SCIPIO

Latin: See scipio eburneus. The scipio was a scepter included as part of the consular insignia. During the Republic it was a plain ivory scepter and was held by the consuls only on the day of their triumph. Under the emperors it was surmounted with Jupiter's eagle, bearing a laurel wreath in its beak, and was borne by the consuls during their entire consulate. In the late empire, the scipio was Christianized to a scepter cruciger (cross-topped scepter).


DICTIONARY| OF ROMAN| COINS|



Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.
SCIPIO, surname of the Cornelia and the Caecilia families, derived, according to Macrobius, from a certain Roman citizen, named Cornelius, who, in filial piety, made himself a walking staff for his blind father by guiding him through the streets. Qui cognominem patrem luminibus carentem, pro baculo regebat, Scipio cognominatus, nomen ex cognomine posteris dedit.
 The family of the Cornelii, divided into many different branches, took for the sake of distinction various cognomena. - The first was Cornelius Scipio, without any other surname. - 2. Scipio Africanus, the celebrated son of P. Cornelius Scipio. - 3. Scipio Aemilianus, also called Africanus minor, adopted out of the Aemilia family into that of Cornelia Scipionum. - 4. Scipio Asiageta, elder brother of Scipio Africanus major. - 5. Scipio Asina. - 6. Scipio Calvus. - 7. Scipio Hispalus. - 8. Scipio Nasica, son of the Scipio who, together with his brother, fell in Spain; a man held in the highest reverence by the Senate.

 SCIPIO, a surname of adoption; for the natural son of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica being adopted in the will of Quintus Metellus Pius, pontifex maximus, was on that account called Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, but retained the surname Scipio, in order to show that he had passed over from the Cornelia into the Caecilia family.



View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins|