page_title: Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum
section_title: Family background
hierarchical_section_title: Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum / Family background
caption_attribution_description: Português: Glyptothek - Munich - Germany
context_page_description: Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum was a politician of the Roman Republic. Born into the illustrious family of the Cornelii Scipiones, he was one of the most important Roman statesmen of the second century BC, being consul two times in 162 and 155 BC, censor in 159 BC, pontifex maximus in 150 BC, and finally princeps senatus in 147 BC.
  Corculum was a talented military commander, who played a decisive role during the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC; he later won a triumph over the Dalmatae in 155 BC. He was remembered as a staunch conservative, defender of the ancestral Roman customs against political and cultural innovations, notably Hellenism, in contradiction with the policies of his famous father-in-law Scipio Africanus and cousin Scipio Aemilianus. This conservatism led him to order the destruction of the first stone theatre in Rome in 151 BC and to oppose the final war against Carthage, advocated by his rival Cato the Censor. In spite of his political influence, Corculum could not prevent the war from being voted in 149 BC, with the probable support of his cousin Scipio Aemilianus, who destroyed Carthage in 146 BC.
  Due to a lack of sources, his life is sparsely known.
context_section_description: Corculum belonged to the patrician gens Cornelia, which was the foremost gens of the Republic in terms of consulships (the Cornelii had obtained 42 consulships before his). The Scipiones formed one of the two main stirpes of the Cornelii—the other being the Lentulii—with 14 consulships since Publius Cornelius Maluginensis Scipio, consul in 395 and founder of the family. Corculum was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica (consul in 191) and grandson of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus (consul in 222) who died during the Second Punic War. In addition, he was the cousin of Scipio Africanus, who defeated Hannibal, and Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, who defeated Antiochos III. He also had a younger brother named Lucius, whose career is unknown, possibly because he was demoted by Cato the Censor during his censorship of 184.
  Corculum married his second cousin Cornelia, eldest daughter of Scipio Africanus. They were betrothed in Africanus' lifetime, but married after his death in 183; on this occasion Corculum received a large dowry of 25 silver talents. The marriage may have been concluded between Scipio Nasica and Africanus' daughter to improve relations among the family, which had been strained by political competition between its members; for instance, Nasica had run against Scipio Asiaticus for the consulship in 191 and for the censorship in 184.
  The Scipiones used a number of personal nicknames to distinguish themselves from other prominent men of the family. Corculum's father used the agnomen Nasica ("nosed"), which was retained by his descendants—including Corculum—as a second cognomen. The agnomen Corculum is unique in Roman history; it is probably an archaic Latin word meaning "intellectual giftedness" or "cleverness". It is not known how Corculum received this nickname, but it may derive from his ingenious military strategies.
  Cicero speaks highly of Corculum, describing him as "an able orator", but it seems that his speeches were already lost by Cicero's time. He and Aurelius Victor add that Corculum was a respected jurist, specialising in civil and pontifical law. Some scholars thought that he was even given a house on the Via Sacra by the state, in order to be consulted by the people more easily, but this honour was given to his father.
  The Scipiones Nasicae claimed a moral superiority over Rome with the epithet of optimus vir (the "best man"), carried at least since Lucius Scipio (consul in 259) as he is described as such on his epitaph.  It seems that his descendants were able to convince their peers of this claim, because Corculum's father (the consul of 191) officially received the title of Optimus Vir from the senate when in 204 he was asked to bring the sacred stone of the goddess Magna Mater from Ostia to Rome.  Corculum is likewise designated by Livy as the "best man" in the Periochae. The Nasicae likely used the prestige of this epithet for their own benefit, but contrary to Africanus, Asiaticus, and Aemilianus, they followed a very conservative line and scrupulously respected the senatorial supremacy, while their cousins often breached constitutional rules with the support of popular assemblies.
caption: 2nd century BC marble bust, thought to be of Scipio Africanus—Corculum's cousin and father-in-law—now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. It has been traditionally attributed to Sulla.[4][5]
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