Scipio Africanus the Younger

Scipio Africanus the Younger, full Latin name Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus (circa 185-129 bc), Roman general, adopted grandson of Scipio the Elder. After serving in the Roman military campaigns in Macedonia, he became military tribune to Spain in 151 bc. With the outbreak of the Third Punic War, Scipio, favorite of both the Roman army and the Roman people, was elected consul in 147 bc and invested with supreme command. After a year of heavy fighting Scipio captured Carthage and destroyed it. He returned to Rome, having earned in his own right his inherited surname Africanus.

After serving as censor in Rome for several years, Scipio was again elected to the consulship in 134 bc and was sent to Spain to conduct the siege against Numantia. The capture and destruction of the town ended 20 years of warfare in Spain and gave Scipio the additional surname Numantinus. On his return to Rome he became the leader of the aristocracy in their battle against the popular and agrarian reforms of his cousin Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. On the night before Scipio was scheduled to deliver a speech on agrarian laws, he died, perhaps assassinated by his political enemies. He was a patron of contemporary Roman writers, notably Polybius, the historian, and Terence, the dramatist.