Who is scipio the elder

This tidal phenomenon, attributed to the help of Neptune, was perhaps caused by a sudden wind; at any rate, it increased the troops' belief in their commander's divine support. In Carthago Nova he gained stores and supplies, Spanish hostages, the local silver mines, a splendid harbour, and a base for an advance farther south. After training his army in new tactics, Scipio defeated the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal Barca at Baecula Bailen in Baetica ; whereas normally the two rear ranks of a Roman army closely supported the front line, Scipio in this battle, under a screen of light troops, divided his main forces, which fell upon the enemy's flanks.

Elected consul for , Scipio boldly determined to disregard Hannibal in Italy and to strike at Africa. Having beaten down political opposition in the Senate, he crossed to Sicily with an army consisting partly of volunteers. While preparing his troops, he boldly snatched Locri Epizephyrii in the toe of Italy from Hannibal's grasp, though the subsequent misconduct of Pleminius, the man he left in command of the town, gave Scipio's political opponents cause to criticize him.

In he landed with perhaps 35, men in Africa, where he besieged Utica. Early in he burned the camps of Hasdrubal son of Gisgo and his Numidian ally Syphax. Then, sweeping down on the forces that the enemy was trying to muster at the Great Plains on the upper Bagradas modern S u q al Kham i s, on the Majardah in Tunisia , he smashed that army by a double outflanking movement. After his capture of Tunis, the Carthaginians sought peace terms, but Hannibal's subsequent return to Africa led to their renewing the war in Scipio advanced southwestward to join the Numidian prince Masinissa, who was bringing his invaluable cavalry to his support.

Then he turned eastward to face Hannibal at the Battle of Zama; his outflanking tactics failed against the master from whom he had learned them, but the issue was decided when the Roman and Numidian cavalry, having broken off their pursuit of the Punic horsemen, fell on the rear of Hannibal's army.

Victory was complete, and the long war ended; Scipio granted comparatively lenient terms to Carthage. In honour of his victory he was named Africanus. In Scipio was censor and became princeps Senatus the titular head of the Senate.

Though he vigorously supported a philhellenic policy, he argued during his second consulship against a complete Roman evacuation of Greece after the ejection of Philip V of Macedonia, fearing that Antiochus III of Syria would invade it; his fear was premature but not unfounded.

In he served on an embassy to Africa and perhaps also to the East. After Antiochus had advanced into Greece and had been thrown out by a Roman army, Scipio's brother Lucius was given the command against him, Publius serving as his legate ; together the brothers crossed to Asia, but Publius was too ill to take a personal part in Lucius' victory over Antiochus at Magnesia for which Lucius took the name Asiagenus.

Meantime, in Rome, Scipio's political opponents, led by the elder Cato, launched a series of attacks on the Scipios and their friends. Lucius' command was not prolonged; the generous peace terms that Africanus proposed for Antiochus were harshly modified; the "trials of the Scipios" followed. On the trials the ancient evidence is confusing: in an attack on Lucius for refusing to account for talents received from Antiochus as war indemnity or personal booty?

In any case, his influence was shaken, and he withdrew from Rome to Liternum in Campania, where he lived simply, cultivating the fields with his own hands and living on a villa country farm of modest size: Seneca later contrasted its small and cold bathroom with the luxurious baths of his own day.

He had not long to live, however; embittered and ill, he died in or , a virtual exile from his country. He is said to have ordered his burial at Liternum and not in the ungrateful city of Rome, where his family tomb lay outside, on the Appian Way. Such was Scipio's impact upon the Romans that even during his lifetime legends began to cluster around him: he was regarded as favoured by Fortune or even divinely inspired.

Not only did many believe that he had received a promise of help from Neptune in a dream on the night before his assault on Carthago Nova but that he also had a close connection with Jupiter. He used to visit Jupiter's temple on the Capitol at night to commune with the god, and later the story circulated that he was even a son of the god, who had appeared in his mother's bed in the form of a snake. The historian Polybius thought that this popular view of Scipio was mistaken and argued that Scipio always acted only as the result of reasoned foresight and worked on men's superstitions in a calculating manner.

But Polybius himself was a rationalist and has probably underestimated a streak of religious confidence, if not of mysticism, in Scipio's character that impressed so many of his contemporaries with its magnanimity and generosity. Thus, although Polybius had an intense admiration for Scipio, whom he called "almost the most famous man of all time," the existence of the legend, a unique phenomenon in Rome's history, indicates that Polybius' portrait is too one-sided.

Though his political enemies limited his troop numbers, Scipio was able to raise additional troops and soon traveled from Sicily to North Africa. Hannibal was recalled from Italy in order to defend Carthage.

During the conflict, the Romans sounded horns that panicked the Carthaginian elephants, causing them to reverse and trample many of Hannibal's troops. Scipio's forces were triumphant and the Carthaginians sued for peace, thus ending the Second Punic War.

Scipio returned to a hero's welcome in Rome in B. Due to his triumphs in Africa, he was awarded the title "Africanus. Despite his triumphs, Scipio had many powerful political enemies in Rome, including Marcus Cato. Scipio faced charges of bribery and treason that were intended to discredit him, and he left Rome in B. Disgusted by the ingratitude of the Roman government, Scipio arranged for his body to be buried in Liternum and not in Rome. However, he would be remembered by Romans and others for his superior military abilities and accomplishments.

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