SCIOPPIUS 



SCIPIO ^EMILIANUS 



233 



Scioppius (Latinised form of Sc/ioppe), 

 KASPAR, a classical scholar and controversialist, 

 was born at Neumarkt in the Palatinate, 27th May 

 1576, and studied at Heidelberg, Altdorf, and 

 Ingolstadt. Whilst on a visit to Prague in 1598 

 he abjured Protestantism and became a Roman 

 Catholic. Henceforth his career is a series of 

 fierce onslaughts on his former co-religionists, on 

 the old Latin writers, and on all who enjoyed a 

 reputation in the world. He was honoured with 

 the title of a count of Spain, and was made a 

 pensioner of the Vatican. Amongst the first to feel 

 his venom was Scaliger (q.v.), against whom in 

 1606 he launched Scaliger Hi/pobolimaus. Sent 

 in 1608 by the court of Rome to the diet of 

 Katisbon for the purpose of observing the religious 

 condition of Germany, he published numerous 

 pamphlets against the Protestants, recommending 

 the Catholic powers to use every means for their 

 extermination. Shortly afterwards he fired off 

 several venomous libels against James I. of Eng- 

 land. For this the servants of Lord Digby, am- 

 bassador in Madrid, gave him a sound cudgelling 

 in that city in 1614. Scioppius fled from Spain to 

 Ingolstadt, where he issued his Legato* Latro 

 (1615) against the ambassador. In 1618 he went 

 to Milan, where he resided for the next twelve 

 years, devoting himself partly to philological 

 studies and partly to theological warfare. He 

 died at Padua, 19th November 1649, the reviler of 

 all res|.-ctalile parties, loved by none, but also 

 feared by none. Scioppius was a prodigious 

 scholar, and might have rivalled Scaliger himself 

 in reputation, as he did in learning, liad it not 

 been for the infirmities of his temper and judg- 

 ment. His most important work is Grammatica 

 Pkiliaophica (1628); next in value come Venn- 

 ii, ilium Libri Quatitor (1596), Siupectre Lecliones 

 (1597), De Arte Critica (1597), Obsermaiones 

 Lingua: Lutiiue ( 1609), Parailoxa Literaria ( 1628), 

 and De Scholaruin et Studiorum Batione ( 1636). 



KciotO, a beautiful river of Ohio, rises in the 

 north-west portion of the state, and flows east and 

 then south, past Columbus and Chillicothe, to its 

 junction at Portsmouth with the river Ohio. It is 

 nearly 300 miles long, and from its mouth to 

 Columbus feeds the Ohio and Erie Canal. 



.Scipio, PUBLICS CORNELIUS, surnamed AFRI- 

 CANUS MAJOR, one of the most famous soldiers of 

 ancient Rome, was l>oni in 237 B.C. He took part 

 in the disastrous battle of the Ticinus (218), where 

 he saved his father's life, and later at the Trebia 

 and the fatal Held of Canna-. In 212 he was elected 

 tedile, though not yet of legal age, and in 210 was 

 specially selected bv acclamation of the people as 

 a general extraoniiimi y for Spain. His noble 

 beauty and personal charm proved irresistible, bnt 

 in this gracious and self-reliant youth of twenty- 

 seven the people hod found a hero and the state a 

 saviour. His arrival gave a new turn to the war. 

 By a Iwld and sudden march he captured Xnm 

 Carthago, the stronghold of the Carthaginians, and 

 liis courtesy soon won over many of the native 

 chiefs. He checked Hasdrubal, but failed to 

 prevent him from crossing the Pyrenees to the 

 assistance of Hannibal. In 207 he won a decisive 

 victory over the other Hasdrubal (son of Gisgo) 

 and Mago, which gave him the whole of Spain. 

