Publius Cornelius Scipio "Africanus": A General Greater Than Napoleon

military theorists basil henry liddell hart once lamented that history too often glorifies those who are defeated in war while it may forget the victors while napoleon and robert e lee are enshrined in drama wellington and grant are almost forgotten he wrote this may be true for today's protagonist a brutal military strategist who at a very young age led rome in a series of spectacular victories against the greatest threat ever faced by the republic hannibal of carthage and while hannibal is a household name the life and merits of his chief roman rival may be lesser known in today's biographics we will learn about publius cornelius scipio known for his accomplishments as africanus here's a generals which serbazil himself labeled as greater than napoleon publius cornelius scipio was born in the year 235 bc to a powerful patrician family his father puglia senior was a well-respected political leader and military commander the life of publius jr has been chronicled by several latin and greek biographers polybius and livy among others but these writers of the past have written very little about the childhood and early teens of our protagonist we know that publius may have been born via cesarean section considered a sign of future greatness livy even reports the publius was conceived by his mother and a giant serpent the same story was told about alexander the great so it may have been a common myth told about great generals from the boys early teens we only have one disputed anecdote in this story we learn of how publius senior had to drag a semi-undressed junior from the bedchamber of an older lady friend in just enough time to prevent a scandal so was this common occurrence was publius jr the son of the serpent something of a precocious ladies man chased around rome by a prudish father well the truth is we don't really know but what a great theatrical narrative it would certainly make publius jr as a spoiled aristocratic brat and troublemaker who slowly comes to accept his responsibilities toward his family and his motherland in the time of need and time of need describes the catastrophe that threatened to destroy rome this was the invasion of italy by the carthaginian general hannibal at some point you may want to watch our biographics episode about publius's foil hannibal but well here are the basics roman carthage had already fought each other during the first punic war from 264 to 241 bc carthage's forces were led by a handful of generals one of whom was named hamilkar barker barker meaning the thunderbolt in the phoenician language spoken by the carthaginians after more than two decades of fighting carthage had to sue for peace yielding the island of sicily to rome one generation later in the year 219 carthaginian forces in spain were led by hannibal barker the son of hamilkar or the son of the thunderbolt hannibal and his forces had resumed hostilities in attacking saguntum a spanish city allied with rome that kicked off the second punic war whereas most of the first conflict centered around ireland combat and naval battles hannibal surprised rome by taking the fight italy he made a wild gambit by leading his army of 26 000 men plus elephants over the snowy peaks of the alps and into the northern portion of the italian peninsula hannibal was happy to take crazy calculated risks he was hell-bent on avenging carthage's previous defeat which had sullied the name of both his father and his country in short he wanted revenge and he had the right combination of brains and brawn to get everything that he wanted in 218 publius senior was one of the two consuls leading the roman republic and publius jr was barely 17. the oldest kpo was tasked by the roman senate to lead an army in northern italy to oppose the incoming troops of hannibal puglia's junior followed his father and was put in command of a squadron of mounted bodyguards the two armies clashed in the battle of ticonas river according to polybius publius senior was surrounded by carthaginian cavalry during the battle and seriously wounded seeing this his sons spurred on his horse and charged alone into battle the other cavalrymen moved by his courage followed him into the desperate attack caught by surprise the carthaginians broke formation and fled publius senior wounded but still conscious hailed his son as his savior the event cemented scepia's reputation as a courageous leader clearly rome was in need of men like young scepio as hannibal soundly defeated the romans on the ticketness and continued his march along the italian boot the brilliant general thrashed the romans at the battle of trivia river and then again at lake tressamine we don't have any evidence that the young scepio participated in these battles what can be speculated though is that young scepio may have listened carefully to the accounts of these defeats trying to learn what made hannibal so lethal was it the elephants sure hannibal had a contingent of war elephants which terrified and crushed the legions or was it the cavalry the carthaginians were allies of the lumidians a north african group who could boast some of the finest cavalrymen of the time wizard animal's knack to win new allies general barker was able to recruit numerous allies first among the iberian tribes and then among the celtic tribes in northern italy sure it was all of these but what made hannibal a victor was his