Scipio Africanus in the Second Punic War. By Howard H. Scullard. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1930. Pp. 331 + xv, with 3 plates and 10 maps and plans. 12s. 6d. net.

1931 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-288
Author(s):  
M. Holroyd
Author(s):  
Edward J. Watts

The rhetoric of Roman decline appears in some of the earliest surviving Latin literary texts (like Plautus’s Trinummus). Cato the Elder built much of his political brand around the idea that greed, extravagance, and, later, Greek influence undermined Roman virtue. He defended the lex Oppia, a sumptuary law, and directed attacks against figures in the mode of Scipio Africanus. This sort of attack particularly resonated as economic changes and the rise of a new class of super-wealthy Romans emerged in the decades after the end of the Second Punic War. By the 130s, Tiberius Gracchus used similar attacks on the greed and extravagance of Roman and Italian elites to push for aggressive land reforms. Tiberius’s unwillingness to be bound by constitutional norms, however, represented a new sort of decline that ultimately prompted his murder by a mob led by Scipio Nasica.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 73-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pedro Bellón ◽  
Carmen Rueda ◽  
Miguel Ángel Lechuga ◽  
María Isabel Moreno

Since 2002, our team at the University of Jaén's Research Institute for Iberian Archaeology has been undertaking an archaeological research project focusing on the analysis of the site of a conflict that can indisputably be dated to the final phase of the Second Punic War. Based on the topography, descriptions in the ancient sources, and archaeological data, we present the hypothesis that the site we have located corresponds to that of the battle of Baecula. In that confrontation in 208 B.C., Scipio the Younger faced Hasdrubal Barca. It was a momentous battle, at least in terms of its subsequent outcome, given that it could be considered the event that triggered Hasdrubal's withdrawal to Italy.Our research project has yielded information which we believe to be paradigmatic in two respects. First, we have been able to ascertain the size of the area over which an armed confrontation of this type would have taken place, thanks to the identification of determining elements such as the different camps set up for the battle and their sizes. It covers the area where the armies clashed, where they were positioned and deployed, their movements on the battlefield, and so forth. Second, thanks to intensive sampling, we have recovered a corpus of finds that may be used in the future as a reference for the allocation of other sites to the period of the Second Punic War.


Author(s):  
Dexter Hoyos

This chapter discusses the first world war of the ancient Mediterranean: the Second Punic War. It was fought on two continents from Spain and Africa to the Aegean, and was marked by the generalship of the initially victorious Hannibal and the ultimately victorious Scipio Africanus. The war shows that Punic military strength still matched Rome's. Hannibal successfully employed all the elements of an ancient army, and was not only an attractive and successful leader but a careful one. The Romans' solution to his tactics was to avoid battle entirely, instead shadowing his army as it marched and meanwhile molesting his Italian allies or Hanno's secondary force. Since Punic armies were comprised of non-Carthaginian conscripts and mercenaries, and Punic fleets seldom opposed big battles, manpower losses fell largely on Libyans, Spaniards, Gauls and others. In general, the high quality of agriculture in Punic North Africa impressed the Romans.


1938 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. McDonald

The fortunes of Scipio Africanus after the Second Punic War raise a difficult problem for the student of Roman history. Through his political standing and his personal gifts Scipio's influence must be considered an essential element in the public life of Rome at the decisive period of her imperialistic development; yet the glimpses in recorded history, though significant, are so fleeting that it is almost impossible to gain a complete impression. We know, of course, his Carthaginian policy and his strategy against Antiochus; but in matters relating to Gaul, Liguria and Spain, and in the internal politics of Rome, there is scarcely any evidence of his hand. Most obscure of all is the Second Macedonian War; where the questions of policy were similar to those in the Syrian War, yet Scipio had no share in them that can be directly discerned. Did he withdraw after his victory over Carthage and only re-appear to meet Syria ? Then why should his defeat of Antiochus be followed by his own dishonour, in the face of the claims of gratitude ? His fall suggests a persistent and important political activity, which could only be countered by extreme measures of opposition.


Ramus ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Dietrich

In thePunica, Silius Italicus narrates the events of the Second Punic War from the rise of Hannibal and his siege at Saguntum to the rise of Scipio Africanus and his triumph over Carthage. The importance of Scipio in the final books of thePunicais foreshadowed by events earlier in the poem; these early appearances of Scipio emphasise not only his future heroism and divine favour, but also his youth and immaturity. Although a development of his character can be traced through thePunica, the figure of Scipio is complex and contradictory. There are two significant episodes that bring Scipio into the forefront of the epic action—hisnekyiain Book 13 and his choice at the crossroads between Virtus and Voluptas in Book 15. These events are critical in understanding Scipio's role in thePunicaand as such have already received considerable scholarly attention. My focus will be onPunica13 and Scipio's trip to the underworld, but rather than analyse this passage in terms of Scipio's development and heroism, I would like to make a number of connections betweenPunica13 and passages in the first half of the epic, and, in doing so, suggest a somewhat different reading of Silius' presentation of Scipio that looks back to the disasters leading up to Cannae, rather than ahead to Rome's triumph at the end of the epic. I will begin, therefore, with a discussion of what bearing the structure of thePunicahas on its meaning and suggest different uses of symbols and imagery between the two halves of the poem, before turning to Scipio in the second half of the epic.


1951 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. V. D. Balsdon

Livy wrote of the great Scipio at the conclusion of the second Punic war ‘primus certe hic imperator nomine victae ab se gentis est nobilitatus’. But already more than half a century earlier M'. Valerius Maximus, consul of 263 B.C., who captured Messana and was honoured with the cognomen ‘Messalla’, had received a title from a conquest in war. In the century and a half after Scipio became Africanus, many such honourable cognomina were acquired by others. In only six cases is there evidence of the cognomen descending within the family: Valerius Messalla, Scipio Africanus, Scipio Asiaticus, Metellus Creticus, Servilius Isauricus, and (with a slight difference) Pompeius Bithynicus.


PMLA ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1343-1343

The fifty-second meeting of the Modern Language Associationof America was held, on the invitation of the University of Cincinnati, at Cincinnati, Ohio, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, December 30 and 31, 1935, and January 1, 1936. The Association headquarters were in the Netherland Plaza Hotel, where all meetings were held except those of Tuesday morning and afternoon. These took place at the University of Cincinnati. Registration cards at headquarters were signed by about 900, though a considerably larger number of members were in attendance. The Local Committee estimated the attendance at not less than 1400. This Committee consisted of Professor Frank W. Chandler, Chairman; Professor Edwin H. Zeydel; Professor Phillip Ogden; Mr. John J. Rowe (for the Directors); and Mr. Joseph S. Graydon (for the Alumni).


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