Netherlands / Tunisia: The Continence of Scipio. Oil on copper painting by Karel van Mander the Elder (1548-1606), 1600. Scipio (235-183 BCE), also known as Scipio Africanus and Scipio the Elder, was a Roman general in the Second Punic War. He is best known for defeating Hannibal and the Carthaginians at the Battle of Zama near Carthage on October 19, 202 BCE. The Continence of Scipio refers to an episode in which Scipio refused a hefty ransom for a young female prisoner, instead returning her unharmed to her fiance Allucius, who in turn pledged his tribes support to Rome.