Zama (Tunisia)
Second Punic War battle sites
|
|
 Shown within Tunisia
|
|
| Location | Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Region | Siliana Governorate |
| Coordinates | 36°06′43″N 9°17′08″E / 36.1120°N 9.2856°ECoordinates: 36°06′43″N 9°17′08″E / 36.1120°N 9.2856°E |
Zama in what is now Tunisia is best known for its connection with what is called the Battle of Zama, in which, on 19 October 202 BC, Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal, ending the Second Punic War with victory for the Roman Republic, and breaking the power of Ancient Carthage.
The battle did not in fact take place in the vicinity of Zama. Polybius states that Hannibal, after first camping at Zama, moved to another camp just before the battle; and Livy says that Scipio's camp, near which the battle took place, was at Naraggara, present-day Sakiet Sidi Youssef on the border between Tunisia and Algeria.
More than one town in what became the Roman province of Africa was called Zama. The Zama associated with the battle is likely to be the Zama Regia mentioned in Sallust's account of the Jugurthine War as besieged unsuccessfully by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus. Later, Zama Regia was the capital of Juba I of Numidia (60–46 BC) and so, in the view of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, it was called Zama Regia (Royal Zama). Scullard prefers the suggestion that the town got the appellation "Regia" before the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, indicating that it was not under Carthaginian control and belonged to the kingdom of Numidia.
In 41 BC Zama Regia was captured by Titus Sextius, who, having previously been one of Julius Caesar's legates in Gaul, was then governor of the province of Africa on behalf of the Second Triumvirate. As a Roman town, Zama Regia is mentioned in an inscription found at Rome as "Colonia Aelia Hadriana Augusta Zama Regia", showing that under Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus), it had been granted the rank of colonia. Zama Regia is mentioned also in the Tabula Peutingeriana.
...
Wikipedia