brilliant tactical mine which did not refrain from the use of stratagems traps and ambushes to gain the upper hand in battle on the other hand the roman republic excelled in discipline and logistics but lacked tactical creativity they didn't even have a word for stratagems romans considered them to be dishonorable their two opposing concepts of warfare would be put to the test once more at the next big battle on the 2nd of august 216 bc the romans and carthaginians faced each other near the town of canada in modern-day apulia the heel of the italian boot hannibal fielded 40 000 foot and 10 000 mounted soldiers the romans were led by two newly elected consoles lucius emilius paulus and gaius tarantius varro their army was stronger consisting of 18 000 legionnaires but both the commanders and the troops lacked the experience of their opponents at cane hannibal painted a masterpiece in roman blood a total and perfect encirclement of the enemy army the carthaginian general placed his troops in a slightly convex formation rather than the traditional line his advanced troops at the center first goaded the roman center to advance then solely withdrew as they did so the wings of the formation surrounded the roman legions from both sides finally hannibal's cavalry attacked from the rear preventing any chance to run away the trap closed and the youth of rome was annihilated by the carthaginian meat grinder many of the army leaders died including consul amelia's paulus 48 000 legionnaires fell to their enemies and that's the most conservative number the mortality rate has been estimated to be 500 deaths per minute in little more than 90 minutes rome lost more men in battle than canada did and the whole of world war ii or almost as many men as the u.s in 10 years of war in vietnam publius cornelius scipio jr was there as a 19 year old tribunal or junior officer we don't have an account of what he did during the battle we only know what he did afterward while the surviving legionnaires and officers were in shock confused as to what to do publius displayed great leadership the young officer rounded up a group of survivors and led them to safety past hannibal's men still looking for survivors marching in silence at night always leading the way to look for the safest route publius led his band to the safety of canisium while on the run publius interviewed his men trying to understand what had caused such a disaster how could an army be crushed so decisively by studying the battle scepio started to develop admiration for hannibal sure general barker was his enemy but publius would also consider him as his model his master and as we know the destiny of every pupil is to one day surpass their master after the victory of canai hannibal's army failed to take the initiative to storm rhone preferring to rest in kapoor 30 kilometers north of naples legend has it that the senate sent a special force of 300 dedicated romans to stall their movements not 300 spartan hoplites but 300 prostitutes whose sole job was to keep hannibal soldiers busy whatever the truth the carthaginian force did waste some time gallivanting in kapua and later they occupied southern italy foraging on supplies and gradually gaining new regional allies hannibal may have had a long-term strategy to weaken rome until he forced it to surrender but he had underestimated the strength of the bond between the roman senate and the roman people this was a bond of trust which not even 500 deaths a minute could dissolve some allies may have switched sides sure but others perpetuated their allegiance to rome and rome resisted if we now zoom into the senate we may find scepio jr again it's 213 bc and scepio is 22 years old since canai he had married emea daughter of amelia's paulus the consul who had died in that battle the couple later had three children publius iii lucius and cornelia scabio's reputation for courage and leadership had accelerated his cursus onorum the ladder of public officers leading to the consulship publius senior would have been proud of him had he been there while hannibal had been plundering southern italy the senate had adopted a wise strategy attack and harassed the carthaginian allies in spain to weaken them and cut them off from supplies the senate had dispatched publius senior and his brother nullis to take care of the iberian tribes in 211 bc a massive iberian carthaginian force attacked the romans on the bitus river the romans were repelled back as far as northeastern spain this defeat was compounded by a personal tragedy for publius jr both his father and uncle had been killed in battle like his carthaginian foil the struggle had now become personal the senate needed to appoint a new commander abroad a pro-consul to continue the campaign in spain puglia's cornelius scipio barely 25 was elected almost unanimously to lead the expedition of course he accepted to avenge rome his family his father skipper appointed caius lelias as his second in command a trusted right-hand man from his earlier military days the two sailed off to toronto modern-day tarragona to take charge of the surviving legions the first act of the young general was to motivate those veterans to do the unthinkable rather than entrench themselves on the river ebro as they expected they would attack their enemies in central and southern spain as his armies crossed the river scepio revealed his true objective a city on the southeastern coast the very