Lucius Cornelius Scipio (consul 259 BC)

Lucius Cornelius Scipio (b. c. 300 BC), consul in 259 BC during the First Punic War was a consul and censor of ancient Rome. He was the son of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, himself consul and censor, and brother to Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina, himself twice consul. Two of his sons and three of his grandsons also became famous Roman generals and consuls; his most famous descendant being Scipio Africanus.

As consul in 259 BC, he led the Roman fleet in the capture of Aleria and then Corsica, but failed against Olbia in Sardinia. The Fasti Triumphales record that he was awarded a triumph, but two other inscriptions on his career don't mention it. The following year he was elected censor with Gaius Duilius.

He later dedicated a temple to the Tempestates, locating it near the Porta Capena.

Fragments of his sarcophagus were discovered in the Tomb of the Scipios and are now in the Vatican Museums. They preserve his epitaph, written in Old Latin:

which has been transcribed and restored in modern upper- and lower-case script as:

and also transcribed in classical Latin as:

A translation is:

This inscription is number two of the elogia Scipionum, the several epitaphs surviving from the tomb.