 Soon after he returned to Rome, where he was 

 elected consul (205) though he had not yet filled 

 the office of pnetor. His favourite plan to transfer 

 the war to Africa was opposed by a party in the 

 senate ; but the popular enthusiasm for the name of 

 Scipio proved too strong, and in 204 he sailed from 

 Lilybieum, in Sicily, with 30,000 men, and landed 

 on the coast near Utica. His successes against 

 Syjihax an I their own armies compelled the Car- 



thaginians to recall Hannibal from Italy the very 

 object Scipio had laboured to achieve. After some 

 abortive efforts at reconciliation the great struggle 

 between Rome and Carthage, between Scipio and 

 Hannibal, was terminated by the battle fought 

 near Zama, 19th October 202, in which the Cartha- 

 ginian troops were routed with immense slaughter. 

 Hannibal advised his countrymen to abandon what 

 had now Income a hopeless and ruinous contest, 

 ami liis advice was taken. The noble magnanimity 

 of Scipio 's character made submission the more 

 j easy ; and peace was concluded in the following 

 year, when the conqueror returned to Koine to 

 enjoy a triumph. The surname of Africanns was 

 conferred on him, and so extravagant wns the 

 popular gratitude that it was proposed to make him 

 consul and dictator for life, honours which would 

 have been the destruction of the constitution, but 

 which Scipio was either wise enough or magnani- 

 mous enough to refuse. In 190, in order to give 

 him his aid, he served as legate under his brother 

 Lucius in the war with Antiochus, and crushed his 

 power in the great victory of Magnesia. But 

 after their triumphant return a prosecution was 

 raised against Lucius for allowing himself to be 

 bribed by Antiochns, the colour being the too 

 lenient terms he had been granted. Lucius was 

 declared guilty by the senate ; his property was 

 confiscated, and he himself would have" been 

 thrown into prison had not Africanus forcibly 

 rescued him from the bands of the officers of 

 justice. In 185 Scipio was himself accused by the 

 tribune M. Nirvius ; but, instead of refuting the 

 charges brought against him, he delivered, on the 

 first 'day of his trial, a eulogy on his own achieve- 

 ments, and opened the second day by reminding 

 the citizens that it was the anniversary of the 

 battle of Zama, and therefore a time to return 

 thanks to the immortal gods, and to pray for other 

 citizens like himself. The people followed him to 

 the Capitol in a fever of excitement, anil the prose- 

 cution was at an end. But Scipio felt that popular 

 enthusiasm was uncertain, that the power of the 

 oligarchy was irresistible, that its hatred of him 

 was unappeasable, and that his day was over. He 

 retired to his country-seat at Li tern um, in Cam- 

 pania, where he spent the remainder of his life, 

 and where he died about 183. His wife was 

 daughter to the /Kmilius Paulus who fell at 

 Canute ; his daughter was Cornelia, mother of the 

 Gracchi. Scipio Africanus is commonly regarded 

 as the greatest Roman general before Julius Csesar; 

 and certainly in the brilliancy of his gifts and 

 accomplishments he was unsurpassed ; but if his 

 career be strictly examined it will be found that he 

 owed as much to fortune as to genius. No doubt he 

 won splendid successes, and made the most of his 

 great advantages. Yet his fondness for sounding 

 titles and lavish display, his nepotism, his corrup- 

 tion of the public spirit by largesses, and his 

 assumption of personal superiority to the common 

 law were influences distinctly harmful to the 

 state. His lieautv, bravery, and courtesy, his 

 proud yet pious l>eiief that the gods favoured him 

 with their inspiration, won him the love and rever- 

 ence of soldiers and of women ; and his magna- 

 nimity towards his fallen foe, who flitted about 

 the eastern courts in dreary exile, is a bright 

 feature in his character, and nobly distinguishes 

 him from the cruel- hearted oligarchs of the senate. 

 Scipio Kmili.-imis. PUBLIUS CORNELIUS, 

 surnamed AFRICANUS MINOR, born 185 B.C., was 

 a younger son of that Lucius . Kmilins Paulus who 

 conquered Macedon, but was adopted by bis kins- 

 man, Publius Scipio, son of the great Scipio Afri- 

 canus. He accompanied his father on his expedi- 

 tion against Macedon, and fought by his side at 

 Pydna (168). In Greece he made the'acquaintance 



