Phase 5

The End of the  Second War 

   The Carthaginian peace party then arranged another armistice. This was after Hannibal had been recalled from Italy by the war party in Carthage.  Hannibal's arrival immediately restored the predominance of the war party, which placed him in command of a combined force of African levies and his mercenaries from Italy. However, Hannibal was opposed to this policy and tried to convince them not to send the untrained African levies into battle.  In 202 BCE, Hannibal met Scipio in a peace conference. 

Hannibal and Scipio Meet at the Peace Conference

  Despite the two generals' mutual admiration, negotiations floundered, according to the Romans due to "Punic faith", meaning bad faith. This Roman expression referred to the alleged breach of protocols which ended the First Punic War by the Carthaginian attack on Saguntum in Iberia, Hannibal's perceived breaches of the idealized Roman military etiquette (i.e. Hannibal's numerous ambuscades), as well as the armistice violated by the Carthaginians in the period before Hannibal's return- the captured Roman fleet.  This marked the end of the temporary armistice.

  This led to the Battle of Zama, fought around October 19, 202 BCE, it was the last battle fought in the Second Punic War.  Hannibal led an army composed of mercenaries, local citizens and veterans and Numidian cavalry from his Italian campaigns, and Scipio led the already present Roman army, along with a body of Numidian cavalry.  The Romans had superiority in cavalry and the Carthaginians had superiority in infantry.  The Roman army was generally better armed and trained than the Carthaginians.  Hannibal had refused to lead this army into battle, because he did not believe they would fight and stand their ground.  There had been bitter arguments between the oligarchy and him.  His co-general Hasdrubal Gisco was forced to commit suicide by a violent mob after he spoke of Hannibal’s view of the military situation, “That these troops should not be used this in battle.”  Before the battle, Hannibal gave a speech only to his veterans and no one else.

  The battle took place at Zama Regia, near Siliana 130 km south-west of the modern capital Tunis. Hannibal was first to march and reach the plains of Zama Regia, which were suitable for cavalry maneuvering. This also gave an upper edge in turn to Scipio who relied heavily on his Roman heavy cavalry and Numidian light cavalry. Hannibal deployed his troops facing northwest, while Scipio deployed his troops in front of the Carthaginian army facing southeast (Nardo, Don, The battle of Zama). 

   Hannibal's army consisted of 36,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 80 war elephants, while Scipio had a total of 29,000 infantry and 6,100 cavalry (Lazenby, Hannibal's War). Hannibal putting his cavalry on the flanks, with the inexperienced Carthaginian cavalry on the right, and the Numidians on the left, Hannibal aligned the rest of his troops in three straight lines behind his elephants (Carey, Hannibal’s Last Battle).  His first line consisted of mixed infantry of mercenaries from Gaul, Liguria, and the Balearic Islands. In his second line, he placed the Carthaginian and Libyan citizen levies, while his veterans from Italy he put in the third line (Frontinus, Sextus Julius (1925), Bennet, Charles E, ed., Stratagemata).

    Hannibal intentionally held back his third infantry line, in order to thwart Scipio's tendency to pin the Carthaginian center and envelop his opponent's lines, as he had previously done at the Battle of Ilipa (Delbrück, Hans, History of the Art of War: Warfare in antiquity). Livy states that Hannibal deployed 4000 Macedonians in the second line, which is normally rejected as Roman propaganda. However, T. Dorey suggested that there might have been a grain of truth in the story if the Carthaginians had recruited a trivial number of mercenaries from Macedonia who had gone without official blessing (Dorey, T.A. (1957), "Macedonian Troops at the Battle of Zama").

Battle of Zama Part 1

   Scipio knew that elephants would be ordered to charge forward, but they could only continue their charge in a straight line (Africanus, Scipio; Hart, BH Liddell; Grant, Michael, Greater Than Napoleon).   Scipio predicted that if he opened gaps in his troops, the elephants would simply pass between them, without harming any of his soldiers. Scipio created the lanes between the army regiments across the depth of his troops and hid them with maniples of skirmishers. The plan was that when the elephants charged, these lanes would open, allowing them to pass through the legionaries' ranks and be dealt with at the rear of the army.  

The Elephant Charge at the Battle of Zama

  Hannibal and the Carthaginians had relied on cavalry superiority in previous battles such as Cannae, but Scipio, recognizing their importance, held the cavalry advantage at Zama. This was due in part to his raising of a new cavalry regiment in Sicily and careful courting of Masinissa as an ally.  Hannibal most likely believed that the combination of the war elephants and the depth of the first two lines would weaken and disorganize the Roman advance. This would have allowed him to complete a victory with his reserves in the third line and overlap Scipio's lines.

