Scipio the African
(Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus) was a Roman general and statesman, born in 235 BC. AD, and died in 183 BC. J.-C., in Liternum in Campania. His tomb and his remains are in the city of Colonia Nerviana Augusta Martialis Veteranorum Sitifensium (Sitifis), capital of Setifian Numidia, known today as Setif, in eastern Algeria.
He belonged to the Scipio family, a branch of the Cornelia gens. Son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, the consul from 218 BC. AD, he saw his father and uncle perish in 211 BC. J.-C..
He took part in the Battle of Cannae (Apulia), near present-day Canossa, in (216 BC), as a military tribune of the second legion.
Proconsul in Spain, in 211 BC. AD, at age 24, he took New Carthage (Cartagena), in 209 BC. J.-C., rallies the Celtiberians (see the episode of the Iberian chief Allutius which gave rise to the theme of The Continence of Scipio, subject of several paintings), triumph of Hasdrubal at Bécula, in Andalusia, in 208 BC. J.-C. and after several victorious battles, conquers all Andalusia, in 207 av. AD. After the submission of Gades (Cadiz) and the alliance with Massinissa, he returned to Rome in the fall of 206 BC. J.-C., covered with immense glory.
Consul in 204 BC. BC, he receives Sicily, from where with 50 warships and 400 transport ships, he goes to Africa. After defeating Hanno, and following the great defeat of Syphax near Cirta, he occupied Tunis in 203 BC. J.-C..
Proconsul in 203 BC. AD, he definitively defeated the Carthaginians of Hannibal, recalled from Italy, at the Battle of Zama in October 202 BC. J.-C..
This battle ended the Second Punic War and he received the nickname of African (Africanus), the one who defeated the Africans. Africanus major is sometimes specified to distinguish him from Scipio Emilian who also received the nickname African.
Censor in 199 BC. J.-C., consul for the second time in 194 av. J.-C., he took part in the war with his brother Scipion the Asiatic against Antiochos III of Syria (193 BC - 190 BC) on his return, he met the hostility of the conservative Romans, led by Cato the Elder, who reproached him for having wasted war indemnities for his benefit. He then chooses to withdraw.
The epitaph on his tomb, located in non-Roman territory, read:“Ungrateful fatherland, you will not have my bones”.