
After the battle, several Spanish tribes defected to the Romans. The next year, 208 BC, Scipio fought Hasdrubal north of the river Baetis, near Baecula. While Scipio was victorious, the battle was indecisive and Hasdrubal escaped north with most of his army across the Pyrenees for Italy; Hasdrubal and his army reached Italy in 207, where they were eventually defeated in the Battle of the Metaurus with the army destroyed and Hasdrubal slain. The following year, Hasdrubal was replaced by a certain Hanno, who was captured by Junius Silanus in Celtiberia. Following the army under Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, which retreated to Gades (modern Cádiz), Scipio's brother took Orongis (modern Jaén) before a decisive victory in 206 BC at the Battle of Ilipa, north of modern Seville, forced the Carthaginians to withdraw from the peninsula. In mopping-up operations, Scipio captured Ilourgeia and Castulo, inflicting severe punishment on the former for having killed refugees from his army. Other Roman commanders captured other towns in Spain, including Astapa, whose inhabitants committed mass suicide. After a quickly-suppressed revolt by Spanish tribes when false rumours of Scipio's death from illness spread, he crossed into Africa to solicit the support of Syphax and thence into western Hispania to meet Massinissa for the same purpose. Syphax pledged loyalty but eventually joined with the Carthaginians; Massinissa, however, joined with the Romans with a small contingent when Syphax expelled him the kingdom of Massylii. Meanwhile, Gades surrendered to the Romans.
Some time , Scipio also founded the town of Italica (located about 9 km northwest of Seville), which later became the birthplace of the emperors, Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius I.
With a general victory across the peninsula, Scipio then returned to Rome to stand for the consulship of 205 BC, leaving Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus in command.. Lentulus and Acidinus are those reported at ; instead has Scipio leave Silanus and Lucius Marcius Septimius – one of Scipio's legates – in command. He returned to Rome late in the year; according to Livy he was denied a triumph,. on the grounds that he was privatus – that is, sine magistratu – and had never been elected to a magistracy with imperium.
African campaign
Scipio was elected unanimously to the consulship of 205 BC amid much enthusiasm; he was 31 and still technically too young to be consul. When he entered into office, he demanded that the senate assign him the province of Africa and threatened to take the matter to the popular assemblies if it refused to do so. Despite fierce opposition from the princeps senatus, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the senate bowed to his pressure and he received Sicily with permission to cross into Africa if he wished. Fabius' opposition may have been related to jealousy of Scipio's popularity, but also was likely informed by the failed African campaign under Marcus Atilius Regulus during the First Punic War, which saw the Carthaginians' war efforts renewed. The senate, regardless, assigned Scipio no additional soldiers, leading him to recruit an army of volunteers; Livy reports that from his clients and supporters in Italy, he mustered some 30 warships and 7,000 men.
He spent most of his consulship preparing his troops in Sicily for the invasion of Africa. He captured Locri on the toe of Italy that year, and left one Pleminius in command there. After Pleminius assumed command, he robbed the city's temple and tortured and killed two military tribunes. For these crimes, the senate had Pleminius placed under arrest; Scipio was also implicated but was cleared the next year.
Invasion of Africa