Punic War, 2nd, 218-201 B.C.
Publius Cornelius Scipio was born at Rome in the 517th year from the city’s foundation—235 B.C. Though a member of one of the most illustrious and ancient families, the Cornelii, of his early years and education no record, not even an anecdote, has come down to us. Indeed, not...
Publius Cornelius Scipio was born at Rome in the 517th year from the city’s foundation—235 B.C. Though a member of one of the most illustrious and ancient families, the Cornelii...
2. CHAPTER II.These three episodes form the prologue to the real drama of Scipio’s career. On this the curtain rises in 210 B.C., which, if not Rome’s blackest hour in her life and death stru...
3. CHAPTER III.On the seventh day from the start of the march Scipio arrived before the city and encamped, the fleet arriving simultaneously in the harbour, thus cutting off communication on a...
4. CHAPTER IV.With Cartagena in his grip, Scipio had gained the strategical initiative, which is by no means identical with the offensive. To attack the Carthaginian field armies while he was...
5. CHAPTER V.In the spring of 206 B.C. the Carthaginians made their last great effort. Hasdrubal, encouraged by Mago, Hannibal’s brother, raised and armed fresh levies, and with an army of s...
6. CHAPTER VI.Scipio had ploughed the ground and sown the seeds for his African campaign. The time for reaping its fruits was not yet, however. He had first to complete the subjugation of Spa...
7. CHAPTER VII.On arrival at Rome Scipio obtained an audience of the Senate outside the city, at the temple of Bellona, and there gave them a formal report of his campaigns. “On account of the...
8. CHAPTER VIII.The interval between the return of Lælius and the embarkation for Africa is occupied, apart from material preparation, by two episodes of significance. The first is Scipio’s app...
9. CHAPTER IX.Thus in the spring of 204 B.C. Scipio embarked his army at Lilybæum (modern Marsala), and sailed for Africa. His fleet is said to have comprised forty warships and four hundred...
10. CHAPTER X.His political base in Africa secured, Scipio moved back to Tunis, and this time the moral threat, strengthened by recent events, was successful. It tilted the scales against the...
11. CHAPTER XI.Even at this critical juncture, jealousy of Scipio was rife in the Roman Senate. His backing, as all through, came from the people, not from his military rivals in the Senate. T...
12. CHAPTER XII.The completeness of the victory left no room for a strategic pursuit, but Scipio did not linger in developing the moral exploitation of his victory. “Concluding that he ought to...
13. CHAPTER XIII.After being for eight of the most critical years of Rome’s life the central figure, Scipio, for the remainder of his life, comes only at intervals into the limelight of history....
14. CHAPTER XIV.Rome, faced with a great emergency—second only to that of the Hannibalic War,—looked for its new saviour in its old. If the danger was less, and less close, the risk at least mu...
15. CHAPTER XV.The moderation and far-sighted policy of Scipio, which had undermined his influence in the years succeeding Zama, was now to cause his political ruin. The sequence of events is...
16. CHAPTER XVI.There is perhaps no military dictum so universally quoted as Napoleon’s “Read and reread the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Eugène, and Fre...