House of Scipii

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

House of Scipii is the third Roman faction in Rome: Total War.

The Scipii start out with Campania, in central Italy, and Sicilia Romanus (Roman Sicily) — note that in real history the Scipii did not actually own this territory. They tend to focus their efforts on the conquest of Carthage, just like their namesakes, the Cornelii Scipiones. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus's father Publius Cornelius Scipio was a consul during the Second Punic War. He led an army into Gallia Narbonensis (southeast France) to stop the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca and his Celtic Gaulish mercenaries from invading. He ordered his elder brother Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who had been consul 4 years previously, to land with an army in Hispania (he did so). P. Cornelius Scipio arrived in Gaul to find that Hannibal had crossed the Rhodanus Flumen (Rhone River) and was pressing through the Alps. Scipio took his force back by ship to Italia. He met Hannibal in battle in Gallia Cisalpina, "Gaul on the near side of the Alps" (northern Italy [Lombardia]). Hannibal defeated Scipio and routed his army at the battle of the Trebia Flumen (River Trebia). Scipio was wounded on the battlefield, but was saved from capture, death, or desecration by his son, Publius the Younger, who led the retreat south. The elder P. Cornelius Scipio recovered and led an army to Hispania to join his elder brother Gnaeus whom he had dispatched there earlier. After several Scipiones victories, both brothers were defeated and slain in battle in Spain with the Carthaginians. The younger P. Cornelius Scipio thus developed a powerful loathing for all Carthaginians, Hannibal in particular. The fact that both Hannibal and the Younger Scipio both made oaths to their fathers to never rest until each had conquered the enemy (Rome and Carthage, respectively) is one of the funny quirks of history. Hannibal marched into southern Italy, and defeated the Romans at Cannae but didn't capitalize on his victory. Fourteen years later, it was Hannibal who was on the defensive at Zama in North Africa, and the opposing general was Publius Cornelius Scipio. Scipio defeated Hannibal, thus avenging his father. He had the agnomen "Africanus" — defeater of the Africans — to the end of his name.

In the game, the Scipii are very religious. They tend to think of everything in terms being divine right and manifest destiny, unlike the other two factions (the Julii and Brutii), who look at politics from social points of view. They believe that they alone are worthy of the gods' love, and that Rome is for the purpose of serving them as they serve it by turn, unlike the Julii who talk of the importance of the people of Rome, and the Brutii, who talk of the importance of tradition and prestige, the Scipii talk about their own theocratic right to exercise authority over all others. They start by taking Syracuse and Sicilia Graecus from the Greeks, and Lilybaeum and Sicilia Poeni (Phoenician or Punic Sicily) from the Carthaginians. They focus on defeating Carthage, but after this, they are free to crush Numidia (not a very hard task), and then turn either west or east depending on personal preference. By the time they are large enough to expand the forces into Aegyptus (Egypt) they may have to compete with the Brutii family, who aim their imperialistic goals towards the east.