Corculum was opposed to the invasion of Carthage, where Scipio Aemilianus actually led the siege of Carthage.
Nevertheless, Scipio Corculum was discredited as a champion of Carthage and his political opponent Cato was triumphant.
Despite his actions against the Ligurians, Popillius was later elected censor with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum in 159 BC.
When Cato insisted " Carthago delenda est " ( Carthage must be destroyed ), Corculum responded that Carthage must be saved.
During the period 159-149 BC, Corculum was a political opponent of Marcus Porcius Cato and pleaded that Rome not destroy Carthage.
Corculum lived through the Third Punic War ( ended by his kinsman Scipio Aemilianus ); Cato lived to see that war being declared.
He was opposed by the senator Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, who favoured a different course that would not destroy Carthage, and who usually prevailed in the debates.
Corculum was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica ( himself consul in 191 BC ), and was thus a first cousin once removed of the Roman general Scipio Africanus.
His brother-in-law Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, husband of his wife's elder sister, one of the consuls for 162 BC, was thus forced to resign.
According to Plutarch's conjecture and Appian's later definite assertion, that was because Corculum feared that the destruction of Rome's main rival would lead to the decline of Roman morals and discipline.