How Did Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Rise to Power

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was born in 236 B.C., the scion of a family that had been influential in Roman politics for over two hundred years. In 218 B.C. his father was elected to Consul. His uncle Gneius had been Consul two years before.
That year, Hannibal invaded Italy. The elder Scipio had gone to Gaul to try to intercept Hannibal but had failed, so he returned to Italy and took command of two legions that were relatively untrained. He assigned his son to command a turma (thirty cavalrymen) but told him to stay out of the battle. Young Scipio saw that his father had been unhorsed and wounded and the Carthaginians were closing in on him, so he led a charge of the turma and rescued his father. This brought the seventeen-year-old to the attention of the Roman people.
Two years later the Romans confronted Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae. The battle was an utter disaster for Rome, with some 50,000 Romans and allies dead on the battlefield by day’s end. Scipio survived, probably because he was in the cavalry. Some ten thousand Roman survivors took refuge in the walled city of Canusium and Scipio and the Aedile Appius Claudius Pulcher were elected as leaders of this group. There was a faction of nobles who favored abandoning Rome and taking service with one of the eastern monarchs. When Scipio learned of this he was incensed and led the leaders to confront this group. He drew his sword and proclaimed: “With sincerity of soul I swear that neither will I, myself, desert the cause of the Roman Republic, nor will I suffer any other citizen of Rome to desert it. If knowingly I violate my oath, then, O Jupiter, supremely great and good, may you visit my house, my family, and my fortune with perdition most horrible! I require you, Marcus Caecilius Metellus, and the rest of you who are present, to take this oath, and let the man who shall not take it be assured, that this sword is drawn against him!” This act also brought Scipio to the attention of the Roman People.
Four years later, Scipio ran for Aedile. He was young to be considered for the position and the Tribunes of the plebes objected, but he said “If the Roman people think I’m old enough, then I’m old enough.” He was easily elected.
Two years later, his father and uncle were killed in the Battles of the Upper Baetis in Spain. Scipio was devasted. The Romans sent Marcus Claudius Nero to Spain, but after a less than stunning performance he returned to Rome and the position of commander in Spain was vacant. Scipio volunteered and, despite his youth, he was elected by all of the centuries. His performance in Spain was nothing short of spectacular. He won all his battles and within four years he cleared the entire peninsula of Carthaginian troops. Then he returned to Rome and was elected Consul by all of the centuries.
He announced that he intended to invade Africa and conquer Carthage. He said that once Carthage was under threat, Hannibal would leave Italy and return to defend his city. After a year or so of training and preparation on Sicily he invaded Africa in 203 B.C. He destroyed much of the allied forces of Hasdrubal Son of Gisco and the Numidian King Syphax by setting their camps on fire. Then he defeated them soundly at the Battle of the Great Plains. The Carthaginians sued for peace but also called Hannibal back. The Carthaginians broke the truce by plundering Roman ships that had been washed ashore near their city in a storm.
Hannibal landed at Hadrumetum and organized his army to confront Scipio, but his veterans were past their prime and many of his recruits were poorly trained. He was also at a disadvantage in cavalry with Scipio’s army having 9000, to Hannibal’s 6000. It was probably the advantage in cavalry that won the day for the Romans. The Carthaginians lost 20,000 dead and had 20,000 taken prisoner. Carthage was forced into a peace treaty on Roman terms.
Scipio returned to Rome and had a triumph. He was also elected Princeps Senatus year after year for a number of years. Unfortunately, he had made a powerful enemy in the person of the up-and-coming politician Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder.
In 190 B.C. Rome went to war with the Seleucid King Antiochus III and Scipio offered to accompany his brother Lucius Cornelius Scipio who had been elected Consul. Lucius Scipio defeated the Seleucid King at the Battle of Magnesia in 189 B.C. and was given a triumph upon his return to Rome. Cato, however, accused Lucius Scipio of financial malfeasance and presented charges against him in the Senate. Scipio angrily denounced the charges and tore up his brother’s ledgers on the Senate floor. He proclaimed, “How can you ask for the records of the expenditure of these four million sesterces and yet no longer ask for an account of how, and by whose agency, the fifteen thousand talents which you received from Antiochus came into the treasury, nor how it was that you have become masters of Asia, Libya, and Iberia?” The Senate abruptly dropped the matter.
But Cato Wasn’t finished. Two years later he pressed charges on Scipio himself for bribery, alleging that he had taken a bribe from Antiochus in exchange for mild peace terms. Scipio did not deign to defend himself and instead went into self-exile at Liternum where he died two years later. When asked if he wanted to be buried in Rome, he said “Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem habebis.”-”Ungrateful fatherland, you won’t even have my bones.”