9. Battle of Zama

Coming in at number 10, is the final major engagement of the second Punic War, the Battle of Zama on October 19, 202 BC. This battle loses a lot to the earlier battle of Cannae, but it is the decisive conflict in which Hannibal is defeated in Tunisia by Scipio Africanus's Roman army. I originally had this much higher but the chief problem with Zama is that the Second Punic War is largely over at this point , Carthage is losing everywhere but Italy and if Scipio is defeated at Zama then this would only prolong the war, not turn it in Carthage's favor. But lets get into the background.

Background: So in the second Punic War began in 218 BCE when Hannibal began moving against Rome and would cross the Alps to try and defeat Rome and return Carthage to its former glory. Rome had defeated Carthage in the first Punic War and one of Carthage’s top generals was Hannibal’s father Hamilcar who supposedly made Hannibal and his brother Hasdrubal swear to defeat Rome for what it had done to Carthage. You see after Rome had won the first Punic War they changed the peace treaty after Carthage had demobilized and this greatly angered the Carthaginian people and breed a lot of resentment. Hannibal took an army to Italy and would defeat the Romans in every engagement he faced them in Italy, but while everything was going well for Hannibal tactically he was unable to get support from the non-Romans in Italy and Carthage was losing the war everywhere but Italy.  Meanwhile Scipio was a young Roman General who been able conquer Iberia from the Carthaginians and after being elected Consul took an army to attack Carthage itself, where he defeated a Carthaginian army at The Battle of the Great Plains in 203 BCE and as a result Carthage recalled Hannibal from Italy. Hannibal may have never actually been to Carthage before as he grew up in Iberia fighting with his father, but he was given an army of around 50,000 including 4,000 cavalry and about 80 War Elephants to face Scorpio’s army that was about 40,000 with roughly 6,000 mostly Allied Numidia Cavalry.

The Battle: The battle is quite complex and I am by no means an expert but what happens is that both armies array with Cavalry on the flanks and Infantry in the middle, but Hannibal puts his Elephants in front to charge and disrupt the Roman Infantry. However Scipio had anticipated this and arrayed his Infantry in columns so that skirmishers were able to draw them through the lines and cause minimal casualties. He also had his troop’s blow every horn in their possession to confuse the Elephants and cause them to panic, which some of them did. Overall the effect of the Elephants was minimal and it is here where Hannibal’s plan is disrupted. 

This is also one of the only times during the campaign against Hannibal that Rome has an advantage in Cavalry and so the Roman Cavalry is able to drive off the Carthaginian Cavalry and the Infantry stalemate in their engagement. However when the Roman Cavalry returned from driving off the Carthaginian cavalry it fell upon the Carthaginian infantries rear and Hannibal’s army collapsed.

Aftermath: This is the last major engagement of the Punic Wars and afterwards Carthage is forced to sue for peace.  Rome takes all the territory outside of Africa has to pay War reparations to Rome and is prevented from waging war. The only thing that Carthage gets is that Hannibal is not turned over to the Romans and he becomes an important player in Carthaginian politics. That is until he is forced into exile by the Romans at the behest of the Carthaginian Nobility that did not like Hannibal’s attempts to democratize and de corrupt the Carthaginian system. He worked for a variety of kingdoms and was relentlessly pursued by Roman Assassins. The precise date of his death is debated but between 183-181 BCE Hannibal killed himself rather than fall into the hands of the Romans.

Importance: As I said before I originally had this much higher but I had to drop it lower and lower because it did not meet my criteria of a History shaping battle. Carthage had lost, even if they won at Zama they were still going to sue for peace, the conditions would have been more favorable but still they would have lost. What’s really important about this battle is that this is the only time that Hannibal is decisively defeated, for 16 years the Romans were time and time again defeated by Hannibal but here at Zama, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus leads a smaller Roman force and defeats Hannibal.  After the Second Punic War Rome really conquers the known world, which leads to the statement that ‘Rome conquered the world in self-defense’ all the enemies of Rome that joined with Carthage against Rome were subsequently invaded by Rome after the war turned in Rome’s favor. After Zama any threat to Rome in the Mediterranean is vanquished with Carthage’s capitulation.