(235-183 B.C.)
[Illustration: Scipio.]
P. Cornelius Scipio, Africanus Major, was the son of that P. Cornelius
Scipio who was defeated by Hannibal at the Ticinus. If it be true that
at the age of seventeen Scipio fought in this battle, and rescued his
wounded father, he must have been born in B.C. 235. He was in the
battle of Cannae (B.C. 216) as a tribune, and was among those who,
after the defeat, escaped to Canusium. Here the chief command of the
remaining troops was unanimously entrusted to him and another. On this
occasion it was owing to his presence of mind that the remnants of the
Roman army did not, in their despair, quit Italy.
In B.C. 212, Scipio was curule aedile, though he had not yet attained
the legitimate age. The tribunes of the people endeavored to prevent
his election, but they were obliged to give up their opposition, for
the people, who seem to have perceived the extraordinary abilities of
the young man, elected him almost unanimously. In B.C. 211 his father
and uncle fell in Spain, and the Carthaginians again took possession
of the country, which they had almost entirely lost. When Capua had
fallen again into their hands, and Italy no longer required their
exclusive attention, the Romans determined to act with more energy
against the Carthaginians in Spain. On the day of the election, no one
ventured to come forward to undertake the command in this war. Young
Scipio, then scarcely twenty-four years of age, at last offered to
take the command of the army in Spain. The people were struck with
admiration at the courage of the young man, and gave him command, with
proconsular power, which was afterward prolonged to him for several
years (B.C. 210-206).
The extraordinary power which young Scipio exercised over his
contemporaries was perhaps partly owing to superstition, for he was
believed to be a favorite of the gods. Ever since he had risen to
manhood, he went every morning into the Capitol, where he spent some
hours in solitude and meditation. Hence all he did was considered by
the people to be the result of his intercourse with the gods. Scipio
himself partook in this opinion, and cherished it; and the
extraordinary success of all his enterprises must have strengthened
his belief.
Toward the end of the summer, in B.C. 210, or, as Livy says, at the
beginning of spring, Scipio set out for Spain with an army of 11,000
men, landed at the mouth of the Iberus, and undertook the command of
the whole Roman forces in Spain. He was accompanied by his friend,
Laelius. His first object was to gain possession of New Carthage, where
the Carthaginians kept their Spanish hostages. Laelius made the attack
with the fleet from the seaside, while Scipio conducted the operations
on land. The town soon fell into the hands of the Romans, and the
generosity with which Scipio treated the Spanish hostages gained over
a great number of Spaniards. The hostages of those tribes who declared
themselves allies of the Romans were sent home without ransom. It is
also related that a very beautiful maiden having fallen to his special
lot in the division of the booty, Scipio finding her sad, inquired the
cause, and learning that she was betrothed to a neighboring chief,
sent for the lover, and personally restored the maid in all honor to
his arms. A short time after the conquest of this place Scipio went to
Tarraco, where he received embassies from various Spanish tribes, who
offered to become the allies of the Romans or to recognize their
supremacy.
Scipio is said not to have set out against Hasdrubal until the year
following, but it can scarcely be conceived why the Carthaginians
should have been so long inactive, and it is a probable supposition
that the battle with Hasdrubal, which Livy and Polybius assign to the
year B.C. 209, was fought very soon after the taking of New Carthage.
In this battle Scipio gained a great victory; 8,000 Carthaginians were
slain, and 22,000, with their camp, fell into the hands of the victor.
Many of the Spaniards now wished to proclaim Scipio their king, but he
refused the honor.
Hasdrubal fled with the remainder of his army toward the Tagus and the
Pyrenees. Scipio did not follow him, partly because he thought his
enemy too much weakened to be dangerous, and partly because he feared
lest he might expose himself to the combined attacks of the two other
Carthaginian generals, Mago, and Hasdrubal, son of Gisco. Hasdrubal
Barcas, the defeated general, however, had carried considerable wealth
with him in his flight, and with these means he raised an army in
Spain, to lead into Italy to the assistance of his brother Hannibal,
hoping thus to bring the war to an end in Italy. During these
preparations of Hasdrubal, Scipio was engaged against the two other
Carthaginian generals, one of whom (Mago) was defeated, in B.C. 208,
by the propraetor Silanus, in the country of the Celtiberians, and
Hanno, who came with an auxiliary army from Africa, was taken
prisoner. After this success of the propraetor, Scipio united his
forces with those of Silanus to attack Hasdrubal, son of Gisco. But as
this general had retired to the south of Spain, and had distributed
his army in the fortified places on the Baetis as far as Gades, Scipio
(through his brother Lucius) only took the important town of Oringis,
and then gradually returned across the Iberus. The power of the
Carthaginians in Spain was, however, already broken, and in the year
following (B.C. 207) Scipio gained possession of nearly all Spain by a
victory, the place of which is not clearly ascertained, some calling
it Silpia or Baecula, some Ilipa, and others Carmo.
