Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/755

Rh SCIPIO. Hasdrubal, son of Barca, to crash Cneius. Mean- time Cneiiis had been at once paralysed by the defection of the 20,000 Celtiberians, who had been gained over jjy the Carthaginian general ; and being now surrounded by the united forces of the three generals, his camp was taken, and he himself fell, twenty-nine days after the death of his brother. The remains of his army were collected by L. Marcius Septimus, a Roman eques. [Hasdrubal, No, 6.] The year in which the Scipios perished is rather doubtful. Livy says (xxv. 36) that it was in the eighth year after Cn. Scipio had come into Spain ; but Becker ( Vorarheiten zu einer Geschichte des zweiten Punisclies Krieges in Dahlman'sForsc/iMw^ew, vol. ii. pt, ii. p. 113) brings forward several reasons, Avhich make it probable that they did not fall till the spring of B, c. 211. (Liv. libb. xxi. — xxv.; Polyb. lib. iii. ; Appian, Annib. 5 — 8, Hisp. 14 -16.) 10. Cn. Cornelius Scipio Calvus, son of No. 7, and brother of No. 9, was consul B. c. 222 with M. Claudius MarcelUis. In conjunction with his colleague he carried on war against the Insubrians. The details of this war are given under Marcellus. [Vol. II. pp. 927, 928.] (Po- lyb. ii. 34 ; Plut. Marcell. 6, 7 ; and the other authorities quoted in the life of Marcellus). In B.C. 218 Cneius served as legate of his brother Publius, under whom he carried on war for eight years in Spain, as has been related above. 11. L. Cornelius Scipio, son of No. 7, and brother of the two Scipios who fell in Spain, is only known as the father of No. 27. '2. P. Cornelius Scipio African us Major, the son of P. Scipio, who fell in Spain [No. 9], was the greatest man of his age, and perhaps the greatest man of Rome, with the exception of Julius Caesar. He appears to have been born in b. c. 234, since he was twenty- four years of age when he was appointed to the command in Spain in b. c. 210 (Liv. xxvi. 18 ; Val. Max. iii. 7. § 1 ; Oros. iv. 18). Polybius, it is true, says (x. 6) that he was then twenty-seven, which would place his birth in B. c. 237 ; and his authoritj'- would outweigh that of Livy, and the writers who follow him, if he had not stated elsewhere (x. 3) that Scipio was seven- teen at the battle of the Ticinus (b, c. 218), which would make him twenty-four when he went to Spain, according to the statement of Livy. In his early years Scipio acquired, to an extraordinary extent, the confidence and admiration of his coun- trymen. His enthusiastic mind had led him to believe that he was a special favourite of the gods ; and from the time he had put on the toga virilis, he had never engaged in any public or private business without first going to the Capitol, where he sat some time alone, enjoying communication from the gods. For all he proposed or executed he alleged the divine approval ; and the Roman people, who had not yet lost all faith in the powers of an unseen world, gave credit to his assertions, and regarded him as a being almost superior to the common race of men (Liv. xxvi. 19). Polybius, who did not possess a particle of enthusiasm in his nature, and who was moreover a decided rationalist, denies (x. 2, 5) that Scipio had or believed that he had any communication with gods, and that his pretences to such inter- course were only a wise and politic means for obtjiining a mastery over the minds of the vulgar. But such a supposition is quite at variance with SCIPIO. 743 all that is recorded of Scipio's character. He was, like Mohammed and Cromwell, a hero, and not an impostor ; he believed himself in tire divine reve- lations, which he asserted to have been vouchsafed to him, and the extraordinary success which at- tended all his enterprises must have deepened this belief, while such a belief, on the other hand, imparted to him a confidence in his own powers which made him irresistible. P. Scipio is first mentioned in B. c. 218 at the battle of the Ticinus, where he is reported to have saved the life of his father, though he was then only seventeen years of age. He fought at Cannae two years afterward (b. c. 216), when he was already a tribune of the soldiers, and was one of the few Roman officers who survived that fatal day. He was chosen along with Appius Claudius to command the remains of the army, which had taken refuge at Canusium ; and it was owing to his youthful heroism and presence of mind, that the Roman nobles, who had thought of leaving Italy in despair, were prevented from carrying their rash project into effect (Liv. xxii. 53 ; Val. Max. V. 6. § 7 ). He had already gained the favour of the people to such an extent, that he was unani- mously elected aedile in B. c.212. On this occasion he gave indications of the proud spirit, and of the disregard of all the forms of the law, which dis- tinguished him throughout life ; for when the tribunes objected to the election, because he was not of the legal age, he haughtily replied, " If all the Quirites wish to make me aedile, I am old enough." In the spring of b. c. 211, his father and uncle fell in Spain, and C. Nero was sent out as propraetor to supply their place ; but in the following year (b. c. 210), the Romans resolved to increase their army in Spain, and to place it under the command of a proconsul. But when the people assembled to elect a proconsul, none of the generals of experience ventured to sue for so dangerous a command. At length Scipio, who was then barely twenty-four, offered himself as a candidate, to the surprise of the whole people. The confidence he felt in himself he communicated to the people, and he was accordingly chosen with enthusiasm to take the command. Livy places his election in B.C. 211, but it could not have been earlier than B. c. 210. Upon his arrival in Spain in the summer of B. c. 210 Scipio found the whole country south of the Iberus in the power of the enemy. The three Carthaginian generals, Hasdrubal son of Barca, Hasdrubal son of Gisco, and Mago, were not, however, on good terms with one another, and were at the time engaged in separate enterprises in distant parts of the peninsula, leaving the Carthaginian province almost without defence. Instead of attacking any one of them in detail, Scipio formed the project of striking a deadly blow at the Carthaginian power by a sudden and unexpected attack upon New Carthage. He gave the command of the fleet to his intimate friend Laelius, to whom alone he entrusted the secret of the expedition, while he himself led the hand- forces by inconceivably rapid marches against the town. The project was crowned with complete success ; the Carthaginian garrison did not amount to more than a thousand men, and before any succour could arrive the town was taken by assault. The hostages, who had been given by the various Spanish tribes to the Carthaginians, 3b 4