Lucius Cornelius Scipio (consul 259 BC)

Last updated

Lucius Cornelius Scipio (born c. 300 BC), consul in 259 BC during the First Punic War, was a consul and censor of ancient Rome. He was the son of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, himself consul and censor, and brother to Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina, who was consul twice. Two of his sons (Publius Cornelius Scipio and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus) and three of his grandsons (Scipio Africanus, Scipio Asiaticus and Scipio Nasica) also became consuls and were all famous generals. Among these five men, the most famous was Scipio Africanus.

As consul in 259 BC, he led the Roman fleet in the capture of Aleria and then Corsica, but failed against Olbia in Sardinia. The Fasti Triumphales record that he was awarded a triumph, but two other inscriptions on his career do not mention it. The following year he was elected censor with Gaius Duilius. He was succeeded by Gaius Sulpicius Paterculus as second consul. [1]

He later dedicated a temple to the Tempestates, locating it near the Porta Capena.

Epitaph

Rubbing of the epitaph. Sepolcro scipioni, iscrizione B, lucio cornelio scipione console nel 259 ac.gif
Rubbing of the epitaph.

Fragments of his sarcophagus were discovered in the Tomb of the Scipios and are now in the Vatican Museums. They preserve his epitaph, written in Old Latin:

L·CORNELIO·L·F·SCIPIO
AIDILES·COSOL·CESOR
HONC OINO·PLOIRVME·COSENTIONT R
DVONORO·OPTVMO·FVISE·VIRO
LVCIOM·SCIPIONE·FILIOS·BARBATI
CONSOL·CENSOR·AIDILIS·HIC·FVET·A
НЕС·CE PIT·CORSICA·ALERIAQVE·VRBE
DEDET·TEMPESTATEBVS·AIDE·MERETO

which has been transcribed and restored in modern upper- and lower-case script as: [2]

Honc oino ploirume cosentiont Romai
duonoro optumo fuise viro
Luciom Scipione. Filios Barbati
consol censor aidilis hic fuet apud vos,
hec cepit Corsica Aleriaque urbe,
dedet Tempestatebus aide meretod votam.

and also transcribed in classical Latin as: [3]

Hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Romae
bonorum optimum fuisse virum
Lucium Scipionem. Filius Barbati,
Consul, Censor, Aedilis hic fuit apud vos.
Hic cepit Corsicam Aleriamque urbem
dedit tempestatibus aedem merito votam.

A translation is: [4]

Romans for the most part agree,
that this one man, Lucius Scipio, was the best of good men.
He was the son of Barbatus,
Consul, Censor, Aedile.
He took Corsica and the city of Aleria.
He dedicated a temple to the Storms as a just return.

This inscription is number two of the elogia Scipionum, the several epitaphs surviving from the tomb.

Related Research Articles

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus was a Roman general and statesman during the third century BC. He played a major part in the Second Punic War establishing Roman Rule in the east of the Iberian Peninsula and tying up several Carthaginian armies keeping them from reinforcing Hannibal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus</span> Roman general and statesman (d. after 183 BCE)

Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic. He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio and the younger brother of Scipio Africanus. He was elected consul in 190 BC, and later that year led the Roman forces to victory at the Battle of Magnesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus</span> Roman general and statesman (c. 229 – 160 BC)

Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus was a two-time consul of the Roman Republic and general, who conquered Macedon in the Third Macedonian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturnian (poetry)</span>

Saturnian meter or verse is an old Latin and Italic poetic form, of which the principles of versification have become obscure. Only 132 complete uncontroversial verses survive. 95 literary verses and partial fragments have been preserved as quotations in later grammatical writings, as well as 37 verses in funerary or dedicatory inscriptions. The majority of literary Saturnians come from the Odysseia, a translation/paraphrase of Homer's Odyssey by Livius Andronicus, and the Bellum Poenicum, an epic on the First Punic War by Gnaeus Naevius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus</span> Roman general and statesman

Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus was one of the two elected Roman consuls in 298 BC. He led the Roman army to victory against the Etruscans near Volterra. A member of the noble Roman family of Scipiones, he was the father of Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina and great-grandfather of Scipio Africanus.

Lucius Cornelius Scipio may refer to:

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina was a Roman general and statesman who fought in the First Punic War.

