A Greater than Napoleon by Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart

Rome, faced with a great emergency-second only to that of the Hannibalic War,-looked for its new saviour in its old. If the danger was less, and less close, the risk at least must have seemed greater, for her armies were venturing into the unknown. The first great trial of strength between Rome and Asiatic civilisation was about to be staged, and the theatre of war was alarmingly distant, connected with the homeland by long and insecure lines of communication. The spur of emergency quickens the memory, and Rome in her fresh hour of trial remembered the man who had saved her in the last, and who had been standing by for several years ready for the occasion which he had prophesied to deaf ears. Yet Scipio Africanus did not himself stand for the consulship-why it is difficult to guess. It may have been that he deemed the forces of jealousy too strong, and wanted to take no risks, or that affection and sympathy for his brother Lucius, a defeated candidate the year before, inspired Africanus to give the latter his chance. Africanus had glory enough, and all through his career he had been ready to share his glory with his assistants. He left envy of others' fame to lesser men. His aim was service, and in any case he knew that if Lucius was consul, he himself would exercise the real power-Lucius was welcome to the nominal triumph.

His brother's election was secured, and with him, as plebeian consul, was elected Gaius Lelius, the old assistant of Africanus. It may be that Scipio worked for this, in order to ensure that to whichever Greece fell as a province he would be able to exercise an influence on the operations. As it happened, however, the double election put him in the unpleasant position of having to support his brother against his friend. For both consuls naturally desired Greece, which meant the command against Antiochus. Lelius, who had a powerful interest with the Senate, asked the Senate to decide-drawing lots was too uncertain for his taste. Lucius Scipio thereupon asked time to seek advice, and consulted Africanus, "who desired him to leave it unhesitatingly to the Senate. " Then, when a prolonged debate was anticipated, Africanus arose in the Senate and said that "if they decreed that province to his brother, Lucius Scipio, he would go along with him as his lieutenant. " This proposal "being received with almost universal approbation," settled the dispute and was carried by an almost unanimous vote.