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leading the city as a theocracy from 1494 to 1498 and encourag- ing people to burn anything profane (books, paintings) on his so-called Bonfire of the Vanities. His impassioned preaching against every form of corruption in the Church and his insistence on a return to scriptural purity eventually led to his being excom- municated by Alexander VI, and when he lost support in Florence he was arrested, tortured and burned at the stake in the town’s central piazza. scali, giorgio One of the leaders of the briefly successful Ciompi (wool-workers) rebellion in Florence in 1378. Involved in an attempt to stop magistrates punishing a friend, he was arrested and beheaded in 1382. scipio Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (c.234–183 bc). A Roman general and statesman best known for his defeat of Hanni- bal at the Battle of Zama in 201 bc. This decisive victory won him the name Africanus. Accused in the Senate of accepting bribes from enemies, he retired from Rome to his home on the coast of Campania. severus, lucius septimius (146–211) Roman emperor (193–211), notorious for his militarization of Roman bureau- cracy and the empire in general. After holding military commands under emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, on the murder of the emperor Pertinax in 193 he led his legions to Rome and seized power. In 194 he defeated Pescennius Niger, who had proclaimed himself emperor in the east, and in 196 he defeated another would-be emperor, Clodius Albinus, in Gaul. In the last years of his life he engaged in a long military campaign in Britain, dying in York in 211. sforza, cardinal Ascanio Sforza (1455–1505). Fifth child of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, and younger brother of Gal- eazzo and Ludovico who each in turn became duke. Appointed as cardinal in 1484, Ascanio made several fruitless attempts to be elected pope. Acting as a spy for Milan in Rome, he was demoted by Alexander VI when Milan aided the French invasion of 1494. Ascanio was subsequently reinstated but lost his power- base when the French took Milan under Louis XII. He was imprisoned by the French for three years before Georges d’Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen and adviser to Louis, persuaded