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Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus (d. 211 BC), Roman consul in 222 BC, was a Roman general and statesman, and a member of an illustrious Roman patrician family known for producing consuls and censors. He was also the paternal uncle of the most famous member of that family - Scipio Africanus.

Background and Ancestry

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio's father was Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Lucius Cornelius L.f. Scipio), the patrician consul of 259 BC. The father was the younger son of the similarly named patrician censor of 280 (consul in 296), and the younger brother of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio nicknamed Asina (or donkey), who had been twice consul (260 and 254 BC) during the First Punic War. Thus, the father, the paternal uncle, and the paternal grandfather were all consuls.

Gnaeus's younger brother Publius Cornelius Scipio, father of the most famous Scipio - Scipio Africanus. The brother became consul in 218 BC, and is notable for having failed to intercept Hannibal in Gaul and losing most of his accompanying troops (along with receiving a severe injury) in an ambush at Ticinus. Both Publius Cornelius Scipio and his son (allegedly responsible for saving his father's life) survived the skirmish.

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio was nicknamed Calvus to distinguish him from his uncle, another Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio. The word "Calvus" supposedly means "bald" in Latin, but it also probably means "the Younger".

Scipio's mother and maternal family are unknown. He is known to be a widower, with two sons and two married daughters, by the time he and his brother were sent to Spain in 217. He may have been related to Gnaeus Servilius P.f. Geminus, the consul of 217, who was killed at Cannae and who was said to be allied politically and by marriage to the Scipios.

Career

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvius served as consul in 222 BC, his co-consul being Marcus Claudius Marcellus, in the first of his five consulships. He was succeeded as patrician consul by his first cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Asina as consul in 221 BC, and eventually his younger brother [[Publius Cornelius Scipio|Publius Cornelius L.f. Scipio as patrician consul in 218, the year that Hannibal invaded Italy.

In 218, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus was sent as proconsul<http://www.livius.org/pp-pr/promagistracies/proconsul.html> to Iberian peninsula (modern Spain) to retake Sagentum, the Roman ally that was stormed by Hannibal, precipitating the Second Punic War. When his brother Publius failed to intercept Hannibal (before the Carthaginian general crossed the Alps into Italy), he sent on most of his troops to Iberia to help his brother harass Hannibal's supply lines and thus help check Hannibal's advance into Italy. The Carthaginian forces in Hispania were commanded by Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal. After Publius Scipio was defeated and badly wounded at a skirmish at the Ticino Ticinus River, upon recovery, he was sent as proconsul in 217 to join his brother in Iberia. The Brothers Scipio remained there from about 217 to their deaths in 211.

In the first year of the war, the Brothers Scipio occupied Massilia (modern Marseilles) and then Tarraco (modern Tarragona) near the mouth of the Ebro. The brothers met with initial success, partly because of Carthaginian harshness towards the native population (notably their refusal to free noble hostages from the Celtiberian and Spanish tribes), partly because of their own diplomatic skills in winning local Iberian chiefs to their side. They defeated Hasdrubal and Hanno in 215 at Ibera (location unknown)<http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_pennellhistoryofrome15.htm> and captured Saguntum (the city captured and sacked by Hannibal, starting off the Second Punic War or Hannibal's War) in 212. In one battle, the severely wounded Scipio Calvus was carried on the battlefield in a litter to direct his forces.

The Brothers Scipio met with remarkable success between 217 and 215 (when they blocked Hasdrubal from joining his more famous brother in Italy with reinformcements), and again between 215 and 213 BC. Carthage sent reinforcements under Hannibal's other brother Mago Barca to stop the Scipios; these reinforcements had been intended originally to help Hannibal storm the walls of Rome after the Battle of Cannae. These troops were however needed to combat unrest elsewhere in the Carthaginian empire, and thus the Brothers Scipio continued virtually unchecked in Iberia. They were able to capture Saguntum in 212. However, by this time, the Iberian chiefs had grown to resent Roman occupation, and thought that they had merely exchanged masters with no rewards. Their disaffection would prove fatal for the brothers.

Carthage responded to reverses in Iberia by sending large reinforcements to terminate the war once and for all. Three commanders - Hasdrubal, his brother Mago, and Hasdrubal Gisco - were sent back to Iberia with fresh armies. The Brothers Scipio did not know the size of the armies sent to oppose them, and when they divided their forces, they became vulnerable. The Roman forces were surprised and overwhelmed. The younger brother Publius (father of Scipio Africanus) was killed first in the Battle of the Upper Baetis in 211 BC. Gnaeus was killed some weeks later in the Battle of Ilorci near Carthago Nova. Both Scipios were reportedly capable commanders, but were finally outnumbered and outclassed. Despite their deaths, some of the Roman forces escaped.

Aftermath

The three Carthaginian commanders fell out, with Gisco seeking to win glory for himself. While they quarrelled, in Italy, the Romans recaptured Capua and Sicily, thus allowing them to contain Hannibal and to turn their attention back to Iberia.

Scipio Africanus, the nephew and son of these two Roman generals, would avenge their deaths by invading Iberia in 210 and finally driving out the remnants of the Carthaginian forces in 206 BC after the Battle of Ilipa near Sevilla. Iberia was renamed Hispania around 200 BC, and remained (often uneasily) under Roman occupation for several centuries.

Descendants

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus had two sons and two married daughters around 217.

His elder son was Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica (fl. 170 BC), consul in 191 BC, the first Scipio Nasica (nicknamed Nasica for his pointed nose), who founded the Nasica branch of the Scipiades. Scipio Nasica's son, another Scipio Nasica (nicknamed Corculum, with his full name being Publius Cornelius P.f. G.n. Scipio Nasica Corculum), married his second cousin Cornelia Africana Major, the eldest daughter of Scipio Africanus and thus united the two lines. Their descendants in the male line continued until at least 46 BC, in the person of Metellus Scipio (adopted into the Caecilii Metelli family). The first Scipio Nasica reportedly married a Caecilia Metella, possibly the daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul of 206 BC, and his great-grandson the fourth Scipio Nasica (consul in 112 BC) married Caecilia Metella Macedonica Minor, the younger surviving daughter of the consul of 206's elder surviving son Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus.

The younger son Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispallus (b. ca 220 BC; d 176 BC) became consul in 176 BC. Little is known of him or his career, other that he was elected a priest at a young age, presumably with the help of his elder cousin Scipio Africanus. He died in office, after falling from his horse. en route to take the aquae Cumanae for an illness (Livy 41.16.3–4).<journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=438209> and <http://www.roman-empire.net/articles/article-024.html>. Scipio Hispallus had a son.

Nothing is known of the two daughters, other than the fact they married before 218 BC. It is assumed that they were his two older surviving children, followed by his elder surviving son Scipio Nasica and by his younger surviving son Scipio Hispallus.

Sources

Roman consuls from 264 to 134 BC <http://www.vroma.org/~jruebel/timeline/consuls264-134.html> and <http://www.roman-empire.net/articles/article-024.html> includes several members of the Scipio branch (or stirps) of the Cornelian family/ clan (or gens).

War in Iberia 218-206 <http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hasdrubal/hasdrubal3.html>

Livy's History of Rome

Information about the Cornelii

Anecdotes about early Scipios <http://www.redflame93.com/Cornelius.html>

More about the Cornelii <http://www.redflame93.com/Cornelii.html> and <http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=SCIPIO>

See also: Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family tree

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