capital of the enemy in spain new carthage [Music] modern military theorists climate mozella and mclaughlin have analyzed scepio's strategy from the perspective of the center of gravity battle theory which calls for the identification and destruction of the true center of an enemy army's strength or balance hannibal's center of gravity was the support he received from spain and spain's center of gravity was new carthage known to be impregnable surrounded on three sides by the sienna lagoon it could be besieged only by a narrow isthmus but the crafty scepio questioned some local fishermen who told him about the tides which at specific times were so low that one could walk across the lagoon exploiting this natural occurrence scepio announced to his soldiers that he would part the waters with the help of neptune god of the sea and at the expected time the sea did withdraw from the lagoon a contingent rushed a new carthage and stormed the poorly defended walls after the victory he allowed his troops to pillage and slaughter for a brief period but then he imposed strict discipline some of the prisoners belonged to the same tribes that had killed his father but he released them all he went one step further offering artisans sailors and soldiers a chance to join the ranks of the romans after this conquest scepio had to square off with the three carthaginian generals in iberia hannibal's younger brothers has drubal and magus barker and has drew borgisko hannibal's brother-in-law the next engagement with the enemy was the battle of beicoulip some 350 kilometers west of newt carthage in 208 bc at bakula scepio used his signature pincer tactic for the first time he divided his main forces into two strong wings which fell upon the carthaginian's flanks after the victory scepio showed again his penchant for long-sighted clemency when he learned that a numidian horseman called messiva had been made prisoner he ordered his release the young soldier was a nephew of masinissa prince of the eastern numidians who would later show his gratitude the next big fight took place in 206 bc at alipa near modern day seville this was scepio's chance to wipe the floor with magus barker and testrubor gisco during this battle scepio took another step further away from the roman tactical tradition a typical order of battle would be to field the heavy roman infantry at the center of a line flanked by light auxiliary forces provided by local allies the carthaginians had a similar approach but at a lipper scipio did exactly the opposite his iberian allies formed the center bearing the shock of the advance of heavily armed carthaginian foot as the iberians slowly withdrew the well-drilled roman legions advanced in a pincer movement crushing their opponents maguses and hastrubal's armies risked annihilation if it wasn't for a violent and timely downpour the sudden bad weather prevented the romans from chasing their enemies who managed to run for their lives that must have been disappointed for scepio nonetheless it appeared as though the reigns of aleppo had washed away the remnants of carthaginian power in spain astrubal gisco fled back to carthage while magus barker sought refuge in the baleric islands their local allies had switched sides to rome and scepio had made some powerful new friends prince masanissa and his legendary numidian horsemen at the young age of 29 general scepio had subjugated a new province hispania for the glory of rome but the fight was far from over in the same year scepio made a quick trip to northern africa to test the loyalty of carthage's allies in particular the western midians he learned that the king syphax was tied to the carthaginians by marriage his wife the beautiful suffen baal was the daughter of hastrubor gisco scepia's friend masanissa was the prince of the eastern midians while both masanissa and syfax had been fighting on the carthaginian side they were at odds with each other politically they both vied for total leadership of the united numidians on a more personal level massanissa had long been in love with suffern baal the newlywed of his rival during this trip scepio failed to turn the western namidians against carthage but he cemented the alliance with massanissa boosting both numbers and the quality of his cavalry scoopio's next trip was back home back to rome he received a hero's welcome and in 205 bc he won the consulship aged only 30. scepio wanted to continue leading the war against hannibal who was still holding on to southern italy he was presented with two options either confront hannibal head-on in italy with the risk of a second disaster like kane or continue with the delaying tactics imposed by quintus fabius maximus nicknamed the delayer maximus was the senior-most senator who for years had supported a strategy of harassing hannibal's army to wear them down without giving in to a full-on battle scipio chose none of the above his strategy was to set up a base of operations in sicily and use it as a launching pad for the invasion of africa a direct fight against hannibal was still too dangerous but he could destroy him by targeting another center of gravity scepio had already taken out the center that had been providing hannibal with recruits and supplies in spain now he would target the center of his authority carthage [Music] the roman senate influenced by maximus opposed this command-and-conquer strategy it was too expensive and too risky historian