353 



SCIPIO. 



SCIPtO. 



354 



army to Africa, but the more cautious senators, and especially Q. 

 Fabius, were decidedly opposed to bia plan, partly because Hannibal, 

 as long as be was in Italy, appeared too formidablo to be neglected, 

 and partly perhaps because they were influenced by jealousy. All 

 that Scipio could obtain was that Sicily should be assigned to him as 

 his province, with 30 vessels, and with permission to sail over to 

 Africa in case he should think it advantageous to the republic. But 

 he did not obtain from the senate permission to levy an army, and he 

 therefore called upon the Italian allies to provide him with troops 

 and other things necessary for carrying on the war. As they were all 

 willing to support the conqueror of the Carthaginians in Spain, he 

 was soon enabled to sail to Sicily with nearly 7000 volunteers and 30 

 ships. (Liv., xxviii. 45, &c. ; Plut, ' Fab. Max.,' 25.) Soon after his 

 arrival in Sicily he sent his friend Lselius with a part of his fleet to 

 Africa, partly to keep up the connection which ho had formed there, 

 on his visit from Spain, with Syphax and Massinissa (for to the latter 

 Scipio had sent back a nephew who had been taken prisoner in the 

 battle of Brccula), and partly to show to his timid opponents at Rome 

 how groundless their fears were. He himself employed his time in 

 Sicily most actively in preparing and disciplining his new army. 



Massinissa, dissatisfied with the Carthaginians, was anxious for the 

 arrival of Scipio in Africa, but Syphax had altered his policy, and 

 again joined the Carthaginians. The enemies of Scipio at Rome at 

 last got an opportunity of attacking him, and they nearly succeeded 

 in depriving him of his post. Without being authorised by the senate, 

 Scipio had taken part in the conquest of Locri in Southern Italy, and 

 had left his legate Q. Flaminius as commander of the Roman garrison 

 in that place. The legate treated the Locrians with such severity and 

 cruelty that they sent an embassy to Rome to lay their complaints 

 before the senate. As Scipio, although acquainted with the conduct 

 of Jb'laminius, had nevertheless left him in command, his enemies 

 attacked him on this and other grounds, and Fabius Maximus even 

 proposed that he should be recallefl. A commission was sent out to 

 inquire into the state of affairs, and to bring Scipio home, if the 

 charges against him were found true. Scipio proved that his army 

 was in the best possible condition ; and the commissioners were so 

 surprised at what they saw, that instead of recalling the consul, they 

 bade him sail to Africa as soon as he might think it proper, and to 

 adopt any measures that he might think useful. Scipio in consequence 

 of this sailed, in B.C. 204, as proconsul, with a large army, from Lily- 

 bseum to Africa, and landed in the neighbourhood of Utica. Here he 

 made successful incursions into the neighbouring country, and Has- 

 drubal, who attempted to prevent them, suffered a great defeat. But 

 Scipio could not gain possession of Utica, which was of the greater im- 

 portance to him and his fleet, as the winter was approaching, and he 

 was obliged to spend the season on a piece of land extending into the 

 sea, which he fortified as well as he could. Towards the close of the 

 winter the Carthaginians, united with Syphax, intended to make a 

 general attack on Scipio's army and fleet, but being informed of their 

 plans, he surprised the camps of Hasdrubal and Syphax in the night, 

 and only a small number of the enemy escaped. Syphax withdrew 

 into his own dominions, but was defeated by Massinissa and Lselius, 

 and taken prisoner with his wife and one of his sons. Massinissa 

 married Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax, who had formerly been 

 engaged to him, but had been given to Syphax for political reasons. 

 Scipio, fearing the influence she might have on Massinissa (for she was 

 a Carthaginian), claimed her as a prisoner belonging to the Romans, 

 and Massinissa poisoned her, to save her from the humiliation of 

 captivity. The fears and apprehensions of the Carthaginians now 

 increased to such a degree that they thought it necessary to recall 

 Hannibal from Italy, and at the same time they sued for peace. 

 The terms which Scipio proposed would have concluded the war 

 in a manner honourable to the Romans. The Carthaginians how- 

 ever, whose only object was to gain time, made no objections 

 to the conditions, but only concluded a truce of forty-five days, 

 during which an embassy was to be sent to Rome. Before this 

 truce was at an end, the Carthaginian populace plundered some 

 Roman vessels with provisions, which were wrecked off Carthage, and 

 even insulted the Roman envoys who came to demand reparation. 

 Scipio did not resent this conduct, and allowed the Carthaginian am- 

 bassadors, on their return from Rome, to pass on to Carthage unmo- 

 lested. About this time (it was the autumn of the year B.C. 203) 

 Hannibal arrived in Africa, and soon collected an army in numbers 

 far exceeding that of Scipio. He first made a successful campaign 

 against Massinissa. Scipio was at this time informed that the consul 

 Tib. Claudius Nero would come with an army to co-operate with him 

 against Hannibal. Scipio, who wished to bring the war to a conclu- 

 sion, and was unwilling to share this glory with any one else, deter- 

 mined to bring Hannibal to a decisive battle. The Carthaginian at 

 first avoided an engagement ; but when Scipio, in order to deceive the 

 enemy, hastily retreated as if he intended to take to flight, Hannibal 

 followed him with his cavalry, and lost a battle in the neighbourhood 

 of Zama. A tribune of Scipio soon afterwards cut off a large convoy 

 of provisions which was on its way to the camp of Hannibal, and this 

 suddenly threw him into such difficulties, that he began to negotiate 

 with Scipio for peace. The conditions however which Scipio now 

 proposed were so humiliating, that the Carthaginians would not accept 

 them. Hannibal therefore, though ho saw the impossibility of gaining 



BIOO Div. VOL. v. 



any further advantages, was compelled to decide the affair by a bust 

 and desperate effort. In a personal interview between the two generals 

 Scipio was inexorable aa to the conditions. Hannibal's army was in a 

 bad condition ; and in the ensuing battle, to the west of Zama, the 

 victory of Scipio was complete. Tbia defeat (in B.C. 202) waa the 

 death-blow to Carthage. 



