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Biographies: Scipio Africanus Major
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Scipio Africanus Major (Latin: P. Cornelivs PFLN Scipio Africanvs) was a great hero of the early Republic. A true Roman patriot, Scipio was never willing to admit defeat during the Second Punic War.
Scipio Africanus Major was born into greatness. In 236 B.C. in Rome the man who would become Scipio Africanus was born. His father was Publius Scipio and his mother is unrecorded. Scipio’s early life is mostly unknown; we can only guess what he did before his first recorded appearance in 218 B.C.
The first recorded appearance of Scipio Africanus Major was in 218 B.C., at the start of the Second Punic War. At the start of 218 Scipio’s father Publius, like his own father and grandfather, was elected Consul. When news arrived of Hannibal’s advance Publius set out to stop him at the River Ticinus, his son came with him leading a cavalry troop. During the battle Publius was badly wounded, and according to Scipio’s friend Laelius in a later account, Scipio after seeing his father go down charged through the Carthaginian ranks to rescue him. Following the battle the Roman forces fell back to the River Trebia (December, 218 B.C.), where Scipio, taking command of his father’s forces, ordered the troops to make camp and stay put, Hannibal did likewise. When Titus Sempronius Longus arrived at Trebia with reinforcements he clashed immediately with Scipio. Sempronius wished to attack as soon as he arrived, but Scipio argued for waiting on their side of the river, knowing that the Romans could afford to outwait Hannibal. Sempronius listened at the time, but later fell for Hannibal’s skirmisher bait hook, line, and sinker. In the aftermath of this battle Scipio broke camp and returned to Rome, in the following year (217 B.C.) he may have married Aemilla, daughter of Aemilius Paulus (who would in 216 die at Cannae). In the following year of 216 B.C. Scipio was made a military tribune and was in the army of Varro and Paulus at Cannae, the greatest Roman defeat of the Republican Era. Following the disaster Scipio along with 4,000 troops regrouped at Canusium, were he heard that a group of politician-generals led by Lucius Caecilius Metellus were planning on abandoning the Italian peninsula to Hannibal. Scipio, upon hearing this, gathered some supporters and stormed the meeting place of the conspirators. There he made them swear at sword point to continue to serve Rome faithfully and loyally. Scipio disappeared from history at this point for the next three years; he reappeared in 213 B.C. when he retired from the military and became a civilian by winning the elections for curule aedile, the tribunes upon hearing this objected, stating that he was too young for the position. Scipio replied to this by stating “If the Roman people want to make me aedile, I am old enough”. Two years later in 211 B.C. news reached Rome that the Carthaginians had defeated and killed Scipio’s father, uncle, and their troops in Spain. Scipio at this point swore revenge on the Carthaginians, promising to stop at nothing to defeat them.
Following his father’s death Scipio would embark on a series of campaigns that would prove his genius in battle. In 210 B.C. the Senate formed a new army to send to Spain, but no general came forward to take command. Scipio then stepped forward and made an impassioned plea to the Senate for his own candidacy for the job. Though young, Scipio was impressive and the Senate relented, giving him command of the Spanish theater of war. In 209 Scipio arrived in Spain, and made his headquarters at Tarraco (modern Tarragona). Scipio, a firm a believer in the doctrine of “the best defense is offense”, made his first move an attack on the Carthaginian fortress of Carthago Nova, catching it completely by surprise. There was no siege in this case, during the attack the lagoon that formed a natural protector of the city’s northern wall went down, thus allowing Scipio to take the city easily. The taking of Carthago Nova sent shock waves throughout Spain, the sudden loss of their home base motivated the three Carthaginian armies in the region (under the command of Hasdrubal Barca, Mago Barca, and Hasdrubal son of Gisgo) to take Scipio as a serious threat. Scipio spent the time gained to him by the shock of his actions to train his men to fight in such a way to counter the tactics of the Carthaginians. Scipio put his troops training to the test when he met Hasdrubal Barca in battle at Baecula (modern Bailen). Scipio won brilliantly at Baecula and won an even greater victory in 208 at the battle of Baetica. Hasdrubal, following these defeats then left Spain at the request his brother Hannibal to go to Italy. Scipio decided to not pursue and instead turned to deal with the two remaining commanders: Mago Barca and Hasdrubal son Gisgo. After a further two years (208-206) of fighting, not to mention diplomatic negotiations with the local Iberian chiefs Scipio defeated Mago and Hasdrubal at the decisive battle of Ilipa (modern Alcala del Rio). Scipio then left Spain and went to Numidia (in modern North Africa); the reason for this was to gain the support of Princes Massinissa and Syphax. After gaining their support Scipio returned to Spain and quelled a minor army mutiny. He then surrounded the fortress of Gades (modern Cadiz) and once it fell later that year the Roman conquest of Carthaginian Spain was complete, Scipio returned to Rome in triumph.
