SCIPIO AFRICANUS, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS, the elder (237-183 B.c.), son of P. Cornelius Scipio; was present at the disastrous battles of the Ticinus (where, according to one tra dition, he saved his father's life), the Trebia and Cannae. Even of ter the last he resolutely protested against several Roman nobles who advocated leaving Italy. The year after his father's death, he was elected to the command of the new army which the Romans resolved to send to Spain. All Spain south of the Ebro in the year of his arrival (210 or 209) was under Carthaginian control, but fortunately for him the three Carthaginian generals, Hasdrubal and Mago (Hannibal's brothers), and Hasdrubal the son of Gisgo, were not disposed to act in concert and were pre occupied with revolts in Africa. Scipio, on landing at the mouth of the Ebro, was thus enabled to surprise and capture New Car thage, the headquarters of the Carthaginian power in Spain. He thus obtained a rich booty of war stores and supplies, and an excellent harbour. His kindly treatment of the Spanish hostages and prisoners brought many over to his side. In 209 he drove back Hasdrubal, from his position at Baecula, on the upper Guadalquivir, but was unable to hinder his march to Italy. After winning over a number of Spanish chiefs he achieved in 206 a decisive victory at Ilipa (near Corduba), which resulted in the evacuation of Spain by the Punic commanders. With the idea of striking a blow at Carthage in Africa, he paid a short visit to the Numidian princes, Syphax and Massinissa, but at the court of Syphax he was foiled by the presence of Hasdrubal, the son of Gisgo, whose daughter Sophonisba was married to the Numidian chief. On his return to Spain Scipio had to quell a mutiny among his troops. Hannibal's brother Mago had meanwhile sailed for Italy, and in 206 Scipio himself, having secured the Roman occu pation of Spain by the capture of Gades, gave up his command and returned to Rome. In the following year he was elected consul, the province of Sicily being assigned to him. Hannibal was by now penned in the south-west of Italy, and Scipio was strongly in favour of carrying the war into Africa. Here he was strongly opposed by the old Roman nobility, with whom he was unpopular. After a commission of enquiry had visited Sicily, he sailed in 204 and landed near Utica. Carthage meanwhile had secured the friendship of the Numidian Syphax, whose advance compelled Scipio to raise the siege of Utica and to entrench him self on the shore between that place and Carthage. Next year he destroyed two combined armies of the Carthaginians and Numidians. After the failure of peace negotiations in which Scipio displayed great moderation, he defeated Hannibal in a decisive battle near Zama (Oct. 19, 202 ; see PUNIC WARS). In the subsequent settlement with Carthage he upheld with success his comparatively lenient terms against the immoderate demands of many Roman aristocrats.
Scipio was welcomed back to Rome with the surname of Afri canus, and had the good sense to refuse the many honours which the people would have thrust upon him. For some years he lived quietly and took no part in politics. In 193 he was one of the com missioners sent to Africa to settle a dispute between Massinissa and the Carthaginians. In 190, when the Romans declared war against Antiochus III. of Syria, Publius was attached as legate to his brother Lucius, to whom the chief command had been en trusted. The two brothers brought the war to a conclusion by a decisive victory at Magnesia in the same year. Meanwhile Scipio's political enemies had gained ground, and on their return to Rome a prosecution was started (187) by two tribunes against Lucius on the ground of misappropriation of moneys received from Anti ochus. As Lucius was in the act of producing his account-books his brother wrested them from his hands, tore them in pieces, and flung them on the floor of the senate-house. This created a bad impression ; Lucius was brought to trial, condemned and heavily fined. Africanus himself was subsequently (185) accused of having been bribed by Antiochus, but by reminding the people that it was the anniversary of his victory at Zama he caused an outburst of enthusiasm in his favour. The people crowded round him and followed him to the Capitol to offer thanks to the gods and beg them to give Rome more citizens like himself. He then retired to his native country seat at Liternum on the coast of Campania, where he died. By his wife Aemilia, daughter of the Aemilius Paullus who fell at Cannae, he had a daughter Cornelia, who became the mother of the two famous Gracchi.
Scipio was one of Rome's greatest generals. Skilful alike in strategy and in tactics, he had also the faculty of inspiring his soldiers with confidence. According to the story, Hannibal, who regarded Alexander as the first and Pyrrhus as the second among military commanders, confessed that had he beaten Scipio he should have put himself before either of them. He was a man of great intellectual culture and could speak and write Greek per fectly. He wrote his own memoirs in Greek. He also enjoyed the reputation of being a graceful orator. There was a belief that he was a special favourite of heaven and held actual communication with the gods. It is quite possible that he himself honestly shared this belief ; to his political opponents he was often harsh and arrogant, but towards others singularly gracious and sympathetic. According to Gellius, his life was written by Oppius and Hyginus, and also, it was said, by Plutarch.
See Livy xxi.—xxxviii. and Polybius; Aulus Gellius iv. 18; Val. Max. iii. 7; biography by F. D. Gerlach (1868) ; E. Berwick (1817), with notes and illustrations; B. H. Liddell Hart, A Greater than Napoleon Africanus (1926) ; also PUNIC WARS.