One important reference to Scipio Nasica’s participation in politics is as a mysterious “Cornelius” by the historian Appian. This “Cornelius” is credited with a great Roman defeat at the hands of the widely feared “Pannonians.” After some deduction, one can identify the leader of the Roman forces to be Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, who in 141 BC was the "praetor" of Macedonia. Some debate would classify a more likely candidate for the terrible “Pannonians” to be actually from the region of Illyria, just south of Pannonia proper.