The meaning of life

Reading the newspaper on Saturday I came across an article about the Japanese imperial family. This family is on the throne for a 125 generations, but now, for the first time in history, the family is about to die out. There are only seven males left, of which only one is younger than 45. If Prince Hisahito (now 5) doesn’t have any sons, he would be the last one on the throne. This due to a law which only allows male to sit on the Chrysanthemum Throne and excludes females after marriage. This narrows the line of succession to a minimum.

A Roman family; a relief from the Ara Pacis (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) 

A similar feature happened in ancient Rome. Not all circumstances were the same, but in the end the outcome was similar. Families died out (legally) due to the lack of a male heir. Above all was Roman life dominated by a high mortality and a high fertility figure. The high mortality figure is caused by diseases, bad hygiene and ineffective medical care. Next to these causes the mortality figure is heightened through battle, proscription (legal murder) and civil war. With an expected life expectancy at birth of 25, appr. one third of the infants die before their first birthday. This high mortality had its impact on family life. Due to the high mortality and the wish for the continuation of the family line, many children could be necessary. But due to the Roman inheritance rules too many children were a disadvantage for the family fortune.

And there were 25...

Before I begin with the background and history of the Scipiones, I thought it would be a good idea to start with who they are and very shortly what they have done. So this will be a boring summary of all the 25 Scipiones (males only!) we know of in the period 298-50 BC. I will start with the oldest Scipio and go upwards through history and end with the latest one around 50BC. As always, I will skip the name Cornelius (as all Scipiones used this name). The underlined names are the ones I will use in this blog. The summary below will be short.

At the start there was a Scipio..

The funny thing is that most people do remember Hannibal, the guy with the elephants and the crossing of the Alps. Most people don't remember one of his most important Roman counterparts, (general) Scipio Africanus - or by his full name: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major - or even which war Hannibal and Scipio Africanus were fighting in - which by the way was the Second Punic War.


Scipio Africanus belonged to a Roman aristocratic family which delivered a long line of Roman consuls. My idea is to use this blog to expand the knowledge around this family and their contribution to the Roman Republic. Were they average or more special? Was Scipio Africanus a one day fly or was his exceptional (military) success more common?
These are some of the questions I would like to answer.


I do restrict myself period wise. The first Scipio we know of was consul in 298 BC. So, I start in 298 BC all way down (or up depending which way you look at it) Roman history till the beginning of the Roman empire and the disappearance of the Scipiones from the sources around 50 BC. Fortunately, we have 7 generations of Scipiones to follow.