Scipio Africanus

“ The importance, ability, and character of Scipio Africanus have been greatly over-praised by most historians. A. H. Beesly, however, in his work The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla, gives a discriminating criticism of this Roman general and statesman:
"He is usually extolled as a patriot who would not stir to humour a Roman rabble, but who, when downtrodden honest farmers, his comrades in the wars, appealed to him, at once stepped into the arena as their champion. ”

“ The young Scipio of my story, who is, I may say, an imaginary character, but is supposed to belong to a younger generation than Scipio Africanus the Younger, the conqueror of Carthage, would therefore be her great-nephew. Scipio himself was her nephew by adoption (being the adopted son of her brother) , and her first cousin by blood. (He was a son of Æmilius Paullus, and she was the daughter of Æmilius Paullus's sister.) He was also her son-in-law. Her elder son Tiberius was born in 163 B.C., and was therefore seventeen at this time; the younger, Caius, was about nine. ”

“ We can hardly hazard a conjecture on the contents of the sixth book, with the exception of the well-known Somnium Scipionis, in which Scipio relates that he saw in a dream, when, in early youth, he visited Masinissa, in Africa, the form of the first Africanus, which dimly revealed to him his future destiny, and urged him to press steadily forward in the path of virtue and of true renown, by announcing the reward prepared in a future state for those who have served their country in this life with good faith. ”

“ The first Scipio Africanus, a very different person from the physician Brown, made his soldiers believe that he was inspired by the gods. This grand charlatanism was in use for a long time. Was Scipio to be blamed for assisting himself by the means of this pretension? He was possibly the man who did most honor to the Roman republic; but why the gods should inspire him has never been explained. ”

“ Being impeached, he reminded the people that the day was the anniversary of the battle of Zama, and defied the authorities amidst the plaudits of the crowd.
The Roman people seem to have liked and supported Scipio Africanus, and, after an interval of two thousand years, men must like him still. He was able to throw torn paper in the face of the Senate, and when Lucius was attacked again, one of the{v1-483} tribunes of the people interposed his veto and quashed the proceedings. But Scipio Africanus lacked that harder alloy which makes men great democratic leaders. ”

“ I have been unable to determine whom Bramston means by "Maidston"—perhaps one of the Finches, the most prominent family in the area of Maidstone, Kent. Bramston's critic is certainly right about the Pelhams: they have nothing whatever in common with the Scipios. Scipio Africanus Major (236-184/3) was one of the most illustrious Roman heroes, consul during the Second Punic War and an outstanding military tactician. Scipio Africanus Minor (c. 185-129) was not only a consul and a military hero but a great patron of letters whom Cicero considered the greatest Roman of them all. ”

“ Scipio drew up his troops, posting the hastati in front, the principes behind them, and closing his rear line with the triarii. He did not draw up his cohorts in close order, but each before their respective standards; placing the companies at some distance from each other, so as to leave a space through which the elephants of the enemy passing might not at all break their ranks. ”

“ Is it for these exploits that a triumph is asked for? Supposing no ignominious defeat had been sustained in Thrace, over what enemy would you seek triumph? Over those, I presume, whom the senate or the people of Rome had assigned to you as your enemy. On these terms a triumph was granted to L. Scipio, to Manius Acilius over Antiochus, to T. Quinctius, a little earlier, over Philip, to P. Africanus over Hannibal and Carthage and Syphax. ”

“ Scipio has by the common consent of gods and men attained such a lofty position through his own acts and the honours which the Roman people have conferred upon him, that for him to stand beneath the Rostra as a defendant, and have to listen to the insults of young men, would be a greater ignominy for the people of Rome than for him. ”

“ Also to have in remembraunce to folow the steppis of the full noble and glorious champions two bretherin Scipion Africanus and Scipion Asian, whiche alle their lyve daies emploied and besied hem in divers entreprises of armees and batailes ayenst the Affricains, for the saufegarde and defense of the comon wele of theire contre. And the Scipio Affricanus. saide Scipion Affrican wilfully died in armes of chevalrie rathir than to lyve in servage and distresse among his adversaries in Cartage. ”

