Sci'pio

5. L.CorneliusScipioBarbatus, the son of Cnaeus, as we learn from his epitaph. He was consul B. C. 298, with Cn. Fulvius Maximus Centumalus, carried on war against the Etruscans, and defeated them near Volaterrae. In the following year, B. C. 297, he served as legate under the consul Q. Fabius Maximus, against the Samnites (comp. Frontin. 2.4.2). In B. C. 295 he again served under the consuls Fabius Maximus and Decius Mus, with the title of propraetor, in the great campaign of that year against the Gauls, Etruscans, and Samnites. In B. C. 293 he again fought, under L. Papirius Cursor, in the campaign which brought the Samnite war to a close (Liv. 10.11, 12,14, 25, 26, 40, 41). This is the narrative of Livy, but we have a very different account of his exploits in the epitaph on his tomb, which says nothing of his victory in Etruria, but speaks of his conquests in Samnium and Apulia. * The epitaph on the tomb of this Scipio is the first contemporary record of a Roman which has reached our times. We subjoin a copy of it taken from Orelli (Inscr. No. 550):

CORNELIVS LVCIVS SCIPIO BARBATVS GNAIVOD PATRE || PROGNATVS FORTIS VIR SAPIENSQVE QVOIVS FORMA VIRTVTEI PARISVMA || FVIT CONSOL CENSOR AIDILIS QVEI FVIT APVD VOS TAVRASIA CISAVNA || SAMNIO CEPIT SVBIGIT OMNE LOVCANA OPSIDESQVE ABDOVCIT.

In more modern Latin this inscription might thus be written : -- " Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus, Cnaeo patre prognatus, fortis vir sapiensque, cujus forma virtuti parissuma fuit, Consul, Censor, Aedilis, qui flit apud vos, Taurasiam, Cisaunam (in) Samnio cepit, subigit omnem Lucaniam, obsidesque abducit."

Niebuhr supposes that his conquests in Samnium and Apulia were made in B. C. 297, when he was the legate of Fabius Maximus (Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. pp. 363-366, 378). This Scipio was the great-grand-father of the conqueror of Hannibal. The genealogy of the family can be traced with more certainty from this time.