Battle of Zama

Zama

Rome vs. Carthage

Prologue

As the empire of Alexander the Great collapsed, the balance of power in the Mediterranean began shifting westward. Three separate factions emerged as the great powers in the western portion of the Great Sea: the Greek Colonies, Carthage, and Rome. Starting around 300 B.C. these three factions began truly competing for preeminence in the region. The result was 150 years of war and the ultimate supremacy of one city.

The Greek Colonies were practically clones of their mother cities: independent and disunited. The colonies stretched from Spain and Gaul ( modern France ) to North Africa, Sicily, and southern Italy. The most powerful cities were concentrated in Italy and Sicily. Although the Greeks had little interest in expansion, their cities had become prime strategic real estate, eliminating any possibility of staying out of the upcoming wars.

When Rome began expanding into southern Italy the colonies hired an army of 20,000 homeland Greeks and a general by the name of Phyrrus to defend them. In 280 and 279 B.C. Phyrrus defeated the Romans in two great battles. However, his casualties were so high he remarked that 'another such victory and we are ruined.' With prospects for further successes in Italy becoming dim, Phyrrus went to fight the Carthaginians for the Greek cities in Sicily. After some victories there, however, he tried to become king of all Sicily. The Sicilian Greeks turned on him and had him exiled. Phyrrus returned to Italy to attempt to resurrect his fortunes, but he was now badly outnumbered and outgunned by fresh Roman armies. After the battle of Bavantium, Phyrrus had had enough and returned to Greece. As he left he told his friends, " What a battlefield we leave to Carthage and Rome."

Phyrrus' words would prove prophetic. With the Greek colonies now mostly conquered by or allied to the two imperial cities of Carthage and Rome, the door was opened for three of the bloodiest wars in ancient history. For a century two vast and vastly different empires would fight to control the entire western Mediterranean world. At the end only one would be left standing.

Carthage was an ancient and cultured city on the northern coast of Africa. It was founded by the Phoenicians, the most renown sailors and merchants of antiquity. The Carthaginians had taken after their forefathers and come to dominate the trade lanes in the region with a fleet of 500 warships. Although Carthage had little in the way of manpower reserves, her incredible wealth allowed the hiring of thousands of mercenaries to bolster her armies' ranks.

Rome was in many ways the exact opposite of Carthage. Rome was a young city that had only recently been a frontier town. The Romans also possessed little in the way of culture and refinement. They were known for practicality, with the study of engineering and military arts taking precedence over philosophy and music. At the beginning of the wars, Rome had no navy, but the fertile plains of Italy produced tens of thousands of fresh recruits every year. This gave the Romans a manpower reserve that Carthage simply couldn't match.

For decades an uneasy peace had existed between the two cities; with occasional treaties leaving both sides just satisfied enough to keep from going to war. The breaking point finally came in 265 B.C. when the critical port of Messana became involved in international politics. Messana was under attack from the powerful Greek colony of Syracuse and near defeat. The Messanans sent envoys to both Rome and Carthage to beg for aid. The Carthaginians arrived first and occupied the city. However, the Roman force which came later was much stronger. Upon seeing the more powerful Roman army, the people of Messana switched sides and helped the Romans expel the army of Carthage. This episode began the First Punic War.

The First Punic War( 'Punic' being the Latin word for 'Carthaginian' ) lasted for twenty-three years. Both sides scored great victories, but in the end, Rome managed to hold on just a little longer than Carthage and win. As spoils of war, Rome took the whole of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Carthage also had to pay Rome a substantial sum of money every year. A great Carthaginian commander by the name of Hamilcar Barca was enraged by these terms and made his son swear to be an enemy of Rome forever. The boy's name was Hannibal.

Hannibal would soon get his chance to make good on his oath. In an effort to rebuild their shattered empire, the Carthaginians sent Hamilcar and his army to conquer Spain. Hamilcar brought Hannibal along and over the next several years managed to win a great deal of territory for Carthage. During these wars in Spain Hannibal fought alongside his father and learned much of the art of battle.

Rome watched the developments in Spain anxiously, fearing a return to power for Carthage. In 219 B.C. Hannibal, now commanding the army in Spain after his father's death, laid siege to the town of Saguntum. This siege was made significant by a recent protection agreement Rome had made with Saguntum, giving Rome a valid reason to declare war on Carthage in 218 B.C.

