Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major (236-184 BC) was a Roman official during the Second Punic War. He defeated Hannibal in the Battle of Zama and was a champion of both Roman imperialism and the enlightened pro-Hellenic spirit of a new age.

Scipio was married to Aemilia, sister of Lucius Aemilius Paullus (victor of Pydna in 168 B.C.), and became the father of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchus brothers.

As a youth of about 18, Scipio was credited with having saved his father's life at the Battle of the Ticinus (Ticino) in 218, and as military tribune in 216, he rallied the survivors after the disastrous defeat of Cannae. The young Scipio held the office of curule aedile in 213. When, in 211, Lucius and Gnaeus Scipio, his father and uncle, fell in Spain, he was appointed by vote of the Roman people to their proconsular command, the first privatus (private citizen) in Roman...