- Scipio Africanus the Younger - Military and political achievements
- Scipio Africanus - Late years
- Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus
- Scipio Africanus the Younger - Destruction of Carthage
- Punic Wars - Campaigns in Sicily and Spain
- Scipio Africanus - Military career
- North Africa - Carthage and Rome
- ancient Rome - Roman expansion in the western Mediterranean
Why did some Roman senators oppose Scipio Africanus’s plan to invade North Africa?
Some Roman senators, most notably Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, opposed Scipio Africanus’s plan to invade North Africa in 205 BCE because they favored a more cautious military strategy.
Fabius Maximus, known as "Cunctator" (the delayer), was a proponent of a strategy of attrition. Having previously led Rome through the Second Punic War by avoiding direct, high-risk engagements with Hannibal in Italy, he remained committed to this conservative approach. He viewed Scipio’s bold proposal to take the war directly to the enemy's home territory in Africa as a departure from the established, safer policy of exhausting the invader within Italy. Despite his strenuous opposition, Scipio ultimately succeeded in gaining the necessary support to proceed with his invasion, which eventually led to the decisive Battle of Zama.12