giovanni brizzy also suggests that the family of the delayer may have had trade ties with the carthaginian senators it was not in their interest to threaten the wealth of their trade partners eventually scepio and the senate reached a compromise he had permission to carry out his plan but he could not raise fresh legions for his african landing all scepio received were the survivors of kanae these soldiers were the republic's rejects defeated and demoralized humiliated and mistrusted by their own compatriots accused of cowardice and desertion these two meager legions had been refreshed with elements from disciplinary units soldiers guilty of insubordination theft and other crimes but the young general would not allow himself to fail he drilled into shape his dirty dozen or dirty ten thousand and then launched an appeal to the italic allies the allies responded to his call sending money food weapons raw material to build new ships and even hundreds of fully kitted out soldiers before heading off to northern africa scepio put his troops to the test in the invasion of lockery the southern italian town had allied itself to hannibal but scepio's spies informed him that the tide was turning the general took the occasion to send a landing party which promptly stormed the town and surprised knight attack chasing away the carthaginian garrison this victory risked ruining all of scepio's grand plans the three officers left in charge at lockery proved to be a gang of crooks they terrorized the local population and even desecrated the temple of the main deity the goddess pro subpoena maximus took the occasion to cry scandal he asked for scepio's return to rome and for a commission of inquiry to investigate the events of lockery luckily the general soon had some friends in the senate and they snuck a cousin of his into the commission to act in his stead the trick worked as the final report exonerated scepio from any wrongdoing with the internal opposition taken care of scepio was now free to launch his invasion in the summer of 204 bc he set sail from sicily leading an army of 23 500 foot and 2500 cavalrymen in other words 26 000 men the same number that hannibal had led into italy years before a coincidence or maybe scepio was once again proving that he could study emulate and eventually best his enemy scepio and his army reached their first objective in northern africa the city of utica on the coast of what it today tunisia the romans were soon besieged by two armies the namidians led by scifix and carthaginian mercenaries under hastrugal gisco exploiting his previous acquaintance with the nomidian king scubio sent ambassadors to discuss a peace settlement this may have been against character but scepio could recognize when he was in a difficult spot the talks continued until the beginning of 203 bc when cyfax and scepia reached a compromise rome would retain control of sicily and sardinia while carthage would rule over the remaining islands of the western mediterranean king cyphax relished his diplomatic skills one night in march he prepared to relax in his lodging surrounded by his formidable army they had spent months inside of a makeshift camp of wooden barracks but the war was finally coming to an end a cry disturbed his peace as a call spread wild among the sentries fire in a matter of minutes nearly the entire namidian camp was ablaze with furious flames consuming the tents and cabins made of twigs and dry branches the soldiers tried to escape the inferno only to be quickly cut down by devils hiding in the dark messiness horsemen and scepio's band of rejects what had happened while conducting talks with scifix scepio had sent some of his officers to the enemy camp disguised as messengers or servants the officers spied on the numidians taking note of the sentries their shifts and especially on the flammable nature of the camp after scythex had lowered his guard scepio had sent his two most trusted deputies masanissa and caius lelius to set the camp on fire while the namibian army was slaughtered a detachment left from the nearby fort of astrubal justice scepio had planned the carthaginians were coming to help their allies and just as scepio had planned gisco's forces were ambushed and massacred on the way there out of the flames of utica scepio's rejects emerged triumphant this was their first big victory in enemy territory but something also emerged from the ashes a new style of warfare previously inconceivable to the romans a tactical doctrine founded on strat gems ambushes and traps it was yet another lesson learned from hannibal son of the thunderbolt one that scepio son of the serpent could not wait to turn against his master hasdrubal and syfax managed to escape utica with support from his own senate general gisco raised another mercenary army these new units blocked the way to carthage by holding positions on the fields along the river begradus scepio marched head-on ready to meet the enemy in a pitched battle skeepy awarded his men to take the most traditional formation of the republican times three lines of infantry protected by two wings of cavalry the first line were the hastati young and fit soldiers to carry out the first clash with the enemy the second line were the principes older legionnaires finally the triarii the reserve of battle-hardened veterans who would join the fray at the time of need scepio started his battle by launching his cavalry into action with lelius