Publius Cornelius Scipio P.f. P.n. Africanus

Publius Cornelius Scipio P.f. P.n. Africanus (living circa 211 BC/205 BC–170 BC) was the eldest son of Scipio Africanus and his wife Aemilia Paulla. He was chosen flamen dialis and was augur from 180 BC. Little information on him survives, as he did not stand for any of the high offices or have a public career of note. Cicero relates that he was in poor health, the particulars of which he refuses to mention, stating that "we ought not to reproduce ... their faults (of ancestors)." Scipio died young from his poor health.

Scipio had no natural progeny. For remedy according to Roman custom he adopted as son and heir his first cousin Scipio Aemilianus (b. 185 BC) who was probably born Lucius Aemilius Paullus, second and younger surviving son of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus by his first wife Papiria Masonis. This adoption probably took place after his brother Lucius died childless. Thereafter the son used the name Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus.

Cicero adds that the eldest son of Scipio Africanus had "more ample intellectual culture" than his father and that the state endured a loss in his not being able to seek high office.

Fragments of his sarcophagus were discovered in the Tomb of the Scipios and are now in a wall of the Vatican Museums. Only the broken frontal plate survives, preserving the epitaph, written in Old Latin Saturnian meter:

The break obscures a few letters, marked by the brackets. The epitaph has been stated in modern upper- and lower-case script with the missing letters restored as:

and also transcribed in classical Latin verse as:

translated as:

This inscription is number three of the so-called elogia Scipionum, the several epitaphs surviving from the tomb.

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