Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

The Younger Scipio, they say, in the fifty-four years of his life bought nothing, sold nothing, built nothing, and left only thirty-three pounds of silver and two of gold in a great estate. So little he left, in spite of the fact that he was master of Carthage, and was the one among the generals who had made his soldiers richest. [*](Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9; Polybius, xviii. 35; Pliny, Natural History, xxxiii. 50 (141).)

He observed the precept of Polybius, and tried

While he was still a young man he had such repute for bravery and sagacity that when Cato the Elder was asked about the men in the army at Carthage, of whom Scipio was one, he said,

He, and he only, has wisdom; the rest are but fluttering shadows.

When he came to Rome from a campaign, the people called him to office, [*](The consulship in 147 B.C. Cf. Velleius Paterculus, i. 12. 3.) not by way of showing favour to him, but hoping through him to capture Carthage speedily and easily.

After he had passed the outer wall, the Carthaginians stoutly defended themselves in the citadel. He perceived that the sea lying between was not very deep, and Polybius advised him to scatter in it iron balls with projecting points, or else to throw into it planks full of spikes so that the enemy might not cross and attack the Roman ramparts. [*](Cf. Zonaras, ix. 29.) But Scipio said that it was ridiculous, after they were in possession of the walls and well within the city, to endeavour to avoid fighting the enemy. [*](An account of the capture of Carthage is given by Diodorus, xxxii. 23-25, and Appian, Roman History, the Punic Wars, xix. 127-132. Cf. also Valerius Maximus, iii. 7. 2.)

He found the city full of Greek statues and votive offerings, which had come from Sicily, and so

He would not allow either slave or freedman of his to take anything or even buy anything from the spoil, when everybody was engaged in looting and plundering. [*](Cf. Moralia, 97 C, and note e on p. 187.)

He was active in the support of Gaius Laelius, the dearest of his friends, when he was a candidate for the consulship, and he inquired of Pompey [*](Quintus Pompey, consul 141 B.C.) whether he also was a candidate. (It was reputed that Pompey was the son of a flute-player.) Pompey said that he was not a candidate, and offered to take Laelius about with him and help him in his canvass, and they, believing his words and waiting for his co-operation, were completely deceived. For it was reported that Pompey was himself going about and soliciting the citizens. The others were indignant, but Scipio laughed and said, It is because of our own stupidity; for, just as if we were intending to call not upon men but upon gods, we have been wasting any amount of time in waiting for a flute-player ! [*](Cf. Cicero, De amicitia, 21 (77).)

When Appius Claudius was his rival [*](In 142 B.C.) for the censorship, and asserted that he greeted all the Romans by name, while Scipio knew hardly one of them, Scipio said, You are quite right; for I have not taken such pains to know many as to be unknown to none. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Aemilius Paulus, chap. xxxviii. (275 C).)