Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/761

Rh SCIPIO. capacity in which the consuls niiglit choose to employ him. He was appointed military tribune, and accompanied the consiil L. Lucullus to Spain. Here he distinguished himself by his personal courage. On one occasion he slew, in single combat, a gigantic Spanish chieftain ; and at .another time he was the first to mount the walls at the storming of the city of Intercatia. Such daring deeds gained for him the admiration of the barbarians, while his integrity and other virtues conciliated their regard and esteem. He quite threw into the shade his avaricious and cruel commander, and revived among the Spaniards the recollection of his grandfather, the elder Africanus. In the following year, B.C. 150, he was sent by Lucullus to Africa to obtain from Masinissa a supply of elephants. His name secured him a most honourable reception from the aged Numi- dian monarch. He arrived in the midst of the war between Masinissa and the Carthaginians, and was requested by the latter to act as mediator between them ; but he was unable to accomplish any thing, and returned to Spain with the ele- phants. On the breaking out of the third Punic war in B. c. 1 49, Scipio again went to Africa, but still only with the rank of military tribune. Here Scipio gained still more renown. By his personal bravery and military skill he repaired, to a great extent, the mistakes, and made up for the inca- pacity of the consul Manilius, whose army on one occasion he saved from destruction. His abilities gained him the complete confidence of Masinissa and the Roman troops, while his integrity and fidelity to his word were so highly prized by the enemy, that to his promise only would they trust. Accordingly, the commissioners, who had been sent by the senate to inspect the state of affairs in the Roman camp, made the most favourable report of his abilities and conduct. When L. Calpurnius Piso took the command of the army in the follow- ing year, B.C. 148, Scipio left Africa, and returned to Rome, accompanied by the wishes of the soldiers that he would soon return to be their commander. Many of them wrote to their friends at Rome, saying that Scipio alone could conquer Carthage, and the opinion became general at Rome that the conduct of the war ought to be entrusted to him. Even the aged Cato, who was always more ready to blame than to praise, praised Scipio in the Ho- meric words {Od. x. 495), " He alone has wisdom, the rest are empty shadows " (Plut. Cat. Maj. 27). The prepossession in favour of Scipio was still further increased by the want of success which attended the operations of Piso ; and, accordingly, when he became a candidate for the aedileship for B. c. 147 he was elected consul, although he was only thirty-seven, and had not therefore attained the legal age. The senate, of course, assigned to him Africa as his province, to which he forthwith sailed, accompanied by his friends Polybius and Laelius. The details of the war, which ended in the capture of Carthage, are given by Appian (Pan. 113 — 131), and would take up too much space to be repeated here. The Carthaginians defended themselves with the cou- rage of despair. They were able to maintain possession of their city till the spring of the fol- lowing year, B.C. 146, when the Roman legions at length forced their way into the devoted town. The inhabitants fought from street to street, and SCIPIO. 749 from house to house, and the work of destraction and butchery went on for days. The fate of this once magnificent city moved Scipio to tears, and anticipating that a similar catastrophe might one day befall Rome, he is said to have repeated the lines of the Iliad (vi. 448) over the flames of Carthage, <ea(TeTai. riyLap, or au ttot oKdXrj ''lios TpTj, Kal Tlpiaixos Kol Aaos H'ufjieKioi} npid/JLoio. After completing the arrangements for reducing Africa to the form of a Roman province, he re- turned to Rome in the same year, and celebrated a splendid triumph on account of his victory. The surname of Africanus, which he had inherited by adoption from the conqueror of Hannibal, had been now acquired by him by his own exploits. In B. c. 142 Scipio was censor with L. Mum- mius. Scipio, in the administration of the duties of his office, followed in thfe footsteps of Cato, and attempted by severity to repress the growing luxury and immorality of his contemporaries. He exhorted the people to uphold and maintain the customs of their ancestors in a speech which was preserved in later times. His efforts, however, to preserve the old Roman habits were thwarted by his colleague Mummius, who had himself acquired a love for Greek and Asiatic luxuries, and was disposed to be more indulgent to the people (Cell, iv. 20, v. 1 9 ; Val. Max. vi. 4. § 2). In the solemn prayer offered at the conclusion of the lustrum, Scipio changed the supplication for tTie extension of the commonwealth into one for the preservation of its actual possessions (Val. Max. iv. 1. § 10*). He vainly wished to check the appetite for foreign conquests, which had been still further excited by the capture of Carthage. In B. c. 1 39 Scipio was brought to trial before the people by Ti. Claudius Asellus, the tribune of the plebs. He seems to have been accused of majestas ; but Asellus attacked him out of private animosity, because he had been deprived of his horse, and reduced to the condition of an aerarian by Scipio in his censorship. Scipio was acquitted, and the speeches which he delivered on the occasion obtained great celebrity, and were held in high esteem in a later age (Gell. ii. 20, iii. 4, vii. 1 1 ; Cic. de Oral. ii. 64, QQ ; for further particulars see Vol. I. p. 385, a,). It ap- pears to have been after this event that Scipio was sent on an embassy to Egypt and Asia to attend to the Roman interests in those countries (Cic. de Rep. vi. 11). To show his contempt of the pomp and luxury in which his contemporaries indulged, he took with him only five slaves on this mission. (Athen. vi. p. 273.) The long continuance of the war in Spain, and the repeated disasters which the Roman arms experienced in that country, again called Scipio to the consulship. He was appointed consul in his absence, along with C. Fulvius Flaccus, and had the province of Spain assigned to him, B. c. 134. His first efforts were directed to the restoration of discipline in the army, which had become almost disorgfinised by sensual indulgences. After bring- ing the troops into an efficient condition by his mistaken in stating that Scipio held the lustrum, since Cicero says {de Orat. ii. 66), that it wa» held by his colleague Mummius,
 * Valerius Maximus, however, appears to be