Scipio Africanus Major
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Scipio Africanus Major
Scipio Africanus Major was born in 236 B.C. He later became a Roman General and the conqueror of Hannibal in the Punic wars. Scipio was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio and considered himself to have divine inspiration from a very early age. He was with his father in Ticino when he was 18, and survived the fight with Cannae in 216 B.C. Scipio was elected proconsul in Spain in 211 B.C. New Carthage was conquered two years later and he used the city as his base. He subdued Spain within a few years. As a 31-year-old consul in 205 B.C., Africa was his intended destination, but his jealous enemies in the senate allowed him to go as far as Sicily and did not grant him an army. Scipio trained a volunteer army in Sicily and a year later received permission to go to Africa and fought successfully alongside his allies, the Numidians, against the Carthaginians. When Scipio was 34, Hannibal tried to make peace, but Scipio’s demands were so extreme, that a war took place. Scipio defeated Hannibal at Zama that year, returned home in triumph, and retired from public life. He was named Africanus after his vanquished country. His pride heated the hatred of his enemies, especially Cato the Elder, who accused Scipio’s family of receiving bribes in the campaign against Antiochus the 3rd in which Scipio accompanied his brother in 190 B.C. Scipio was saved from ruin only by the influence of his brother, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. He retired in the country and demanded that his body would be buried away from his ungrateful city. Later he revealed his great magnanimity by attempting to prevent the ruin of the exiled Hannibal by Rome. Scipio died at age 53 in 183 B.C
Author: Tiffany Patterson Date created: April 15, 2006 Last updated: April 15, 2006