SCIPIO AFRICANUS THE ELDER

born 236 BC died 184/183, Liternum, Campania [now Patria, Italy] Latin Scipio Africanus Major, in full Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Roman general noted for his victory over the Carthaginian leader Hannibal in the great Battle of Zama (202 BC), ending the Second Punic War. For his victory he won the surname Africanus (201 BC). Additional reading The chief ancient sources for Scipio are Polybius and Livy; the Life of Scipio by Plutarch does not survive. H.H. Scullard, Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician (1970), is a general study. For a more detailed review of Scipio's military career, see H.H. Scullard, Scipio Africanus in the Second Punic War (1930); and for details of his political activities, Roman Politics, 220150 B.C. (1951). See also R.M. Haywood, Studies on Scipio Africanus (1933, reprinted 1973); and a more popular work, B.H. Liddell Hart, Greater Than Napoleon: Scipio Africanus (1926, reprinted 1971).