Battle of Zama
Scipio destroyed Hannibal's army at Zama in October 202 BC, and Carthage never fought Rome on equal terms again. The two had spent sixteen years in Italy without meeting. Hannibal had won at the Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae and had then been unable to take Rome or break its alliances; Scipio had taken Spain, crossed to Africa in 204, and beaten the Carthaginians and their Numidian allies badly enough that Carthage recalled Hannibal from Italy. They met before the battle, according to Polybius, and Hannibal offered terms that Scipio refused. The tactical problem was elephants. Hannibal had eighty in front of his line, and the standard Roman formation of three staggered lines was designed to absorb infantry, not to survive them. Scipio arranged his maniples in straight columns with lanes between them, screened by light troops, and had the trumpets sounded as the elephants charged. Some bolted back through the Carthaginian cavalry; the rest ran down the lanes and out the back. The Roman and allied cavalry, now the stronger arm because Masinissa's Numidians had changed sides, drove the Carthaginian horse off the field and — crucially — came back. Hannibal's third line of Italian veterans held until the cavalry struck it from behind. Around 20,000 Carthaginians died. The peace stripped Carthage of Spain, its fleet and its right to make war without Roman permission, and imposed an indemnity payable over fifty years. Rome destroyed the city anyway in 146 BC. Scipio took the name Africanus and was prosecuted by Cato a decade later.
- Category: Military