on the right and macinissa on the left they charged at gisco's horsemen the attack was successful and the carthaginians retreated lelius and masonissa continued the chase and when the dust settled the flanks of gisco's infantry were completely exposed it was time to crush them the principes and triarii would normally fight in long compact lines supporting the hastati but now skeeper had split them into smaller agile maniples this way they carried out an enveloping maneuver squeezing the enemies in a giant pincer scepio had evolved hannibal's encirclement tactic and to one that was much deadlier and quicker to execute another carthaginian army had been destroyed this time gisco and scythex had fallen captive nothing and nobody stood in the way of carthage there was nothing left to do for its senate but start another round of peace talks during the winter of 203 in 202 bc scepio imposed conditions that respected the integrity and sovereignty of carthage in its african territories but carthage had to recognize masinissa as the sole king of the united namidians the city had to withdraw its troops from italy and abandon any plan to return to spain the carthaginian senate was also forced to disband the naval fleet and mercenary forces and to pay an immense sum of five thousand silver talents to rome [Music] the peace negotiated with carthage proved to be short-lived a shipment of food supplies intended for the roman army was blown off course by strong winds and the triremes were beach near carthage hungry citizens plundered the ships and refused to return their loot scepio took the occasion to resume hostilities devastating the farmlands around carthage was he just looking for an excuse to continue the fight until hannibal showed up well his latest action did cause hannibal to return before scepio could strike at carthage hannibal blocked his path by establishing a campanzana hannibal's remaining army matched the romans in strength at about 40 000 troops plus he had the elephants but he had less cavalry than scepio and realized perhaps too late that zama was not well supplied with fresh water hannibal could not endure a long standoff and he needed a way out his first initiative was to ask for a meeting with scepio to perhaps negotiate a truce or resume talks for a definitive piece we don't have an exact record of their meeting what we do know is that the two greatest generals of their age showed the deepest respect to each other perhaps scepio was awestruck by the old arrival and perhaps hannibal was amused to meet a younger foe who clearly considered him to be a master when hannibal tried to propose a truce however scepio was unmoved he replied you fail to endure peace you must now prepare for war on october the 19th 202 bc the serpent and the thunderbolt placed each other at zama the battle that would end it all one way or the other scepio arranged as men in columns leaving wide corridors between the maniples and the gaps were covered by a line of light infantry hannibal had placed his war elephants at the front and he started the battle by unleashing them on the romans this is exactly what scepio expected he ordered his front lines to bang their drums and blow their trumpets as loud as they could producing such noise that frightened the elephants that stampeded back to the carthaginians decimating their front lines some elephants continued their forward charge this is when scepio's light inventory moved out of the way revealing the gaps between the maniples the elephants continued to charge along the corridors doing little damage and eventually leaving the battle now scepio took the initiative he ordered massanissa and cayas leleus to attack the carthaginian horseman protecting hannibal's flanks the romans and numidians had the better cavalry and were able to chase off their opponents finally it was time for scepio to unleash his pincer and surround hannibal the roman second and third lines of infantry moved out to the sides ready to suffocate the carthaginians with a mortal embrace but hannibal had heard about the battle at bergrades and knew what to expect as the romans tried to move around their enemy the carthaginians spread out in a long line preventing the encirclement this was the perfect counter move now it was just a long line of roman infantry opposite a long line of carthaginians and allies with cavalry out of the picture scepio's infantry were outnumbered and could have quickly broken ranks but they didn't those legionnaires were the veterans of canai the former rejects and heroes of the republic this was their occasion to avenge their defeat and they would not back down eventually the carthaginians started to lose cohesion some mercenary units tried to retreat fighting their own allies to shove them out of the way but the final blow came from massanissa and lelias like an easterly wind their cavalries galloped back to the melee striking the carthaginians from behind hannibal managed to escape but on that day he left twenty thousand of his men on the ground along with any remaining hope of saving carthage rome and scoopio had won the war [Music] publius cornelius scipio returned to rome in triumph he was now addressed as africanus thanks to his splendid victories in northern africa scepio had negotiated a very good peace deal for rome carthage retained its possessions in africa but it became a client state of the roman republic carthage would also pay an indemnity of