Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, known as Scipio Africanus, was a Roman general

and statesman who lived from 236/235 to around 183 BC1. He is most notable as one
of the main architects of Rome’s victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War1.
Often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders and strategists of all
time, his greatest military achievement was the defeat of Hannibal at the Battle of
Zama in 202 BC1. This victory in Africa earned him the honorific epithet Africanus,
literally meaning “the African,” but meant to be understood as a conqueror of
Africa1.

Scipio’s conquest of Carthaginian Iberia culminated in the Battle of Ilipa in 206

BC against Hannibal’s brother Mago Barca1. Although considered a hero by the Roman
people, primarily for his victories against Carthage, Scipio had many opponents,
especially Cato the Elder, who hated him deeply1. In 187 BC, he was tried in a show
trial alongside his brother for bribes they supposedly received from the Seleucid
king Antiochos III during the Roman–Seleucid War1. Disillusioned by the ingratitude
of his peers, Scipio left Rome and retired from public life at his villa in
Liternum1.

Scipio Africanus was born into one of the major still-extant patrician families and
had held multiple consulships within living memory: his great-grandfather Lucius
Cornelius Scipio Barbatus and grandfather Lucius Cornelius Scipio had both been
consuls and censors1. His father had held the consulship of 218 BC1, his uncle was
consul in 222 BC1, and his mother’s brothers – Manius Pomponius Matho and Marcus
Pomponius Matho – were both consuls in 233 and 231, respectively1.