| An examination of the image of Scipio (235--201 BC) sheds light upon contemporary trends in Roman society. Scipio responded from an early age to Hellenistic conceptions of the gods and sought a more personal relationship. This benefited him politically in the anxious atmosphere of the Hannibalic War. At the Ticinus River (218) and at Canusium (216), Scipio established his reputation for pietas, while the subsequent deaths of his father and uncle in Spain provided Scipio the role of ultor and a career-making command. Thus from his youth Scipio balanced the attractive new with the comfortable old; for all his belief in his individual, divinely appointed destiny, he remained rooted in the mos maiorum .; In Spain Scipio fostered atypically personal relationships with allies, enemies, his legions and the gods. He behaved somewhat like an ideal Hellenistic monarch, though as a Roman he refused to be a king. Scipio attributed his victory at New Carthage (209) to the personal assistance of Neptune. His novel training regimen and tactics brought more victories at Baecula (208) and Ilipa (206), and along with their long foreign service engendered in the legions a new professionalism. Scipio returned from Spain an acknowledged expert, while Rome's military had always been amateur.; Scipio's image of piety, and more importantly his military expertise, won him the African command, despite his indelicacy in the senate. His respect for Greek culture, and particularly for Dionysius I and Agathocles of Syracuse, proved effective in Sicily, though it provided a point of attack for conservative rivals. Scipio again created an expert invasion force for Africa, and continued in his personal diplomacy to the point of crowning his friend Masinissa. Scipio's victory over Hannibal at Naraggara (202) demonstrated again that he had brought the legions up to the level of Hellenistic armies in tactical abilities. Scipio was compared to Alexander and perhaps to Hercules.; Scipio returned to a triumph, a new name, a monument, the censorship and the rank of princeps senatus, all honors consistent with republican practice. But he had shown the way to power that later, less scrupulous commanders would follow. |
