The battle of Zama was fought on 15th October 202
BC. It was the battle that finally decided which power would be master of the
Mediterranean region – Rome or Carthage.
The battle that decided Rome’s dominance over Carthage
Carthage, a powerful city-state in North Africa, had been a
thorn in the side of Rome for many years, particularly under the generalship of
Hannibal who had inflicted a heavy defeat on Rome at Cannae in 216 BC. However,
Rome simply refused to cave in. Hannibal’s main problem was that he did not
have the right equipment for siege warfare - although he came within three
miles of the walls of Rome at one point he could never hope to breach them.
What tipped the balance for Rome was the emergence of a
general who was at least the equal of Hannibal. This was Publius Cornelius
Scipio, a survivor of Cannae, who managed to recapture virtually all the land
lost to Hannibal in Spain. In 204 BC, with Hannibal still in Italy, Scipio
gathered a large army and set sail for Carthage.
After several Roman victories in North Africa, Hannibal was
forced to return home. However, it was two years later that the issue was
finally decided on the battlefield at Zama, five miles south of modern Tunis.
Hannibal could muster 40,000 troops and 80 elephants as against Scipio’s 34,000
men, but the latter were better trained and included three times as many
cavalry troops as the Carthaginians could put into the field.
The elephants were soon taken out of the account, being
panicked by the blare of Roman trumpets, and the cavalry battle was decisively
won by the Romans. The infantry of the two armies now faced each other, and the
initial advantage went to the larger force of Hannibal’s army. However, the
Roman cavalry, having chased off that of the Carthaginians, was then then able
to attack the infantry from the rear, and this was the decisive move. More than
20,000 Carthaginians were killed during the battle.
Scipio was magnanimous in victory and allowed Hannibal to
remain in Carthage, where he became his country’s ruler. However, the Roman
Senate was later to demand that Hannibal should be punished and he was forced
to flee into exile, where he eventually committed suicide.
Scipio became one of Rome’s greatest heroes and he was
awarded the title Africanus. As a general, he never lost a battle during a
25-year long career.
© John Welford
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