THE GREATEST ROMAN GENERAL

Recently I started a debate over who was the best Roman general.  I proposed Scipio Africanus as the best and many proposed others, particularly Julius Caesar.  I think that those who support Caesar certainly have plenty of evidence to back up their choice.  I will readily concede that he is the second-best Roman general.  I feel these two generals are clearly the top two.  Rome had other great generals, but none can equal Scipio and Caesar.  Here is a list of facts supporting my belief that Scipio is #1.

1. Scipio early on proved his bravery, so his armies in the future knew they were being led by a brave man. At age 17, at the Battle of Ticinus (the first of Hannibal’s battles in Italy), he defied his father’s orders to stay out of danger.  When his father, who was the Roman general, was unhorsed, wounded, and surrounded by Numidian cavalry, Scipio left his bodyguard to ride to the rescue.  The body guard quickly joined him and they cut a path for the elder Scipio to escape.
2. Scipio probably fought at Trebia and Lake Trasimene. By the Battle of Cannae, he would have been a seasoned soldier.  In that disastrous battle, he was part of the minority who cut their way to refuge.  Scipio was one of the senior officers among the 10,000 or so survivors.  When he heard that some of the upper-class officers were talking about escaping from Italy, he showed up at their tent carrying a sword and threatened death to anyone who abandoned Rome.  He had started his career as a leader.
3. After his father and uncle were killed in battles in Spain, the 24-year-old Scipio stepped forward when no Roman would take the job of restoring Rome’s position in Spain. Although under the official minimum age, Scipio’s volunteering roused the crowd and he was elected proconsul unanimously. 
4. Scipio found a small Roman army in Spain that was licking its wounds from the recent setbacks. He quickly restored morale and trained the men.  He armed them with what would become the iconic Roman weapon – the gladius.
5. Scipio was a grand strategist. He knew that victory in Spain would impact the war in Italy.  Hannibal would be deprived of recruits, reinforcements, and supplies.  Spain was an incredibly wealthy part of the Carthaginian empire.  Scipio would shift that wealth to Rome.  His first move was to capture the most important Carthaginian city – New Carthage.  He faced three Carthaginian armies, each strong enough to face him.  It would be disastrous if they combined to relieve New Carthage, but Scipio felt he could take it quicky.  His march to the city was unprecedently fast.  When he arrived, he defeated a sortie by citizens from the city.  He then laid the siege of what appeared an impregnable city that was fortified with a high wall and surrounded by water on most sides.  This included a lagoon to the north.  Scipio learned from locals that the lagoon became shallower as the tide ebbed in the late afternoon.  He proclaimed to his soldiers that Neptune had told him he would help him.  Scipio (who was probably skeptical about the gods) wisely reminded his men that he was a favorite of the gods throughout his career.  A 500 man unit waded across the lagoon and mounted the unguarded walls, opened the gates, and the city was sacked.
6. Scipio was noted for his humanity in his treating of prisoners and hostage. However, he did purposely allow his men to slaughter the inhabitants of New Carthage as an example for others.  (I won’t justify this, but I will point out it was a commonly understood fate for cities that fell after a siege.)  However, when Scipio snapped his fingers, the legionaries stopped the killing.  (Ask Wellington how easy it is to do this.)  He then released many hostages that had been held by the Carthaginians to keep their Spanish allies in check.  His treatment of the Spanish caused many to shift allegiance to him.  It quickly became apparent that Roman rule would be better than Carthaginian.  He famously turned down a beautiful hostage and then restored her to fiancé.  That tribe was now loyal to Rome.
7. There were still those three armies out there. Scipio could not risk facing all three united.  He took the offensive rather than wait for them to unite and come to him.  In the Battle of Baecula, he pulled off a complex double flanking attack to defeat Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal.  He was criticized for allowing Hasdrubal’s broken army to flee to try to join Hannibal in Italy.  However, it could be argued Scipio was smart not to pursue a more mobile army through dangerous terrain when he still had a job to do in Italy.
8. In 206 B.C., at the Battle of Ilipa, he faced the other two armies. Each day he marched out of camp and assumed the standard Roman formation with the legionary units in the center and the unreliable Spanish allies on the wings.  The Carthaginians would come out in a similar formation with their best soldiers in the center.  After several days of no action, Scipio prepared his men for battle and came out early to threaten the Carthaginian camp.  When their general noticed that the Romans now had the Spanish in the middle and the legionaries on the flanks, it was too late to alter his own formation.  Scipio had his Spanish center advance slowly to keep the enemy center in place and proceeded to carve up the Carthaginian wings with his legionaries.  Rome now owned Spain.
9. With Spain finished, Scipio now turned to his indirect target, Hannibal. His strategy  was to force him to leave Italy.  Scipio proposed leading an invasion of North Africa to threaten Carthage.  The government was skeptical and he had powerful opponents envious of his success.  Fabius the Delayer was one of them.  Scipio was given the green light, but not the resources.  He would have to make due with an army he could raise on Sicily.  This included the exiled survivors of Cannae.  He rehabilitated those men and gave them a chance at redemption.  They gratefully took it.  In 204, he invaded with a small army.
10. Before the Carthaginians would recall Hannibal, they had to be made to howl. Scipio went scorched earth on them.  They responded with a Carthaginian/Numidian army.  The two armies encamped near Scipio’s.  In the ensuing negotiating, Scipio boldly allowed the enemy envoys to tour his camp and he sent officers disguised as slaves to accompany his envoys to the enemy camps to scope them out.  One night he had his men sneak out of camp and set fire to the sleeping Numidian camp.  The Carthaginians, thinking the fire was an accident, rushed to the aid of their allies and were ambushed by waiting Romans.  The resulting slaughter was incredible.  Unethical?  Maybe.  Effective?  Yes.
11. Another defeat had the Carthaginian government begging Hannibal to return. He reluctantly did, bitter over the lack of support from that same government over the years.  He created an army that was bigger than Scipio’s.  But although built around the best soldiers in the world, his veterans from Italy, the army was cobbled together.  He planned to rely on his 80 elephants to break up the Roman formation and he had his crack Numidian cavalry that had been decisive in several of his victories.  But Scipio was aware of that advantage so he had his own Numidians this time.  He had lured the great cavalryman Masinissa, who had faced him in Spain, to join his army with his men.
12. The Battle of Zama was a face-off between two of the Great Captains. Scipio dealt with the elephant attack by having his maniples stacked to provide lanes for them to run through.  Roman trumpeters caused some of the elephants to panic.  Some turned and crashed into Hannibal’s cavalry.  The Roman saw the opportunity to attack and drove both wings of cavalry off the battlefield.  In the ensuing battle of the infantry, Scipio’s well-trained and hardened legionaries broke Hannibal’s first two lines.  They were going toe-to-toe with Hannibal’s veterans when Scipio’s cavalry returned to hit Hannibal from behind.  This finished the battle and ended the Second Punic War.
13. Scipio ended the war undefeated. He had defeated one of the greatest (I would argue the greatest) generals in history. He improved the Roman army so it was ready to conquer an empire.  He got this started with his conquest of Spain.  He was strong both tactically and strategically.  He was a master in learning from his opponents and adopting their tactics.   

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Scipio-Africanus/The-legend-of-Scipio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Africanus

https://www.historynet.com/romes-craftiest-general-scipio-africanus/