The Legacy of the Cornelii

The gens Cornelia was one of the oldest and most prestigious patrician families of ancient Rome,

tracing its influence from the early Republic through the end of the Roman Republic. It produced an extraordinary

number of statesmen, generals, and reformers, most notably Publius Cornelius Scipio

Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal in the Second Punic War, whose military success

established Rome’s dominance in the western Mediterranean. Other prominent members include

Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the dictator who reshaped Rome’s political system

in the 1st century BCE; Publius Cornelius Tacitus, the renowned historian of the early Empire;

and various branches such as the Scipiones, Lentuli, and Cinnae, which collectively