Battle of Zama

Date	October 19, 202 BC
Location	Zama, near Carthage
Result	Decisive Roman victory; Marks end of Second Punic War

Belligerents

Carthage

Roman Republic
Kingdom of Numidia

Commanders and leaders

Hannibal

Scipio Africanus
Massinissa

Strength

40,000:
36,000 infantry
4,000 cavalry
80 war elephants

35,100:
29,000 infantry
6,100 cavalry

Casualties and losses

20,000 killed
20,000 captured

2,500 killed
4,000 wounded

The Battle of Zama, fought around October 19, 202 BC, marked the end of the Second Punic War. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Scipio), with crucial support from Numidian leader Masinissa, defeated a Carthaginian force led by the commander Hannibal, despite Hannibal possessing numerical superiority. This was because many in his army were recent conscripts, and the vaunted Numidian cavalry which Hannibal had employed with great success in Italy had by then switched sides to the Romans.

Scipio had conceived of a strategy to confuse and defeat Hannibal's war elephants, and then his force routed the Carthaginian infantry, thanks in part to superior Roman cavalry. Defeated on their home ground, the Carthaginian ruling elite sued for peace and accepted humiliating terms, ending the 17-year war.

Crossing the Alps, Hannibal reached the Italian peninsula in 218 BC and won several major victories against the Roman armies. The Romans failed to defeat Hannibal or drive him from Italy, but following Scipio's decisive victory at the Battle of Ilipa in Spain in 206 BC, Iberia had been secured by the Romans. In 205 BC, Scipio returned to Rome, where he was elected consul with a unanimous vote. Scipio, now powerful enough, proposed to end the war by directly invading the Carthaginian home land. The Senate initially opposed this ambitious design of Scipio, persuaded by Quintus Fabius Maximus that the enterprise was far too hazardous. However, Scipio and his supporters eventually convinced the Senate to ratify the plan, and Scipio was given the requisite authority to attempt the invasion.

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