However, Hannibal was fully aware his actions would likely begin another war with Rome and already had his next move well-planned. He marched his army along the Mediterranean coast, hiring thousands of Celts and Gauls to add to his veteran soldiers from Carthage and Spain. He also brought some 40(-ish, historians still hotly debate the exact number) African war elephants and thousands of Numidian cavalry, reputed to be the finest in the world.

In a daring and risky move, Hannibal crossed the Alps towards the end of 218 B.C. By some miracle he managed to get 26,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and even a few elephants over the mountains and into Italy. However, he had lost thousands of men in the frozen passes of the Alps, and those that remained were hungry, tired, and demoralized.

Hannibal quickly gave his men reason to hope again. Soon after crossing into Italy he was faced by a strong Roman army at the river Trebia. He destroyed that army with his elephants and a heavy cavalry ambush. In 217 B.C. he ambushed and destroyed another Roman army at Lake Trasimene.

Hannibal's finest moment came in 216 B.C. at the battle of Cannae. There he annihilated an army twice his size in this way: He formed-up his troops in a crescent formation bent towards the Romans. In the center he put his new barbarian soldiers, while he placed his hardened Carthaginian veterans on the ends. When the Romans attacked, the barbarians were forced back, but the troops on the ends held their ground. Once the line had bent back into a crescent facing the opposite way, with the Romans inside the curve, Hannibal had his cavalry attack the Roman rear. The Romans suddenly found themselves surrounded and trapped in a kill zone. The doomed Romans suffered some 70,000 casualties during that single, bloody day.

Despite this utterly crushing defeat, however, Rome did not surrender. Hannibal was urged to attack immediately after Cannae, but he could not. His army was too small, too exhausted, and lacked the siege equipment necessary to defeat Rome's mighty fortifications. And so a stalemate ensued for more than ten years. Hannibal was too brilliant to be defeated, but too weak to take Rome and end the war.

The tide began to slowly turn a few years after Cannae. Rome sent his new generation of armies out against Hannibal's new allies in Italy and his power base in Spain, instead of directly at Hannibal. During these battles one officer rose to the highest levels of Roman command: Publius Scipio. Scipio had been one of the few survivors of Cannae and used his dearly-bought knowledge of tactics to take the whole of Spain for Rome by 208 B.C.

After victory in Spain, Scipio sailed for Sicily to gather fresh troops for an attack on Africa. He managed to assemble some 30,000 Roman soldiers. Many of his new men had lost fathers at Cannae and were yearning for revenge. After a year of training his men, Scipio sailed for Africa in 204 B.C.

Scipio quickly proved he could win on Carthage's home turf. In 203 B.C. he defeated an army of both Carthage and Numidia at the battle of Utica. During the battle the pro-Carthage king of Numidia was killed, allowing a pro-Rome and puppet king of Scipio's choosing to become king. The change in rulers gave Scipio the allegiance of the famed Numidian cavalry, once a critcal asset of Hannibal's.

After Utica Hannibal was recalled to Carthage to oversee the city's defense. He brought back some 24,000 veterans of the Italian campaign, and soon doubled the size of his army with 12,000 barbarian mercenaries and 12,000 Carthaginian draftees. He was also given a fresh supply of war elephants. However, the defection of the Numidians left him short of cavalry, having only a couple thousand.

While Hannibal was training his new recruits, Scipio was ravaging the fertile farmlands of North Africa. Political pressure from these raids forced Hannibal to move out before he believed his new men were completely ready. The two armies would meet in 202 B.C. at the town of Zama, 100 miles southwest of Carthage. This would be a battle for the ages. Two undefeated generals from two arch-enemies were about to fight for control of the entire western Mediterranean.

The Armies

Carthage- The army of Carthage was a multinational force, composed of men from all corners of the western Mediterranean. Over the decades Hannibal had assembled a force composed of Carthaginians, Africans, Numidians, Spaniards, Gauls, and Celts. He fought alongside them and transformed them into hardened veterans that had taken war to the very gates of Rome. The army was truly a professional force, able to preform complex maneuvers and retain its cohesion. This was an ability the brute-force, head-on centered armies of Rome traditionally lacked. Hannibal arranged his men in three lines with the 12,000 barbarians in the first line, the 12,000 draftees in the second line, and his 24,000 veterans in the third line.

Hannibal also had 80 new war elephants. These beasts were used to intimidate enemies and break-up formations, and could be quite effective. With 20,000 more men and the ancient equivalent of Abrams tanks, it looked like Hannibal would destroy this Roman invasion easily and keep the Second Punic War raging.

