Scipio was the conqueror of Hannibal in the Punic Wars. He was the
son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, and from a very early age he
considered himself to have divine inspiration. He was with his father
at the Ticino (218), and he survived Cannae (216). The young Scipio was
elected (c.211) to the proconsulship in Spain. He conquered New
Carthage (Cartagena) almost at once (209) and used the city as his own
base; within several years he had conquered Spain. As consul in 205,
Scipio wanted to invade Africa, but his jealous enemies in the senate
granted him permission to go only as far as Sicily and gave him no
army. He trained a volunteer army in Sicily. In 204 he received
permission to go to Africa, where he joined his allies the Numidians
and fought with success against the Carthaginians. In 202, Hannibal
crossed to Africa and tried to make peace, but Scipio's demands were so
extreme that war resulted; Scipio defeated Hannibal at Zama (202),
returned home in triumph, and retired from public life. He was named
Africanus after the country he conquered. His pride aggravated the
hatred of his enemies, especially Cato the Elder , who accused the
Scipio family of receiving bribes in the campaign against Antiochus III
in which Scipio had accompanied (190) his brother. It was only through
the influence of his son-in-law, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, that
Scipio was saved from ruin. He retired into the country and ordered
that his body might not be buried in his ungrateful city. Later he
revealed his great magnanimity by his attempt to prevent the ruin of
the exiled Hannibal by Rome.