“ This battle was decisive; the Carthaginians sued for peace, which Scipio at last granted on the most severe and humiliating terms. The conqueror after this returned to Rome, where he was received with the most unbounded applause, honoured with a triumph, and dignified with the appellation of Africanus. Here he enjoyed for some time the tranquillity and the honours which his exploits merited, but in him also, as in other great men, fortune showed herself inconstant. Scipio offended the populace in wishing to distinguish the senators from the rest of the people at the public exhibitions ”

“ Lucius Scipio received praise for his victory, and it gave him the title of Asiaticus in the same way as his brother had been called Africanus for conquering Carthage, which had possessed the most considerable power in Africa.
These brothers who had proved themselves men of such valor and as a result of excellence had attained such a height of reputation were not long afterward brought to court and handed over to the populace. ”

“ Where there are several persons in remote history of one name, their conspicuous actions are not unfrequently all given to one. There were many Hercules, but all their labours are laid upon the broad shoulders of one of them: so with the Scipios: the younger Africanus is such a favourite with ancient writers, that modern readers sometimes confound him with his senior of that name. We shall only observe, that though quite capable of such an action, it was not he who restored Allucius his beautiful bride.
Scipio, being proclaimed consul, immediately took the command of the army before Carthage. ”

“ Was it for this that he captured Syphax and crushed Hannibal, made Carthage tributary to us, removed Antiochus beyond the Taurus - for his brother Lucius allowed him to share his glory - was it simply that he might succumb to the two Petillii, and that you might claim the palm of victory over Publius Africanus. Will you allow the claim, citizens? Will illustrious men never either through their own merits or the honours you confer, reach a safe, and if I may say so, a sacred asylum where their old age may rest, if not venerated, at least inviolate? ”

“ Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, with all the islands lying in any part of the sea, between Africa and Italy. Let us Carthaginians, confined within the shores of Africa, behold you, since such is the pleasure of the gods, extending your empire over foreign nations both by sea and land. I cannot deny that you have reason to suspect the Carthaginian faith, in consequence of their insincerity lately in soliciting a peace and while awaiting the decision. The sincerity with which a peace will be observed depends much, Scipio, on the person by whom it is sought. ”

“ He would not oppose the action of the praetor in recovering the sum in question from the sale of Lucius Scipio's property, but that as to L. Scipio himself, a man who had conquered the most prosperous and wealthy monarch in the world; who had carried the dominion of Rome to the utmost limits of the world; who had bound King Eumenes, the Rhodians, and so many other cities in Asia under obligations to Rome; who had led first in triumph, and then to prison, so many enemy commanders - this man he would not allow to lie in prison and in chains amongst the enemies of Rome. ”

“ Thus the Carthaginians being allowed to depart from Rome, when they had gone into Africa to Scipio concluded the peace on the terms before mentioned. They delivered up their men-of-war, their elephants, deserters, fugitives, and four thousand prisoners, among whom was Quintus Terentius Culleo, a senator. The ships he ordered to be taken out into the main and burned. ”

“ The majority of the population captured were thrown into prison and there perished, and some few (still excepting the very foremost men) were sold. These leaders and the hostages and Hasdrubal and Bithias lived to the end of their lives in different parts of Italy as prisoners, yet free from bonds. Scipio secured both glory and honor and was called Africanus not after his grandfather but from his own achievements. ”

“ Cicereius, and Cneius Scipio, the son of the great Africanus, were competitors for the office of prætor. The crowd followed Cicereius, and left Scipio unattended. Cicereius saw this with much concern, and desiring an audience of the people, he descended from the place where the candidates were to sit, in the eye of the multitude, pleaded for his adversary, and with an ingenuous modesty (which it is impossible to feign) represented to them, how much it was to their dishonour, that a virtuous son of Africanus should not be preferred to him, or any other man whatsoever. ”