Scipio, now in the almost undisputed possession of Spain, began to
turn his eyes to Africa, and, accompanied by his friend Laelius, he
ventured to pay a visit to King Syphax, with whom Laelius had already
commenced negotiations. Here Scipio is said to have met Hasdrubal, son
of Gisco, and to have made a very favorable impression on Syphax as
well as on Hasdrubal. After a short stay in Africa, Scipio returned to
Spain, where he first punished several towns for their faithlessness,
and subdued some of the Spanish chiefs who ventured to claim their
former independence. During these occupations Scipio was attacked by a
severe illness, from which, however, he recovered in time to quell an
insurrection of 8,000 Roman soldiers, who were discontented from not
having derived from their conquests those advantages which they had
expected, and who are said also to have been bribed by the
Carthaginians. Mago had in the meantime withdrawn to the Balearic
Islands, and thence to Liguria. Gades, the last place which the
Carthaginians possessed in Spain, was now taken from them, and thus
the war in Spain was at an end.
[Illustration: Generosity of Scipio.]
Toward the close of the year B.C. 206, Scipio surrendered the command
of the Roman forces in Spain to the proconsuls L. Lentulus and L.
Manlius Acidinus, and returned to Rome. He delivered to the aerarium
the immense treasures which he brought from Spain. He evidently
wished for a triumph, but the senate paid no attention to his wishes,
for no one had ever triumphed at Rome before he had held the
consulship. In the year B.C. 205, Scipio was made consul with P.
Licinius Crassus, who was at the same time pontifex maximus, and was
consequently not allowed to leave Italy. If, therefore, a war was to
be carried on abroad, the command necessarily devolved upon Scipio.
His wish was immediately to sail with an army to Africa, but the more
cautious senators, and especially Q. Fabius, were decidedly opposed to
his plan, partly because Hannibal, as long as he was in Italy,
appeared too formidable to be neglected, and partly because they were
influenced by jealousy.
All that Scipio could obtain was that Sicily should be assigned to him
as his province, with thirty vessels, and with permission to sail over
to Africa in case he should think it advantageous to the republic. But
he did not obtain from the Senate permission to levy an army, and he
therefore called upon the Italian allies to provide him with troops
and other things necessary for carrying on the war. As they were all
willing to support the conqueror of the Carthaginians in Spain, he was
soon enabled to sail to Sicily with nearly seven thousand volunteers
and thirty ships. Soon after his arrival in Sicily he sent his friend
Laelius with a part of his fleet to Africa, partly to keep up the
connection which he had formed there, on his visit from Spain, with
Syphax and Massinissa (for to the latter Scipio had sent back a nephew
who had been taken prisoner in the battle of Baecula), and partly to
show to his timid opponents at Rome how groundless their fears were.
He himself employed his time in Sicily most actively, in preparing and
disciplining his new army.
Massinissa, dissatisfied with the Carthaginians, was anxious for the
arrival of Scipio in Africa, but Syphax had altered his policy, and
again joined the Carthaginians. The enemies of Scipio at Rome at last
got an opportunity of attacking him, and they nearly succeeded in
depriving him of his post. Without being authorized by the Senate,
Scipio had taken part in the conquest of Locri, in Southern Italy, and
had left his legate, Q. Flaminius, as commander of the Roman garrison
in that place. The legate treated the Locrians with such severity and
cruelty that they sent an embassy to Rome to lay their complaints
before the Senate. As Scipio, although acquainted with the conduct of
Flaminius, had nevertheless left him in command, his enemies attacked
him on this and other grounds, and Fabius Maximus even proposed that
he should be recalled. A commission was sent out to inquire into the
state of affairs and to bring Scipio home, if the charges against him
were found true. Scipio proved that his army was in the best possible
condition; and the commissioners were so surprised at what they saw,
that instead of recalling the consul, they bade him sail to Africa as
soon as he might think it proper, and to adopt any measures that he
might think useful.
