At the first battle of the Second Punic or Hannibalic War, the battle of Ticinus, the troops were led by the elder Scipio. Scipio Africanus first won fame here by charging into the fray (alone, as his bodyguardswere afraid) to save his father,who had been seriously wounded. Afterwards,the elder Scipio ordered that the coronoa civica, the highest commendation in the Roman military, be presented to his son. However, Scipio refused on the grounds that "the action was one that rewarded itself". (group hug!)

The elder Scipio and his brother, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, were killed in battle in Spain in 212.  Scipio was immediately elected proconsul (211) and, eager to avenge his father and uncle, conquered New Carthage only two years later.  By 205 , in which year he was consul, he had conquered all of Spain and set his sights on an invasion of Africa.  He was given permission to go as far as Sicily but was given no army (probably because of jealous enemies in the Senate).  Scipio didn't let this stop him and trained a volunteer army in Sicily; in 204 he was permitted to go to Africa.  Almost 400 transport ships were required to move his enormous army, and their landing near Utica in Africa prompted Hannibal's recall from Italy.  

Scipio allied with the Numidians and fought the Carthaginians successfully until eventually confronting his rival, Hannibal, at Zama in 202.  The two men both held an enormous amount of respect for one another, but could not reach a peace agreement.  At the battle of Zama, Scipio finally defeated Hannibal and brought the Second Punic War to a close.  Scipio and his army returned to Rome in triumph by 201, and the name "Africanus" was bestowed on him because of the land he had conquered.