Rome was a civilization that grew out of the city-state of Rome, founded in the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC. During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to a vast empire. It came to dominate Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea through conquest and assimilation.
In ancient Rome, a gens (pl. gentes) was a clan, or group of families, that shared a common name (the nomen) and a belief in a common ancestor. In the Roman naming convention, the second name was the name of the gens to which the person belonged. The term has also been used to refer to families within a clan system in other contexts, including tribal clans.
The origins of the gentes are unclear, although they are probably not as ancient as the Romans themselves thought; although some were associated with particular cults or ceremonies, all were primarily personal and familial in nature, with no specific political or public duties. Also, the gentes did not usually have legendary founders that were worshipped, and the gentile assemblies are not recorded to have passed any sort of legally binding resolutions. Few of the names have clear Indo-European etymologies, and some have been traced to Etruscan names.
Nevertheless, the relationships of the gentes was a major factor in politics; members of the same gens were "family", and therefore frequently (though not always) political allies.
Gentes did have a legal standing in republican Rome. The gens as a legal entity owned property, including a family burial ground. There was a gens chief, more formally in early Rome and less formally in later Rome; in fact, some notable members of patrician gentes had themselves adopted by plebeian families in order to run for offices not open to the patricii. Members of a gens had a legal obligation to help one another when asked. A gens was exogamous; that is, individuals could not seek marriage partners from within the gens.
A gens was patrilineal and patriarchal. However, such customs were not necessarily inherited from the Italics; the Etruscans could have exercised them also. By the time of republican Rome, Etruscan culture as a whole was fast assimilating to the Italic. The gentes were probably mixed.
Originally the plebeians and patricians were not allowed to intermarry, and several patrician families had collapsed as a result, until the Lex Canuleia, allowing intermarriage, was passed.
Among the patrician gentes there were two categories, the gentes maiores, and the gentes minores. The maiores were the leading families of Rome: these were the Aemilii, Claudii, Cornelii, Fabii, and Valerii, and they claimed special religious and secular privileges.
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Cornelius (fem. Cornelia) was the nomen of the patrician gens Cornelia, one of the important families of Ancient Rome.
The Scipiones, Dolabellae, Sullae and Cinnae were notable branches of the family.
One of the most Famous Members of the Scipion Family was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major ( (235–183 BC) a general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic. He was best known for defeating Hannibal of Carthage, a feat that earned him the surname Africanus, the nickname 'the Roman Hannibal' and recognition as one of the finest commanders in military history.
Scipio is considered by many to be one of Rome's greatest generals, possibly on par with Julius Caesar. He never lost a battle. Skillful alike in strategy and in tactics, he had also the faculty of inspiring his soldiers with confidence. According to the story, Hannibal, who regarded Alexander as the first and Pyrrhus as the second among military commanders, confessed that had he beaten Scipio he should have put himself before either of them .
The Gens Cornelia is the third Roman faction in Rome: Total War.
The Cornelii start out with Campania, in central Italy, and Sicilia Romanus (Roman Sicily) and Sardinia — note that in real history the Cornelii did not actually own this territory. They tend to focus their efforts on the conquest of Carthage, just like their namesakes, the Cornelii Scipiones. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus's father Publius Cornelius Scipio was a consul during the Second Punic War. He led an army into Gallia Narbonensis (southeast France) to stop the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca and his Celtic Gaulish mercenaries from invading. He ordered his elder brother Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who had been consul 4 years previously, to land with an army in Hispania (he did so). P. Cornelius Scipio arrived in Gaul to find that Hannibal had crossed the Rhodanus Flumen (Rhone River) and was pressing through the Alps. Scipio took his force back by ship to Italia. He met Hannibal in battle in Gallia Cisalpina, "Gaul on the near side of the Alps" (northern Italy [Lombardia]). Hannibal defeated Scipio and routed his army at the battle of the Trebia Flumen (River Trebia). Scipio was wounded on the battlefield, but was saved from capture, death, or desecration by his son, Publius the Younger, who led the retreat south. The elder P. Cornelius Scipio recovered and led an army to Hispania to join his elder brother Gnaeus whom he had dispatched there earlier. After several Scipiones victories, both brothers were defeated and slain in battle in Spain with the Carthaginians. The younger P. Cornelius Scipio thus developed a powerful loathing for all Carthaginians, Hannibal in particular. The fact that both Hannibal and the Younger Scipio both made oaths to their fathers to never rest until each had conquered the enemy (Rome and Carthage, respectively) is one of the funny quirks of history. Hannibal marched into southern Italy, and defeated the Romans at Cannae but didn't capitalize on his victory. Fourteen years later, it was Hannibal who was on the defensive at Zama in North Africa, and the opposing general was Publius Cornelius Scipio. Scipio defeated Hannibal, thus avenging his father. He had the agnomen "Africanus" — defeater of the Africans — to the end of his name.
In the game, the Cornelii are very religious. They tend to think of everything in terms being divine right and manifest destiny, unlike the other two factions (the Julii and Iunii), who look at politics from social points of view. They believe that they alone are worthy of the gods' love, and that Rome is for the purpose of serving them as they serve it by turn, unlike the Julii who talk of the importance of the people of Rome, and the Iunii, who talk of the importance of tradition and prestige, the Scipii talk about their own theocratic right to exercise authority over all others. They start by taking Syracuse and Sicilia Graecus from the Greeks, and Lilybaeum and Sicilia Poeni (Phoenician or Punic Sicily) from the Carthaginians. They focus on defeating Carthage, but after this, they are free to crush Numidia (not a very hard task), and then turn either west or east depending on personal preference. By the time they are large enough to expand the forces into Aegyptus (Egypt) they may have to compete with the Iunii family, who aim their imperialistic goals towards the east.
