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Show K HEROES OF HISTORY fl - Interesting Reading For fl Young People . K K Serial No. 6. flfltj- , Hy At.tlKIlT I',AY80N TKRIIUNK. Kf, A Roman general had fallen, sorely Ki . . wounded. Above him, sword In hand, BK stood his seventeen-year-old son, tight- Ba :' log back the enemy who pressed In to BCT ' slay or capture their wounded foe. BS And so heroically did the boy defend BY his fallen father that the assailant BK gave back and the general's life was BK, t savea. The Roman who was thus res- ssbT& BAT , cued by a half-zrown lad's powers was Bj ' Fublius Cornelius SclpiOf destined to BJp t become known as Sclplo Afrlcanus. Bl The time was 217 B. G. BJ:' Carthage, burning to avenge her BJ'1 , earlier defeats by Rome, had sent a WM' ' mighty army under her greatest gencr- IB il, Hanlbal, to Invade Europe. Han- BS ibal speedily made hlns'f master of Bfl BSSBS - Spain, then marched across Gaul (France) Into Italy. The elder Sclplo was sent to head him off, but was unsuccessful. un-successful. The" armies met several times, notably on the Trebla (where Sclplo's life Was saved by his son), and each time the Romans were beaten. Sclplo was then sent Into Spain to checlc Carthage's growing power there-Ho there-Ho was defeated and killed. Yet his death was a greater blow to Carthago than to Rome. For his son, the future "Afrlcanus,)1 vowed to avenge him. In the keeping of this vow he made his name Immortal andsaved his country count-ry from ruin. When he was only twenty-two young Sclplo was made high magistrate (aedlle)of Rome.. At twenty-four I e volunteered to lead an army Into Spain to complete the work there In which his father had failed add died. lie received thootllceof Proconsul and at the head of a' small army began his life-task of vengeance. In a whirlwind whirl-wind campaign he attacked the Car thaglnlans, defeating them again and again, and at tail capturing New Carthage, Car-thage, their Spinlth headquarters. By his mercy toward the conquered he won the allegiance of the half-wild Spanish tribes who had allied themselves them-selves with Carthage. Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal, occupied what was believed to- be an Impregnable position. Sclplo drove him from It, beating him In adeclslve battle. Carthage Car-thage raised a new and Spanish army. In 207 B. C. Sclplo crushed that, loo. He had thus swept Carthage's power out of Spain and made nearly all tl e latter'country a Roman dependency He returned to Rome In triumph and was elected Consul. Hut he was by no means satisfied. He had carried out to a victorious conclusion his father's fath-er's uncompleted, work, but U: did not yet consider the elder Sclplo sufflclent-ly sufflclent-ly avenged. He asked the Senate's permission to Invade Africa, carrying the war Into the enemies own home territory, and to capturo Carthage It self, This plan at tlrst seemed rash, and the Senate hesitated. For nan-n nan-n Ibal was still In Italy. For years he had ravaged the country and had once oven marched to the very gates of Ttome. No one had ever been able to beat him In battle, and his name was a terror to every Roman. Hut Sclplo pointed out that by carrying the war Into Africa and menacing Carthage he might frighten the Carthaginians Into calling Hannibal home to defend the capital, and thus rid Italy of his presence. The Senate finally consented. consent-ed. So, In 204 B. C. when barely thirty years old, Sclplo landed an army on the coast of Africa, The alarmed Carthaginians Car-thaginians rushed to repel blm. But he repeatedly beat them, until, aa he had foreseen, they recalled Hannibal from Italy to repel the Invaders. Back came Hannibal, bringing with him veterans of the Italian wars and raising rais-ing a huge levy of raw recruits. The armies of Rome and Carthage met at Zama, October 10, 202 B. C. Sclplo won an overwhelming victory. Hannibal for the tlrst time In his llfu was defeated. defeat-ed. The defeat placed Carthage at Rome's mercy. The A f rlcans sued for peace, and Sclplo forced on them terms so humiliating that he felt his father was at last avenged. On his return to Rome Sclplo was acclaimed as a hero and the preserver of his count'ry. The Senate conferred on him the surname of Afrlcanus (the African), In honor of Ids Carthage campaign, and loaded him with honors. hon-ors. Yet he was to taste the Ingratitude Ingrati-tude of republics. He and his brother Lucius were sent to conquer Antloch-us, Antloch-us, King of Syria. They did so, but tn their absence Sclplo's enemies had been busy. They dared not openly attack such a popular man as Sclplo himself, so. they accused Lucius of misappropriating publlcmoneys. Lucius Lu-cius came to trial, carrying with him his account books, whereby he could prove his Innocence. But Sclplo snatched these books from his hand?, tore them across and hurled them on the floor of the Senate. His enemies, growing bolder, accused ac-cused Sclplo of accepting bribes from Antloch'us. The case came up. for trll In the Forum. Sclplo scorned to defend de-fend himself. When he was called upon up-on to answer the charges he arose and, addressing the thronged assembly, made a speech, -which, In the light of piesent notions, was a monument of o ncelt. But It must be rememberi d that modesty, real or assumed, Is a modern virtue and was unknown In ancient Rome. Sclplo began by telling tell-ing over the great deeds he had done for his country and the debt the.father-land the.father-land owed hr. He said, with truth, that I e had raised Rome from a harassed har-assed and merely local power to the practical mastery of the world. He went en to remind his hearers that the date of the trial (October 19, 189 B C) was the anniversary of the battle of Zama, and ended by asking the citizens citi-zens of Rome to drop all other buslnea and follow him to the temple, there to pray, that the gods might grant them children as good and as gre-at as he. At the conclusion of this remarkable remark-able harangue Sclplo walked, unmolested, unmo-lested, out of the place, followed by the entire enthusiastic audience leaving leav-ing no one In the Forum except his battled accusers. Tho case wasat once dropped. But Sclplo never forgave his ungrateful fellow citizens. He retlrel to his country seat and there remained In voluntary exile untlthls death, In 183 B. 0. He died in the samo year as his great foe. Hannibal, leaving a name second to none, except Caesar's, in all Roman history |