Publius Cornelius Scipio
Publius Cornelius Scipio (died
211 BC) was a general and statesman of the
Roman Republic.
A member of the
Cornelia gens, Scipio served as
consul in
218 BC, the first year of the
Second Punic War, and sailed with an army from
Pisa to
Massilia (today Marseille), with the view of arresting
Hannibal's advance on
Italy. Failing, however, to meet his enemy, he hastened to return by sea to
Cisalpine Gaul, having sent his army on to
Hispania under the command of his older brother
Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus, with instructions to hold the Carthaginian forces there in check.
On his return to Italy he at once advanced to meet Hannibal. In a sharp
cavalry engagement near the
Ticinus, a tributary of the
Po river, he was defeated and severely wounded. In December of the same year, he again witnessed the complete defeat of the Roman army at the
Trebia, when his fellow consul
Tiberius Sempronius Longus insisted on fighting contrary to his advice.
Despite the military defeats, he still retained the confidence of the Roman people: his term of command was extended and the following year found him in Hispania with his brother Calvus, winning victories over the Carthaginians and strengthening Rome's position in the Iberian peninsular. He continued the Iberian campaigns until
211 when he was killed in the defeat of his army on the
upper Baetis river, the same year Calvus and his army was destroyed at
Ilorci near
Carthago Nova. The details of these campaigns are not accurately known, but it seems that the ultimate defeat and death of the two Scipiones was due to the desertion of the
Celtiberians, bribed by
Hasdrubal Barca, Hannibal's brother.
He was the son of
Lucius Cornelius Scipio, and he was the father of
Scipio Africanus Major, whose original name was likewise Publius Cornelius Scipio.
A later
Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of
Scipio Africanus Major and Aemilia Paulla, and grandson of the consul of
218 BC, was the adoptive father of
Scipio Aemilianus Africanus. This latter Scipio served as
praetor in
174 BC.
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Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family tree
