Scipio Aemilianus Africanus

Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus (185–129 BC), also known as Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Africanus Minor (Scipio Africanus the Younger), was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was elected consul twice. In 147 BC, he was under the age required to be consul, with an exception made by popular demand, and took over the command of the Third Punic War (149-146 BC) and besieged and destroyed Carthage. In 134 BC he took over the Numantine War (143-133 BC), restored the discipline of the Roman army, besieged Numantia and destroyed it. He was a prominent patron of writers and philosophers.

Scipio Aemilianus was the second of two sons of Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, (the commander who led the victorious campaign of the Romans in the Third Macedonian War) and his first wife, Papiria Masonis. He was adopted by the eldest son Publius Cornelius Scipio of his aunt Aemilia Tertia and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (the commander who won the decisive battle of the Second Punic War), and became Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (assuming the name of his adoptive father with a fourth name Aemilianus added to indicate his original nomen). His elder brother was adopted by a son or grandson of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (a prominent commander in the Second Punic War), whose name became Quintus Fabius Maximus Aemilianus.

Lucius Aemilius Paullus took his two older sons with him in his campaign in Greece. Plutarch wrote that Scipio was his favourite son because he "saw that he was by nature more prone to excellence than any of his brothers." He related that during mopping-up operations after the Battle of Pydna, Aemilius was worried because his younger son was missing. Plutarch also wrote that "The whole army learned of the distress and anguish of their general, and springing up from their suppers, ran about with torches, many to the tent of Aemilius, and many in front of the ramparts, searching among the numerous dead bodies. Dejection reigned in the camp, and the plain was filled with the cries of men calling out the name of Scipio. For from the very outset he had been admired by everybody, since, beyond any other one of his family, he had a nature adapted for leadership in war and public service. Well, then, when it was already late and he was almost despaired of, he came in from the pursuit with two or three comrades, covered with the blood of the enemies he had slain ..." Scipio Aemilanus was seventeen at the time.

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