General science with a transcendental ring (6)

I believe the answer is:

scipio

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'general' is the definition.
(I know that Scipio is a general)

'science with a transcendental ring' is the wordplay.
'science' becomes 'sci' (academic abbreviation).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a transcendental' becomes 'pi' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'ring' becomes 'O' (letter resembling a ring).
'sci'+'pi'+'o'='SCIPIO'

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(Other definitions for scipio that I've seen before include "Old general" , "campaigner" , "Roman general" , "He defeated Hannibal" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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