SCIPIO EMILIANUS, Prisurs CORNELIUS, surnamed AFRICANUS MINOR, b. 185 B.C., %vas a younger son of Lucius JEmilius Paulus, who conquered Macedon. but was adopted by his kinsman, Publius Scipio, son of the great Scipio. who had married the daughter of that Lucius iEmilius Paulus who fell at Canntc. Scipio accompanied his father on his expedition against Macedon, and fought at the decisive battle of Pydna, 168 B.C. In Greece he made the acquaintance of Polvbius the historian, who afterward became one of his closest and most valued friends. In 151 B.C. he went to Spain as military tribune. in the wake of the consul Lucius Lucullus, where he distinguished himself alike by his valor and his virtue. Two years later began the third and last Punic war, which mainly consisted in the siege of Carthage. Scipio still held the subordinate position of military tribune; but the incapacity of the consuls, Marlins Manilins and Lucius Calpurnius Piso, and thp brilliant manner in which he rectified their blunders, fixed all eyes upon him. The favorite both of the Roman army and the Roman people, Scipio was at length, in 147 B.C. when only ailndidate for the mdileship, elected consul by an extraordinary decree of the ComitiaNnd invested with supreme command; old Cato, who could with difficulty he got to praise any one, applying to the young hero and his incapable com rades (according to Plutarch) the Homeric line— He only is a living man; the rest are flitting shades.
The story of the siege of Carthage, the despairing he'roism of its inhabitants, the deter mined resolution, the sleepless vigilance, the incessant labors of Scipio, are too well known to require description. Suffice it to say that after a protracted defense of months the city was finally taken by storm in the spring of 140 E. C. ; and by the orders of the• senate it w as leveled to the ground, and the plowshare driven over its site. Scipio, a man of noble and refined soul, obeyed the savage behest with sorrow, even with horror. As he gazed on the ruin be had wrought the thought flashed across his mind that some day Rome too might perish, and the words of the Iliad rose to his lips - The day shall come when sacred Troy shall perish, And Priam and his people shall be slain.
.Scipio, though probably the most accomplished Roman gentleman of his age, was rig orous in his observance of the antique Roman virtues; and when holding the office of censor iu 142 B.C., be strove to follow in the footsteps of Cato. But his efforts to repress
the increasing luxury and immorality of the capital were frustrated by the opposition of his colleague, Lucius Minimills, the rough conqueror of Corinth. In 109 B.C. Scipio was accused of the crimen mojestatis by the tribune Tiberius Claudius Asellus, but was acquitted, and soon after was sent to Egypt and Asia on a special embassy. Meanwhile, however, affairs had gone badly in Spain. Viriathus, the Lusitanian patriot, had again and again inflicted the most disgraceful defeats on the Roman armies, and his example had roused the hopes of the Ccltiberian tribes, who also rushed to war against the com mon foe. The contest continued with varying success; but the interest centers in the city of Numantia, whose inhabitants displayed amazing courage in the struggle with Rome. For long it seemed as if the Numantines were invincible—one consul after another finding their subjugation too hard a task—but at length, in 134 B.C., Scipio, re-elected consul, was sent over to Spain; and after a siege of eight months, forced the citizens, who were dying of hunger, to surrender, and utterly destroyed their homes. He then returned to Rome, where he took a prominent part in political affairs, appearing as the leader of the aristocratic party, in consequence of which his popularity with the democratic party greatly declined. Although a brother-iu-law of Tiberius Gracchus„ whose sister, Sempronia, he had married, he rather disclaimed any sympathy with biz political aims; and when he heard of the murder of his kinsman,•quoted his favorite Homer: " So perish all who do the like again." His attempt (129 n.c.) to rescind that portion of the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus relating to the lands of Soca, excited the most furious indignation. When lie went home from the senate he had to be accom panied by a guard. Next morning he was found dead in his bed; the prevailing sus picion being that he was murdered either by or at the instigation of Papirius Carlin, his most rancorous political enemy. Scipio was neither a rigid aristocrat nor a flatterer of the people. Inferior in splendor of genius to his adoptive grandfather, he surpassed him in purity of character, in simplicity of patriotism, and in liberality of culture.