This painting is the counterpart of Polyxena in Front of the Tomb of Achilles, by the same artist, also exhibited at the Louvre, in Paris.

[1] The episode of the painting took place at 211 BC, after the conquest of Cartagena, in modern Spain, by the Romans during the Second Punic War.

Scipio Africanus, the Roman leader, had received from his soldiers a young female prisoner of great beauty; but instead of keeping her against her will, as his forced lover, he decided to return her to her father and her fiancé.

[citation needed] Scipio is depicted seated on a high throne, while he is showing his clemency to the young Allazio, who begs on his knees for his fiancée.

The characters are well spaced, while the light seems less dramatic than in the 17th century painting; the colors are clear and the motifs are depicted in a naturalistic manner.