Scipio, in consequence of this, sailed in B.C. 204 as proconsul, with
a large army, from Lilybaeum to Africa, and landed in the neighborhood
of Utica. Here he made successful incursions into the neighboring
country, and Hasdrubal, who attempted to prevent them, suffered a
great defeat. But Scipio could not gain possession of Utica, which was
of the greater importance to him and his fleet as the winter was
approaching, and he was obliged to spend the season on a piece of land
extending into the sea, which he fortified as well as he could. Toward
the close of the winter the Carthaginians, united with Syphax,
intended to make a general attack on Scipio's army and fleet, but
being informed of their plans, he surprised the camps of Hasdrubal and
Syphax in the night, and only a small number of the enemy escaped.
Syphax withdrew into his own dominions, but was defeated by Massinissa
and Laelius, and taken prisoner with his wife and one of his sons.
Massinissa married Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax, who had formerly
been engaged to him, but had been given to Syphax for political
reasons. Scipio, fearing the influence she might have on Massinissa
(for she was a Carthaginian), claimed her as a prisoner belonging to
the Romans, and Massinissa poisoned her, to save her from the
humiliation of captivity.
The fears and apprehensions of the Carthaginians now increased to such
a degree that they thought it necessary to recall Hannibal from Italy,
and at the same time they sued for peace. The terms which Scipio
proposed would have concluded the war in a manner honorable to the
Romans. The Carthaginians, however, whose only object was to gain
time, made no objections to the conditions, but only concluded a truce
of forty-five days, during which an embassy was to be sent to Rome.
Before this truce was at an end, the Carthaginian populace plundered
some Roman vessels with provisions, which were wrecked off Carthage,
and even insulted the Roman envoys who came to demand reparation.
Scipio did not resent this conduct and allowed the Carthaginian
ambassadors, on their return from Rome, to pass on to Carthage
unmolested. About this time (it was the autumn of the year B.C. 203)
Hannibal arrived in Africa, and soon collected an army in numbers far
exceeding that of Scipio. He first made a successful campaign against
Massinissa. Scipio was at this time informed that the consul Tib.
Claudius Nero would come with an army to co-operate with him against
Hannibal.
Scipio, who wished to bring the war to a conclusion, and was unwilling
to share the glory with anyone else, determined to bring Hannibal to a
decisive battle. The Carthaginian at first avoided an engagement; but
when Scipio, in order to deceive the enemy, hastily retreated as if he
intended to take to flight, Hannibal followed him with his cavalry and
lost a battle in the neighborhood of Zama. A tribune of Scipio soon
afterward cut off a large convoy of provisions which was on its way to
the camp of Hannibal, and this suddenly threw him into such
difficulties that he began to negotiate with Scipio for peace. The
conditions, however, which Scipio now proposed were so humiliating,
that the Carthaginians would not accept them. Hannibal, therefore,
though he saw the impossibility of gaining any further advantages, was
compelled to decide the affair by a last and desperate effort. In a
personal interview between the two generals Scipio was inexorable as
to the conditions. Hannibal's army was in a bad condition; and in the
ensuing battle, to the west of Zama, the victory of Scipio was
complete. This defeat (in B.C. 202) was the death-blow to Carthage.
Scipio, on his return to Italy, was received with the greatest
enthusiasm; he entered Rome in triumph, and was henceforward
distinguished by the name of Africanus. He now for several years
continued to live at Rome, apparently without taking any part in
public affairs. In B.C. 199 he obtained the office of censor with P.
AElius Paetus, and in B.C. 194 he was made consul a second time with
Tib. Sempronius Longus, and princeps senatus, a distinction with which
he had already been honored in B.C. 196, and which was conferred upon
him for the third time in B.C. 190. In B.C. 193, during one of the
disputes between the Carthaginians and Massinissa, Scipio was sent
with two other commissioners to mediate between the parties; but
nothing was settled, though, as Livy observes, Scipio might easily
have put an end to the disputes. Scipio was the only Roman who thought
it unworthy of the republic to support those Carthaginians who
persecuted Hannibal; and there was a tradition that Scipio, in B.C.
