My New Book, You Won’t Even Have My Bones: The Story of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus has been published.
Although not frequently acknowledged as such, Scipio Africanus was one of the most pivotal characters in western history. If not for his accomplishments in conquering Spain and depriving Carthage of its wealthy province, and then going to Africa and defeating the mighty Hannibal in Battle, the Second Punic War would have ended in a draw. Rome would very likely never have become the powerhouse that it did. The ramifications of this affect every aspect of our modern lives from language to religion to laws to political systems.
I have written a historical fiction first person account of Scipio’s life, starting from the age of about sixteen, through his death in exile in Liternum at the age of about fifty-three. The title comes from his response when asked if he wanted to be buried in Rome: “Ingrata Patria, ne ossa quidem habebis.” -Ungrateful fatherland, you won’t even have my bones.
Scipio was seventeen when Hannibal invaded Italy. His father, of the same name, was one of two elected Consuls for that year. The elder Scipio confronted Hannibal at the Battle of Ticinus. The battle went badly for the Romans, but young Scipio made a name for himself by leading his cavalry troop in a charge down a hill to rescue his father who had been wounded and unhorsed.
Two years later Scipio survived the disastrous battle of Cannae. He helped to rally the survivors in Canusium, and when some of the noblemen proposed to leave Rome and take employment with one of the Hellenistic kings, he led his companions to their meeting place, 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 will not take it be assured that this sword is drawn against him!”
Everyone present took the oath.
A few years after the Battle of Cannae, Scipio started upon his political career, getting himself elected as Aedile at the age of twenty-three. A year later his father and uncle were killed at the Battles of the Upper Baetis. Scipio got himself elected as commander of the Roman forces in Spain. The first thing he did was to capture the wealthy city of New Carthage from the Carthaginians, and within four years he drove all of the Carthaginians from Spain and conquered the entire peninsula for Rome.
After accomplishing this, he returned to Rome and was elected Consul. He organized an invasion of North Africa and began wreaking havoc on Carthaginian ruled lands. The Carthaginians summoned Hannibal back to Africa from Italy where he had been for sixteen years, and Scipio confronted him at the Battle of Zama in 202 B.C. The battle was a decisive victory for the Romans and Carthage was forced into a treaty on Roman terms.
If Scipio thought that he would live out his life at the most respected and venerated man in Rome, he was sadly mistaken. The envy of another Roman, the up-and-coming politician Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, would bring him low.
Speak Your Mind