Scipio Africanus
236–183 BC 1 entry
Biography
Publius Cornelius Scipio, called Africanus, was a Roman general and statesman, the victor over Hannibal in the Second Punic War. Born in 236 BC into one of the great families of Rome, he fought as a young man at the Ticinus, where he is said to have saved his father’s life, and survived the disaster of Cannae. At only twenty-five he was given command in Spain, where in 209 BC he took the Carthaginian base of New Carthage and went on to drive the Carthaginians out of the peninsula.
As consul he carried the war to Africa, and in 202 BC he defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama, ending the war and earning the surname Africanus. Admired for his skill, his culture and his generosity to defeated enemies, he was later attacked by political rivals, among them Cato the Elder, who accused his family of embezzlement. Embittered, he withdrew to his estate at Liternum in Campania, where he died around 183 BC, by tradition the same year as Hannibal.
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