world were not bounded by war. He read much and
travelled widely in the course of his life and thought deeply on many
things that had hardly begun to trouble the ordinary Roman of his time,
though they were to trouble deeply the Romans who came after him. He
loved Rome: but his love was not the simple unquestioning devotion of
the old Romans, for whom it was enough that the city was there, and that
their religion as well as their patriotism was bound up with it. He
loved Rome because he believed it stood for something fine.

Of Scipio's domestic life we do not know much: but he was a man of many
warm and devoted friendships and certainly showed deep attachment to his
father, to his brother, and to Scipio Aemilianus, his grandson by
adoption. When young he was distinguished by his slim height and extreme
fairness of complexion; a skin that flushed easily and showed the
feelings he afterwards learned to conceal.

Something of his character may be seen in his bust, which shows, above
the firm mouth and powerful chin of the man of action and resolute will,
the questioning eyes and fine brow of the thinker. It is a stern, but
not altogether a cold face; above all it is the face of a man to whom
nothing was indifferent. Like most portraits of great men, it represents
its subject well on in middle life, when the enthusiasms of youth have
cooled and settled, but it is the face of a man capable of enthusiasm,
if an enthusiasm controlled by judgement.

[Illustration: SCIPIO AFRICANUS]

Scipio was capable of enthusiasm: but not of a kind that carried him
away or made him do reckless things. The Romans of his time believed
that he had been born under a lucky star, was in some sense a special
favourite of the gods. Certainly the chances that destroy or make men
seemed throughout his life always to turn out for good. He made
mistakes, and they proved more successful than the wisest judgements
could have been. But the real secret of his success was not luck but his
sureness of himself. He never lost his head. He believed he could do
anything he put his hand to. This belief not only inspired others with
confidence; it carried him through the stages of difficulty and apparent
failure in which all but the strongest are apt to give up an enterprise
for lost. More than that, thanks to his belief in himself, Scipio was
never disturbed by jealousy or by envy of other men's success. Men's
praise did not excite him; his own opinion was wh