Scipio Africanus

Scipio Africanus is a general and statesman Roman , born in 235 BC. AD , and died in 183 BC. AD at Liternum in Campania.

He belonged to the family of Scipio , a branch of the People Cornelia. He is the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, consul 218 BC. AD.

Summary 1 Early life 2 Scipio in Hispania 3 Scipio in Africa 4 The return to Rome 5 Philosophy 6 Sources 7 Notes and references

/ / Early life

During the Second Punic War Scipio very young took part, as tribune of the second legion in the battle of Cannae ( Apulia ), near modern Canosa in 216 BC. AD. This battle was a crushing defeat against the Carthaginian Hannibal Barca. In 215 BC. AD his father and uncle Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus are sent to Hispania to fight the Carthaginians led by Hasdrubal Barca. In 211 BC. AD , both are killed by the Carthaginian and Roman armies suffered two serious defeats.

Scipio in Hispania

In Rome, no one is proposing to replace two Scipio killed by the Carthaginians. Publius Cornelius Scipio alone, despite his young age, appears to lead the war of Spain instead of his father and uncle. It is declared proconsul in Spain in 211 BC. AD , at 24. He gathers the remains of the Roman armies and defeats, strong new recruits began the reconquest of Spain.

After skirmishes against the Carthaginians, he took New Carthage ( Cartagena ) in 209 BC. AD. This victory allows him to get his hands on a rich booty in gold, supplies and weapons. It frees hostages held by various tribes Spanish Hasdrubal to ensure their loyalty. Thus, it rallies Celtiberians (see the episode of the Head Iberian Allutius which led to the theme of The Continence of Scipio, on several tables). From there, he led his troops against the Carthaginian army and 208 BC. AD is the triumph of Hasdrubal to Bcula in Guadalquivir , while the latter left Spain to join his brother Hannibal in Italy. After several victorious battles, he conquers all the Guadalquivir in 207 BC. AD.

At the same time it deals with the Numidian king Syphax. In 206 BC. AD , he faces a mutiny of a portion of his army, claiming that his pay and believed Scipio, who was ill, near death. It restores the situation and punish the ringleaders of death. He must also confront the rising of Iberian tribes he defeated in the fall 206. To show his good will and peace to Spain, it does not raging against the vanquished and requires only a tribute to the pay of his soldiers. After the submission of Gades ( Cadiz ) and the alliance with Massinissa , he returned to Rome in the autumn 206 BC. AD , covered a great glory.

Scipio in Africa

Consul in 204 BC. AD , it receives Sicily as a province. Its stated aim is to bring the war in Africa to bring Hannibal to leave Italy to protect its homeland. Before leaving for Africa, Sicily where he pacified the people of Syracuse were complaining of being robbed by Italians. He then spent the strait and seized the town of Locri , who had joined the Carthaginians. Abuses by the legate Pleminius he had left the city when he returned to Messina , the place a little difficulty, but it quickly cleared of the crimes committed by Pleminius. He left Sicily with 50 warships and 400 transport ships and go into Africa. Roman historians did vary the number of soldiers from 12 000 to 35 000 soldiers.

In 204 BC. BC Scipio is in Africa. Massinissa , which was driven from his throne by Syphax , joins with a troupe Numidian. The beginning of the war are favorable to the Romans but to Utica , Scipio fails. It takes its winter quarters. When war resumed in 203 BC. AD is Scipio proconsul , his command is extended to his victory against Carthage. He managed to defeat the Carthaginian general Hanno. The same year he defeated Numidian king Syphax and troops commanded by Carthaginian Hasdrubal Gisco at the battle of the Great Plains , near Cirta. Syphax was captured soon after and it Massinissa ally of Scipio who is the master of Numidia. Scipio seized Tunis he held in 203 BC. AD.

The following year, in 202 BC. BC , he defeated definitively Carthaginians. The senate of Carthage Scipio feared that would put the headquarters in the city. He recalls when Hannibal was installed in the Bruttium Italy. Peace talks between the two generals leave a brief glimpse at an arrangement that could lead to a peace treaty, but neither one nor the other really wants that. It is on the battlefield that will decide the fate of the war. The Battle of Zama , in October 202 BC. BC , which pits one side of the Romans, Latins and allies Numidians and the Carthaginians and the other mercenaries from Gaul, Italy and Spain is a fierce battle that ends with the Roman victory. The Carthaginians were forced to accept peace terms imposed by the Romans. As noted historian Jean Favier , "this victory over Carthage changes the scale of Roman claims," Scipio Africanus of Rome has a Mediterranean power, and the western Mediterranean a Roman lake " ^{The return to Rome}

In 199 BC. AD is accompanied by censor Publius Aelius Paetus. He is consul for the second time in 194 BC. AD without the consulate to be remarkable. He took part in the war with his brother Scipio Asian against Antiochus III of Syria ( 193 BC. - 190 BC. ). In 189 BC. AD is the third time, Prince of the Senate. The end of his life is obscure because the sources are contradictory. He is accused of stealing money earned during battles in Asia by two tribunes of the people, the brothers Petilius Quintus. Scipio retired to his property Liternum and refuses to appear at trial, claiming health problems. The Tribunes want to require his return to Rome but the tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, yet personal enemy of Scipio, opposes invoking the value of Scipio during the Second Punic War. The charges are then dropped. He died in Liternum. The epitaph on his tomb, located in territory without Rome, said: "Ungrateful country, thou shalt not have my bones" . Moreover, the sources are contradictory on the names of the accusers, defenders, the links between Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, etc..

Philosophy

Cicero, in Part VI of The Republic (55 BC.) Party called "The Dream of Scipio", give it a thought Pythagorean. He professed a theory of astral immortality, which is fictional but reflected the mentality of the time of Cicero and probably own convictions to Scipio.