193, was sent on an embassy to Antiochus, and that he met Hannibal in
his exile, who in the conversation which took place, declared Scipio
the greatest of all generals. Whether the story of the conversation be
true or not, the judgment ascribed to Hannibal is just; for Scipio as
a general was second to none but Hannibal himself.
In the year B.C. 190, some discussions arose in the Senate as to what
provinces should be assigned to the two consuls, Laelius and L.
Cornelius Scipio, brother of the great Africanus. Africanus, although
he was princeps senatus, offered to accompany his brother, as legate,
if the Senate would give him Greece as his province, for this province
conferred upon Lucius the command in the war against Antiochus. The
offer was accepted, and the two brothers set out for Greece, and
thence for Asia. Africanus took his son with him on this expedition,
but by some unlucky chance the boy was taken prisoner, and sent to
Antiochus. The king offered to restore him to freedom, and to give a
considerable sum of money, if the father would interpose his influence
to obtain favorable terms for the king. Africanus refused; but the
king, notwithstanding, soon after sent the boy back to his father, who
just then was suffering from illness, and was absent from the camp. To
show his gratitude, Africanus sent a message to Antiochus, advising
him not to engage in a battle until he himself had returned to the
Roman camp. After the great battle near Mount Sipylus, Antiochus again
applied to Scipio for peace, and the latter now used his influence
with his brother Lucius and the council of war, on behalf of the king.
The conditions of the peace were tolerably mild, but they were
afterward made much more severe when the peace was ratified at Rome.
The enemies of Africanus at Rome had now another charge against him.
The peace with Antiochus, and the conditions proposed by Africanus and
his brother Lucius, were regarded by the hostile party as the result
of bribes from Antiochus, and of the liberation of the son of
Africanus. A charge was therefore brought against the two brothers, on
their return to Rome, of having accepted bribes of the king, and of
having retained a part of the treasures which they ought to have
delivered up to the aerarium. At the same time they were called upon to
give an account of the sums of money they had taken from Antiochus.
Lucius was ready to obey; but his brother Africanus with indignation
snatched the accounts from the hands of his brother and tore them to
pieces before the Senate. The tribune of the people, C. Minucius
Augurinus, however, fined Lucius; and when he was going to be thrown
into prison until he should pay the heavy fine, Africanus dragged him
away; and the tribune Tib. Gracchus, though disapproving of the
violence of Africanus, liberated Lucius from imprisonment. Africanus
himself was now summoned before the people by the tribune M. Naevius;
but instead of answering the charges he reminded the people that it
was the anniversary of his victory at Zama, and bade them rather thank
the gods for such citizens as he.
After these troubles he withdrew to his villa near Liternum, and it
was owing to the interposition of Tib. Gracchus that he was not
compelled to obey another summons. The estates of his brother Lucius,
however, were confiscated (B.C. 187), but the sum produced by their
sale did not make up the amount of the fine. His friends and clients
not only offered to make up the sum, but their generosity would even
have made him richer than he had been before; but he refused to accept
anything beyond what was absolutely necessary for his support.
Africanus never returned from his voluntary exile, and he spent the
last years of his life in quiet retirement at his villa. He is said to
have wished to be buried on his estate; but there was, as Livy says, a
tradition that he died at Rome, and was buried in the tomb of his
family near the Porta Capena, where statues of him, his brother
Lucius, and their friend Q. Ennius, were erected. The year of his
death is not quite certain; for, according to Polybius, he died in the
same year with Hannibal and Philopoemen (B.C. 183); according to
others, two years earlier (B.C. 185).
In judging of Scipio Africanus as a general, we may adopt the judgment
ascribed to Hannibal; but as a Roman citizen he is very far from
deserving such praise. His pride and haughtiness were intolerable, and
the laws of the constitution were set at nought whenever they opposed
his own views and passions. As a statesman he scarcely did anything
worth mentioning. By his wife AEmilia, daughter of AEmilius Paullus, he
had two daughters, one of whom married P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica
Corculum, the other, the celebrated Cornelia, married Tib. Sempronius
Gracchus, and was the mother of the two Gracchi, the tribunes of the
people.