Scipio Africanus or Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major won the Hannibalic War or Second Punic War for Rome by defeating Hannibal at Zama in 202 BCE. Scipio, who came from an ancient Roman patrician family, the Cornelii, was the father of Cornelia, the famous mother of the social reforming Gracchi. He came into conflict with Cato the Elder and was accused of corruption. Later, Scipio Africanus became a figure in the fictional "Dream of Scipio". In this surviving section of De re publica, by Cicero, the dead Punic War general tells his adoptive grandson, Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (185–129 BCE), about the future of Rome and the constellations. Scipio Africanus' explanation worked its way into medieval cosmology.
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