ten thousand silver talents renounce all but ten of its naval vessels and all of its war elephants during his campaign scepio had also won a new ally to roam numidia he had also conquered a whole new province hispania the first roman controlled territory outside of italy scipio was young powerful influential and wealthy his legions loved him to the point of swearing allegiance to him rather than rome this aroused the suspicion of the senate to the more conservative senators this man was dangerous what could prevent him from declaring himself king and returning to the days of the roman monarchy rome was a republic and she intended to remain one the occasion to strike at scepio came some years later in 194 bc king antiochus iii of syria was threatening the greek city-states which at the time were under rome's protection his chief military advisor was none other than hannibal scepio at the time was strongly opposed by his most vocal political rival marcus porquius carto better known as carter the elder but the presence of hannibal in syria alarmed enough of the senate to allow forskepio to retake the position of consul once again scoopio left rome for a diplomatic mission in greece syria and asia minor according to some sources he had the occasion to meet hannibal during the trip the two chatted like old friends talking history and strategy scipio asked hannibal who he thought were the three greatest strategists that had ever lived hannibal replied alexander the great pirus and myself scepio had another question but what would you have said if you had conquered me hannibal replied i should then have said that i was greater than alexander greater than paris and greater than all other generals the war with syria eventually broke out and scipio joined in 190 bc as nominal deputy to his brother lucius unfortunately the two old foes did not meet again hannibal was in phoenicia raising a fleet for the syrians and had been pinned down by the navy of rhodes allied to rome in january 189 bc lucius scipio defeated the syrians in the battle of magnesia his older brother publius was away from the battlefield recovering from an illness but he was the victor at least in spirit as lucius had used his tactics and commanded legions that he had raised and trained himself after magnesia kin antioch sued for peace agreeing to a payment of 15 000 silver talents to rome of these he paid an advance of 500 to the scepios africanus used this money for his private expenses or maybe to pay his soldiers wages this is still not clear what mattered is that he had spent that money without asking permission from the senate this was the occasion that scepio's rivals fronted by kate the elder were waiting for he put the scipio brothers on trial twice the first time in 187 bc lucius was asked to produce the accounting ledger for the syrian expedition but afrikaans intervened and tore it to pieces in front of the senate he then reminded them that he was being tried on the anniversary of his victory at zama the outcry was such that kato contented himself with a mere find lucius at the second trial in 184 bc cartoon accused skeeper of embezzlement corruption and even planning to become king of rome with a military coup this time carter was vetoed from further prosecuting the general by senator tiberius gracos the elder he would later marry scepio's only daughter cornelia despite these victories in court scepio had grown disgusted with the roman political class he was not willing to serve the republic anymore and so he retired to his farm at littenham near naples one day a crew of pirates landed at lithium and the old general prepared to face them weapons in hand soon he realized that the pirates had not come to burn and loot they only wanted to meet the famous victor of zama such was the fame of scepio throughout the ancient mediterranean world in 183 bc scepio must have heard the news that in the land of bithya hannibal had committed suicide by poison he had been vilified for his defeat at zama and forced to flee carthage serving foreign kings while escaping capture by the romans that same year in 183 bc the greatest general roman ever known to come to an illness it was most likely malaria publius cornelius scapio africanus closed his eyes and joined many friends and enemies in the elysian fields in his will he asked for his bones to be buried away from the ungrateful rome scibio's legacy was enormous his approach to strategy and innovative tactics revolutionized the armies of the republic his conquests launched the expansion of rome beyond the confines of italy his defeat of carthage made the romans a sea of power unrivalled in the mediterranean and the cult of loyalty among his men and legions created a precedent for the emergence of characters like julius caesar and augustus in short the life and achievements of scepio africanus were a major turning point in which the history of the republic became the downhill slope toward an empire so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

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Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, Scipio Africanus, Scipio Africanus facts, Scipio Africanus life story, Scipio Africanus bio, Scipio Africanus biography, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus life

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Length: 30min 53sec (1853 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 17 2020