  At the outset of the battle, Hannibal unleashed his elephants and skirmishers against the Roman troops in order to break the cohesion of their lines and exploit the breaches that could be opened (Scullard, Howard Hayes (1930), Scipio Africanus in the second Punic war).  The Roman skirmishers confronted the attack. In addition, Scipio ordered the cavalry to blow loud horns to frighten the beasts, which partly succeeded, and several rampaging elephants turned towards the Carthaginian left wing and disordered it completely. Seizing this opportunity, Masinissa led his Numidian cavalry and charged at the Carthaginian left wing, which was composed of Numidian cavalry, and were diverted off the field of battle. Meanwhile, the rest of the elephants were carefully lured through the lanes and taken to the rear of the Roman army, where they were killed. Scipio's plan to neutralize the threat of the elephants had worked. Scipio's troops then fell back into traditional Roman battle formation. Laelius, the commander of Roman left wing, charged against the Carthaginian right. The Carthaginian cavalry, acting on the instructions of Hannibal, allowed the Roman cavalry to chase them to lure them away from the battlefield so that they would not attack the Carthaginian armies in the rear (Goldsworth, Adrian (2006), The Fall of Carthage, The Punic Wars).

Battle of Zama Part 2

  Scipio now marched with his center towards the Carthaginian center, which was under the direct command of Hannibal. Hannibal moved forward with only two lines and the third line of veterans remained in reserve. After a close contest, the first line of Hannibal repulsed by the Roman hastati (Africanus, Scipio; Hart, BH Liddell; Grant, Michael, Greater Than Napoleon).    Hannibal ordered his second line not to allow the first line in their ranks. The bulk of them managed to escape and to position themselves on the wings of the second line on Hannibal's instructions (Davis, William Stearns, Readings in Ancient History — Illustrative Extracts from the Sources).   Hannibal now charged with his second line. A furious struggle ensued and the Roman hastati were beaten back with heavy losses. Scipio reinforced the hastati with the second line Principes (Nardo, Don, The battle of Zama).

    With this reinforcement, the Roman front renewed their attack and defeated Hannibal's second line. Again, the second line was not allowed to merge with the third line and was forced to the wings along with the first line. Carthaginian cavalry carried out Hannibal's instructions well and there was no sign of Roman cavalry on the battlefield. Once they were far enough away, they turned and attacked the Roman cavalry but were repulsed in the end. At this point, there was a pause in the battle as both sides redeployed their troops. Scipio played for time as he redeployed his troops in a single line with the hastati in the middle and the Principes in the inner wings and the triarii on the outer wings. Hannibal waited for Scipio to attack. The resulting clash was fierce and bloody, with neither side achieving local superiority. However, Scipio was able to rally his men (Africanus, Scipio; Hart, BH Liddell; Grant, Michael, Greater Than Napoleon).   The battle finally turned in the Roman's favor as the Roman cavalry returned to the battlefield and attacked the Carthaginian line from behind. The Carthaginian infantry was encircled and annihilated. 

Battle of Zama Part 3

Thousands of Carthaginians, including Hannibal, managed to escape the slaughter (Delbrück, Hans, History of the Art of War: Warfare in antiquity).   Hannibal experienced a major defeat that put an end to all resistance on the part of Carthage. In total, as many as 20,000 men of Hannibal’s army died at Zama, while 20,000 became prisoners. The Romans, on the other hand, suffered as few as 2,500 dead (Adrian Goldsworth, The Fall of Carthage, The Punic Wars).

  After their defeat, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginians to accept peace. Notably, he broke the rules of the assembly by forcibly removing a speaker who supported continued resistance. Afterwards, he was obliged to apologize for his behavior. Therefore, after Scipio's victory at Zama, the war ended, with the Carthaginian senate suing for peace. Unlike the treaty that ended the First Punic War, the terms Carthage acceded to were so punishing that it was never able to challenge Rome for supremacy of the Mediterranean again. The treaty bankrupted Carthage and destroyed any chance of its being a military power in the future, although its economic recovery was quick. One provision was that the Carthaginians could not make war without Roman consent.  Carthage lost Iberia forever, and Rome firmly established her power there over large areas. Rome imposed a war indemnity of 10,000 talents of silver (300 tonnes/660,000 pounds), limited the Carthaginian navy to 10 ships (to ward off pirates).   The Numidians took the opportunity to capture and plunder Carthaginian territory. 

Carthage at the End of the Second Punic War (in Pink)