Having made his reputation and his fame in Spain, Scipio now returned to Rome with the idea of finishing the war. In 205 B.C. Scipio entered Rome to wild cheering crowds and discovered that he had been elected Consul for the year. In his first decision Scipio decided to ignore Hannibal and his army and instead strike at Carthage itself. Many in the Senate opposed Scipio’s decision, but he beat them down and got an assignment to Sicily. Because his new army was mostly made up of volunteers Scipio used Sicily as a training ground, their first military action was the taking of the town of Locri Epizephyrii from Hannibal (misconduct of the part of Scipio’s governor would later give his opponents in the Senate much political ammo to fire at him). In 204 B.C. anti-Scipio members of the Senate dispatched a commission to Sicily to discover what Scipio had been doing. When the commission discovered that Scipio had been training his men into a well disciplined fighting force the Senate ordered Scipio to invade Africa, to which he was more then happy to oblige. Scipio together with 35,000 men landed on Carthaginian shores and laid siege to Utica. Then news reached the Roman camp that Syphax had betrayed them and Scipio broke camp and moved out. In early 203 Scipio met in battle and destroyed the combined Punic-Numidian army under Hasdrubal son of Gisgo and Syphax. Scipio keeping up the pace swung down onto the Great Plains along the River Bagradas (modern Suq al Khamis along the River Majardah) and smashed the assembling army there. Carthage then opened negotiations with Scipio, during which he displayed admirable restraint, but these were all for nothing when Hannibal returned in 202 B.C. Thinking fast Scipio moved southwest and there met with the Numidians still loyal to Rome under Massinissa. Scipio then took this new combined army and turned east, where he met Hannibal in battle at Zama. In the end Scipio won that battle due to his Roman-Numidian cavalry outflanking of Hannibal, though both men tried a repeat of Cannae on the other. After this victory Scipio once again opened negotiations, and this time Carthage accepted his terms, which in light of what many Roman aristocrats demanded was rather lenient. When Scipio returned to Rome he found a city full of jubilation over his victory, and despite his protests the Senate named him: Africanus (Latin: Conqueror of Africa). After this Scipio would, despite the pleas of the people (who wished to place even more honors on him), retired from public life.
Content with all he had done for Rome, Scipio had retired from public service, but it was destined to not last. In 199 B.C. Scipio Africanus was elected Censor and named Princeps Senatus (Latin: First among Equals). Unable to refuse the office Scipio came out of retirement and took his role. Scipio’s tenure was marked by his love of all things Hellenic (a reason why so many senators hated him during the Second Punic War). When his five years as Censor and Princeps Senatus was up in 194 B.C. the people elected him Consul for the second time. Despite his love of Hellenism Scipio was against an evacuation of Roman forces from Greece in the wake of Philip V’s defeat, believing, and not without good reason, that Seleucid king Antiochus III would invade the area if Rome left. On Hannibal’s suggestion that is exactly what Antiochus did and Scipio’s decision proved correct. In 193 B.C. Scipio was assigned to an embassy to first Africa and then the East, what he did during this time is unknown. In 190 B.C. Africanus’ brother Lucius Scipio was elected Consul and appointed to lead the Roman army against Antiochus, who had retreated out of Greece due to a Roman victory at Thermopylae the pervious year. Africanus volunteered to serve as Lucius’ legate; however he fell ill during the campaign and was unable to assist Lucius in his decisive victory at Magnesia that December (for this victory Lucius was given the title Asiaticus). All was not well in Rome however; the enemies of the Scipio family led by Cato the Elder led a series of attacks in the political arena. As a result Lucius’ command was taken away and Africanus’ lenient peace terms were made harsh. In 187 B.C. a pair of tribunes brought Lucius to trial, accusing him of misappropriating war indemnities from Antiochus. The accusation angered Africanus to the point where as Lucius was bringing in his account books Africanus seized them, tore the books to pieces, then threw the pieces on the floor. As a result Lucius was found guilty and disgraced. In 185 B.C. Africanus himself was brought to trial on the accusation of accepting bribes, the trial took place on the anniversary of the great victory at Zama. At the trial Africanus reminded everyone of this and as a result was acquitted. In 184 B.C. Scipio Africanus left Roman politics for good by leaving Rome and moving to his country farm in Liternum in Campania (modern Southern Italy) and there spent the remaining year of his life as a farmer. He died sometime in 183 B.C. at the age of 53, his last wish was to be buried on his farm and not in the family tomb in Rome. So died Scipio Africanus Major, one of the greatest minds of his day.
The impact of Scipio Africanus Major was huge upon Rome. Because of his strategic and tactical mind he never lost a battle he led, and because of this Scipio Africanus Major had the reputation to beat during the Roman Republic. He was also considered the paragon of the Roman military man and was the model that all future Republican generals were compared to. |
User Comments:
| Mythos_Ruler
:: July 12 2005 |
| What did he die of? |
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| Paal_101
:: July 12 2005 |
Scipio Africanus definately ranks among Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Hannibal Barca as one of the greatest generals of the ancient world. That is why is is in 0 AD  |
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| Phoenix-TheRealDeal
:: July 18 2005 |
| Great article, Josh. |
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