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Scipio Africanus

Latin nameScipio Africanus

The "Conqueror of Africa" who beat Hannibal at Zama

Soul of the Legions · Commanders
Battle of ZamaThe Punic WarsAfricanus

Who they are

At seventeen Scipio saved his wounded father at the Ticinus River, and at the catastrophe of Cannae he was one of the few officers to break out. In 210 BC, aged twenty-five, he volunteered to take over the Spanish theater — where his father and uncle had just been killed. He stormed New Carthage, and within a few years tore Hannibal’s Spanish base up by the roots; then, against the opposition of Fabius and other senators, he insisted on carrying the war to Africa. At the Battle of Zama in 202 BC he specifically countered the elephant charge and his old opponent’s tactics, defeated the invincible Hannibal, ended the Second Punic War, and won the title "Africanus." In old age he was repeatedly impeached by Cato and his faction, and in anger exiled himself, leaving instructions that his ashes not be brought back to Rome: "Ungrateful fatherland, you shall not have my bones."

Key stories

The Battle of Zama

On the eve of the battle the two commanders met alone — Hannibal proposed terms, and Scipio refused: "Either victory, or submission." The next day Hannibal’s eighty war elephants charged, but Scipio had already arranged his ranks into lengthwise lanes, and the trumpets blared together to panic the beasts, so the elephants either passed through the empty channels or turned and trampled their own side; the Roman and Numidian cavalry drove off the enemy horse and then wheeled to attack from behind. Hannibal’s veteran guard fought to the last man. To defeat an opponent by the very method he excelled at — Scipio had studied Hannibal all his life, and scored full marks on the final exam.

On generals, with Hannibal

Years later the two met again at Ephesus (Hannibal now an exile in the East), and Scipio asked: who was the greatest general in history? Hannibal answered: Alexander first, Pyrrhus second, myself third. Scipio asked with a smile: and what if you had beaten me at Zama? Hannibal replied, "Then I would be first." The anecdote comes from Livy and cannot be verified — but it preserves in the histories that respect only rivals can have for each other.

Relationships

Nemesis
🐘Hannibal🏺Cato the Elder　Impeached by his faction into self-exile

Appears in

The Punic Wars & Mastery of the MediterraneanThe Battle of Zama
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