Rome-The army of Rome was centered on heavy infantry arranged in three battle lines. In the first line were the Hastati, the young rookies looking to prove themselves. In the second line were the Principes, these were the men who had survived several years in the first line and had an excellent balance of youthful vigor and combat experience. In the third line were the elite Triarii, the hardiest veterans who had experienced well over a decade of war. These men were the emergency reserves, meant to shore-up a critical breach or give the final push for victory.

Rome had traditionally been lacking in both cavalry numbers and quality, as the terrain of Italy was much more suited for producing infantry armies. However, as previously mentioned, Scipio's political maneuvering and victory at Utica has caused the rise of a pro-Rome king of the Numidian horsemen. These horsemen rode bareback, wore leopard skins, and carried iron javelins and short swords. Scipio's puppet had supplied him with thousands of these fierce horsemen.

The Battle

Hannibal began the Battle of Zama by ordering his elephants to charge the Roman lines. The beasts lumbered towards the enemy, intent on scattering the Romans. However, the Romans responded by shouting, blowing trumpets, and opening gaps in their lines for the the elephants to charge through. The elephants were either scared away or charged down spear-lined corridors of death. Some elephants even charged back into their own men, creating confusion and casualties.

Upon seeing this, Scipio had his superior cavalry forces charge the cavalry of Carthage. Hannibal's outnumbered cavalry quickly abandoned the field, although they did this SO quickly some historians have speculated that Hannibal had ordered his cavalry to retreat to draw the Roman horsemen away from his infantry. Regardless, the fight was now down to Hannibal's 50,000 foot soldiers against Scipio's 30,000.

The two first lines hit each other head-on, barbarian against Hastati. The barbarians began to crack first. Hannibal ordered his draftees to reinforce the barbarians, but they moved-up so slowly the barbarians thought they were being abandoned and fled. The draftees then attacked the Hastati and managed to hold on considerably longer, but when Scipio sent in his Principes the second Carthaginian line broke.

Now Hannibal was down to his 24,000 elite veterans against Scipio's less than 30,000 men. He went for broke, attacking with every last man he had. When the two armies collided Scipio began stretching his lines, leaving his weakest units in the center, while hammering Hannibal's flanks with his veteran units. It was a formation eerily similar to Hannibal's at Cannae.

The Roman coup de grace was delivered by the Numidian horsemen. They swept down on Hannibal's rear and began chopping down the army of Carthage. It was a mirror image of Cannae, but this time Hannibal was the one trapped. Hannibal managed to escape, but his army did not. The Second Punic War was over.

Aftermath

With her army defeated, Carthage was forced to accept Rome's harsh surrender terms. Hannibal began working to rebuild his city, but was soon forced to flee east to escape being handed over to the Romans. He worked as a mercenary, selling his skills to whichever kingdom could pay the most. However, Rome sent assassins to hunt him down. Rather than be killed by his arch-enemies, Hannibal committed suicide in 182 B.C.

Scipio died soon afterwards. After Zama he had entered Roman politics, with his war hero status winning him some early successes.However, his enemies united and had him driven out of Rome. Both the master and the apprentice would die in exile.

Carthage would never regain her former power and influence. The Romans kept a very close eye on Carthage for the next forty years, alert for any sign of trouble from the city that had produced their worst nightmare. In 167 B.C. Rome laid siege to Carthage and three years later burned the city. The Carthaginian survivors were sold into slavery and the ground of Carthage was sown with salt to make it infertile. Rome had never before used measures this extreme after taking a city, but Hannibal had scared them too much. Hannibal had gone beyond a mere enemy, he had become a dark specter on the Roman psyche.

The effects of Zama are almost immeasurable. Scipio's victory humbled Rome's greatest rival and cleared the way for Rome to dominate the entire Mediterranean world. The resultant Pax Romana (peace of Rome ) brought a level of stability to the world never before seen. This allowed people and ideas to travel great distances quickly and safely. Nowhere would this be more evident than when a certain teacher from the remote providence of Judea began proclaiming that His message of love and reconciliation with God in about A.D.25. In a matter of years His disciples carrired this message from Spain to India. The teacher was Jesus and the message was Christianity, which has been the single greatest factor on world history for the last 2,000 years.

Next Week- The Battle of Tours. The Franks vs. The Moors