Lucius Cornelius Lentulus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 199 BC with Publius Villius Tappulus as his colleague.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Cornelia was one of the greatest patrician houses at ancient Rome. For more than seven hundred years, from the early decades of the Republic to the third century AD, the Cornelii produced more eminent statesmen and generals than any other gens. At least seventy-five consuls under the Republic were members of this family, beginning with Servius Cornelius Maluginensis in 485 BC. Together with the Aemilii, Claudii, Fabii, Manlii, and Valerii, the Cornelii were almost certainly numbered among the gentes maiores, the most important and powerful families of Rome, who for centuries dominated the Republican magistracies. All of the major branches of the Cornelian gens were patrician, but there were also plebeian Cornelii, at least some of whom were descended from freedmen.

Publius Aelius Paetus was a Roman consul of the late 3rd century BC. He was a prominent supporter of Scipio Africanus, and was elected censor with Africanus in 199.

Lucius Cornelius Scipio was a statesman of the Roman Republic. He was the second son of Scipio Africanus, but despite this illustrious background, his career was cut short by his demotion from the senate by the censors in 174 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus</span> Monument in the Vatican Museum, Rome

The sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, consul in 298 B.C., is a solid tuff burial coffin, once located in the Tomb of the Scipios. It is now found in the Vestibolo Quadrato of the Pio-Clementine Museum in the Vatican Museum complex.

Gaius Laelius Sapiens, was a Roman statesman, best known for his friendship with the Roman general and statesman Scipio Aemilianus. He was consul of 140 BC, elected with the help of his friend, by then censor, after failing to be elected in 141 BC. Gaius Laelius Sapiens was the son and heir of the Punic War general Gaius Laelius, himself consul in 190 BC. This Laelius had been former second-in-command and long-time friend, since childhood, of the Roman general and statesman Scipio Africanus. The younger Laelius was apparently born around 188 BC, after his father had become consul but had failed to win command of the campaign against Antiochus III the Great of Syria, which would have made him a rich man. His mother's name is unknown.

Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius was a consul of the Roman Republic in 113 BC with Gnaeus Papirius Carbo. He served under Scipio Aemilianus in Numantia around 133 BC. He was praetor in 117 BC. His proconsulship in Thrace in 112–111 BC earned him a triumph. He was censor in 102 BC with his cousin, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomb of the Scipios</span> Common tomb of the Scipio family during the Roman Republic

The Tomb of the Scipios, also called the hypogaeum Scipionum, was the common tomb of the patrician Scipio family during the Roman Republic for interments between the early 3rd century BC and the early 1st century AD. Then it was abandoned and within a few hundred years its location was lost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scipio Africanus</span> Roman general and politician (236/235–183 BC)

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders and strategists of all time, his greatest military achievement was the defeat of Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. This victory in Africa earned him the honorific epithet Africanus, literally meaning "the African," but meant to be understood as a conqueror of Africa.

An elogium was an inscription in honour of a deceased person, which was placed on tombs, ancestral images and statues during the Roman age. The elogia are sometimes synonyms with the tituli, the identifying inscriptions on wax images of deceased ancestors that were displayed in the atrium of the domus of noble families, but they are shorter than the laudatio funebris, the funeral oration. Originally, the text was usually written in saturnians, but later it could be in hexameters, iambic hexameters, distichs or in prose. Characteristic of the elogium is the nominative case used for the name of the deceased and not, as it was the case later in the funerary literature, the dative.

References

  1. Steinby, Christa (2014). Rome Versus Carthage: The War at Sea. South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword. p. 73. ISBN   9781844159192.
  2. Wordsworth, John (1874). Fragments and specimens of early Latin. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.  160.
  3. Legaré, Hugh Swinton (1845). Mary Swinton Legaré Bullen (ed.). Writings of Hugh Swinton Legaré: Consisting of a Diary of Brussels, and Journal of the Rhine; Extracts from His Private and Diplomatic Correspondence; Orations and Speeches; and Contributions to the New-York and Southern Reviews. Prefaced by a Memoir of His Life. Vol. 2. Burges & James. p. 68.
  4. Browne, Robert William (1857). A History of Greek Classical Literature (2 ed.). Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea. pp.  52–53.
Political offices
Preceded by Consul of the Roman Republic
259 BC
With: Gaius Aquillius Florus
Succeeded by
Preceded by Roman censor
258–257 BC
With: Gaius Duilius
Succeeded by