“ Rome was the more ungrateful of the two, for whilst Carthage after her defeat drove the defeated Hannibal into exile, Rome would banish the victorious Scipio in the hour of her victory. Others again took the ground that no single citizen should stand on such an eminence that he could not be required to answer according to law. Nothing contributed more towards maintaining liberty for all than the power of putting the most powerful citizen on his trial. ”

“ In the fine episode in the last book of Cicero’s Republic, the younger Scipio relates a dream, wherein the elder hero of his name, Scipio Africanus, conveying him to the lofty heights of the Milky Way, emphasized the futility of fame by showing him upon the earth the regions to which his name could never penetrate: “Thou seest in what few places the earth is inhabited, and those how scant ”

“ As the ship left the Tagus he exclaimed, in the words of the sepulchral monument of Scipio Africanus, "Ingrata patria, non possidebis ossa mea!" ”

“ That they should furnish corn, and pay for the auxiliaries until the ambassadors had returned from Rome. That they should pay ten thousand talents of silver in equal annual installments distributed over fifty years. That they should give a hundred hostages, according to the pleasure of Scipio, not younger than fourteen nor older than thirty. That he would grant them a truce on condition that the transports, together with their cargoes, which had been seized during the former truce, were restored. Otherwise they would have no truce, nor any hope of a peace. ”

“ So low is our courage falling day by day, that the man whom seventeen years ago we dared to send tribunes to Sicily to apprehend, whilst he had an army and a fleet at his command, that man we dare not now, though he is only a private citizen, fetch from his country-house to stand his trial. ”

“ In fine, you are thought to be wise in this sense, that you regard all that appertains to your happiness as within your own soul, and consider the calamities to which man is liable as of no consequence in comparison with virtue. I am therefore asked, and so, I believe, is Scaevola, who is now with us, how you bear the death of Africanus ”

“ Great is the Fortune of the Roman people, great and terrible its name! The recent downfall of Hannibal, of Philip, of Antiochus, had almost stunned the Gauls. With all their huge bulk they were put to flight by slings and arrows, not a sword in the army was stained by the blood of a Gaul, they fled away like flocks of birds at the first whirr of our missiles. Yes, but Fortune also warned us what would have happened to us then, if we had had a real enemy. On our return march we fell amongst Thracian brigands, and were killed, put to flight, and stripped of our baggage. ”

“ Scipio answered, that though he was come into Africa not for peace, but conquest, he would however grant them a peace, upon condition that they should deliver up all the prisoners and deserters to the Romans; that they should recall their armies out of Italy and Gaul; should [pg 240] never set foot again in Spain; should retire out of all the islands between Italy and Africa ”

“ Every one felt that to gain this distinction would be for him a real victory, far outweighing any official position or honourable distinction which either patricians or plebeians could confer. Of all the great and good men in the State they adjudged the best and noblest to be P. Scipio, the son of the Cnaeus Scipio who had fallen in Spain; a young man not yet old enough to be quaestor. ”

“ Scipio was far from despising these men, he was quite aware that the defeat at Cannae was not brought about by any cowardice on their part, and he knew, too, that there were no soldiers in the Roman army who had had such a long experience in every kind of fighting, and in the conduct of sieges. They formed the fifth and sixth legions. After announcing to them that he would take them with him to Africa, he inspected them man by man, and those whom he did not consider suitable he left behind, replacing them from the men whom he had brought from Italy. ”

“ Ten thousand prisoners fell into his hands, including many hostages of Spanish tribes left as pledges to Hannibal and Hasdrubal for the fidelity of native soldiers. These, by a conciliatory policy, Scipio soon secured as allies, and with their aid eventually drove the last of the Carthaginians out of the peninsula. The last city to fall was Cadiz, in b.c. 206, and in 205 Scipio returned to Rome, and was elected consul in recognition of his great achievements. ”