information:extraction
African campaign

Scipio was elected unanimously to the consulship of 205 BC amid much enthusiasm; he was 31 and still technically too young to be consul. When he entered into office, he demanded that the senate assign him the province of Africa and threatened to take the matter to the popular assemblies if it refused to do so. Despite fierce opposition from the princeps senatus, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the senate bowed to his pressure and he received Sicily with permission to cross into Africa if he wished. Fabius' opposition may have been related to jealousy of Scipio's popularity, but also was likely informed by the failed African campaign c. 255 BC under Marcus Atilius Regulus during the First Punic War, which saw the Carthaginians' war efforts renewed. The senate, regardless, assigned Scipio no additional soldiers, leading him to recruit an army of volunteers; Livy reports that from his clients and supporters in Italy, he mustered some 30 warships and 7,000 men.

He spent most of his consulship preparing his troops in Sicily for the invasion of Africa. He captured Locri on the toe of Italy that year, and left one Pleminius in command there. After Pleminius assumed command, he robbed the city's temple and tortured and killed two military tribunes. For these crimes, the senate had Pleminius placed under arrest; Scipio was also implicated but was cleared the next year.