The young Royal Academy of Music, founded in 1720, had as its resident composers three men; Handel, Giovanni Bononcini, a prominent and popular Italian composer of opera seria, and talented melodist, able to appeal directly to popular tastes, and Filippo Amadei. Amadei contributed very little to the operatic output of the Academy. He was a cellist in the orchestra, and wrote some of the music for Arsace, but he was not a composer of the stature of the other two. Bononcini was a formidable rival to Handel, who several times in his life tried to learn from the other man and compose music in his style. His presence and success was a direct threat to the supremacy of the transplanted German. The rivalry was fostered by the directors of the Academy, the paying public, who took sides and favored the compositions of one or the other men, and by political events. The Tory and the Whig parties split into operatic factions, and the supporters of George I supported his Hanoverian countryman Handel. This was not always to Handel's advantage, for the detractors of the government saw it as corrupt, and as a usurpation of power. Among those to take sides against Handel and the King was the king's own son, the Prince of Wales, who admittedly only did so in a type of filial rebellion. However, there were times when the conflict resulting from the competition was extreme, due to political events. One of the things that the Academy directors did to exacerbate the problem was to stage the opera Il Muzio Scevola. It was not uncommon for composers to collaborate on a work. However, Il Muzio Scevola was meant as a direct competition. Each composer was to compose an act of the opera, and the audience would be the judge as to which act was best. Filippo Amadei composed the music for the first act, Giovanni Bononcini composed the music for the second, and Handel was responsible for the third act. Handel "won" the competition, and all judged that his act was by far the best. Although he had won a victory, it was only temporary, and he and Bononcini would continue to compete for the affections of their audience throughout the existence of the Academy.

The libretto by Il Muzio Scevola was by Antonio Rolli. The opera dates back as far as 1665, and Rolli's libretto is taken from a version written by Stampiglia in 1695. Just as in Radamisto, the plot is based not on magic and mythology, but on history and domestic intrigue. Familial relationships are important, as is the scenic construction around the exit aria. The story of the libretto may have been meant as a reflection of political events, for Rolli was against the Hanover monarchy. Rolli was more of a lyrical writer than Haym, and often his arias contain lines of greater length, and his scenes offer breaks from the drama, instead of propelling it.

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