Scipio, on his return to Italy, was received with the greatest enthu- 

 siasm : he entered Rome in triumph, and was henceforward distin- 

 guished by the name of Africanus. Scipio now for several years 

 continued to live at Rome, apparently without taking any part in 

 public affairs. In B.C. 199 he obtained the office of censor with 

 P. ^Elius Psetus (Liv., xxxiL 7), and in B.C. 194 ho was made consul a 

 second time with Tib. Sempronius Longus (Liv., xxxiv. 42), and 

 princeps senatus, a distinction with which he had already been 

 honoured in B.C. 196, and which was conferred upon him for the third 

 time in B.C. 190. (Liv., xxxiv. 44 ; xxxviii. 28.) In B.C. 193, during 

 one of the disputes between the Carthaginians and Massinissa, Scipio 

 was sent with two other commissioners to mediate between the parties; 

 but nothing was settled, though, as Livy (xxxiv. 62) observes, Scipio 

 might easily have put an end to the disputes. Scipio was the only 

 Roman who thought it unworthy of the republic to support those 

 Carthaginians who persecuted Hannibal ; and there was a tradition 

 that Scipio, in B.O. 193, was sent on an embassy to Antiochus, and 

 that he met Hannibal in his exile, who in the conversation which took 

 place declared Scipio the greatest of all generals. (Liv., xxxv. 14.) 

 Whether the story of the conversation be true or not, the judgment 

 ascribed to Hann.bal is just; for Scipio as a general was second to 

 none but Hannibal himself. In the year B.C. 190 some discussions 

 arose in the senate as to what provinces should be assigned to the two 

 consuls, Lselius and L. Cornelius Scipio, brother of the great Africanus. 

 Africanus, although he was princeps senatus, offered to accompany his 

 brother as legate, if the senate would give him Greece as hia province, 

 for this province conferred upon Lucius the command in the war 

 against Antiochus. The offer was accepted, and the two brothers set 

 out for Greece, and thence for Asia. Africanus took his son with him 

 on this expedition, but by some unlucky chance the boy was taken 

 prisoner, and sent to Antiochus. The king offered to restore him to 

 freedom, and to give a considerable sum of money, if the father would 

 interpose his influence to obtain favourable terms for the king. Afri- 

 canus refused ; but the king, notwithstanding, soon after sent the boy 

 back to his father, who just then was suffering from illness, and was 

 absent from the camp. To show his gratitude, Africanus sent a 

 message to Antiochus, advising him not to engage in a battle until he 

 himself had returned to the Roman camp. After the great battle near 

 Mount Sipylus, Antiochus again applied to Scipio for peace, and the 

 latter now used his influence with his brother Lucius and the council 

 of war on behalf of the king. The conditions of the peace were 

 tolerably mild, but they were afterwards made much more severe 

 when the peace was ratified at Rome. [ANTIOCHUS.] The enemies of 

 Africanus at Rome had now another charge against him. The peace 

 with Antiochus, and the conditions proposed by Africanus and hia 

 brother Lucius, were regarded by the hostile party as the result of 

 bribes from Antiochus, and of the liberation of the son of Africanus. 

 A charge was therefore brought against the two brothers, on their 

 return to Rome, of having accepted bribes of the king, and of having 

 retained a part of the treasures which they ought to have delivered up 

 to the terarium. At the same time they were called upon to give an 

 account of the sums of money they had taken from Antiochus. 

 Lucius was ready to obey ; but his brother Africanus with indignation 

 snatched the accounts from the hands of his brother and tore them to 

 pieces before the senate. (Liv. xxxviii. 55; Gellius, iv. 18; Val. Max., 

 iii. 7, 1.) The tribune of the people, C. Minucius Augurinus however 

 fined Lucius ; and when he was going to be thrown into prison until 

 he should pay the heavy fine, Africanus dragged him away ; and the 

 tribune Tib. Gracchus, though disapproving of the violence of Afri- 

 canus, liberated Lucius from imprisonment. (Gellius, vii. 19; Liv., 

 xxxviii. 56.) Africanus himself was now summoned before the people 

 by the tribune M. Nsevius, and he only saved himself by reminding 

 the people of his victory at Zama. After these troubles he withdrew 

 to his villa near Liternum, and it was owing to the interposition of 

 Tib. Gracchus that he was not compelled to obey another summons. 

 The estates of his brother Lucius however were confiscated (B.C. 187), 

 but the sum produced by their sale did not make up the amount of 

 the fine. His friends and clients not only offered to make up the sum, 

 but their generosity would even have made him richer than he had 

 been before ; but he refused to accept anything beyond what was 

 absolutely necessary for his support (Liv., xxxviii. 60.) Africanus 

 never returned from his voluntary exile, and he spent the last years of 

 his life in quiet retirement at hia villa. (Senec., ' Epist.,' 86.) He ia 

 said to have wished to be buried on his estate ; but there was, as Livy 

 says, a tradition that he died at Rome, and was buried in the tomb of 

 his family near the Porta Capena, where statues of him, his brother 

 Lucius, and their friend Q. Ennius, were erected. The year of his 

 death is not quite certain ; for, according to Polybius, he died in the 

 same year with Hannibal and Philopcemen (B.C. 183) ; according to 

 others, two years earlier (B.O. 185). 



In judging of Scipio Africanus as a general, we may adopt the 

 judgment ascribed to Hannibal; but as a Roman citizen he ia very far 



2 A 



