Battle Of Zama

The Defeat of Carthage by Rome Puts an End to Possible Carthaginian Influence in Europe

Capitoline Wolf (Etruscan, 5th century BC, -some modern scholars disputing this date-) with figures of Romulus and Remus added in the 15th century.

Some two thousand five hundred years ago, Romulus and Remus founded a village on the banks of the river Tiber in Italy. As the years passed, the village, which had been given the name of Rome, developed into a great city, and its inhabitants into a great and powerful people.

Some five hundred years after the founding of their city the extent of the world of which the Romans had knowledge was limited to those countries bordering on the Sea in the Middle of the Land, the Mediterranean; Spain, parts of France, parts of Germany, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt and a broadish strip along the coast of North Africa. They believed that in the west land stopped at the Straits of Gibraltar. They knew nothing about the British Isles, nor about Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They had heard travellers’ tales about countries lying to the east, but these went no further than Persia.

The Chimera of Arezzo, a prime example of Etruscan art

The Romans were not the only people living on the Italian peninsula when they built their village in 753 B.C. Several nations and tribes, with a considerable history already, had staked their claims to territory, put down roots and some had even developed advanced civilizations. Among the latter were the mysterious Etruscans, who were the most powerful of all the Italian nations.

As the Romans grew in numbers and strength, they gradually became masters of a great part of Italy. One after another they subdued the tribes and forced them to become their allies. These allies they continued to allow to govern themselves provided they would give an undertaking to supply men and weapons for the armies of Rome and never themselves to take up arms against their suzerains, at the same time following a foreign policy laid down by Rome.

Now, long before Rome was founded, the most powerful nation in the Mediterranean were the Greeks. The famous siege of Troy, though impossible to date exactly, is thought to have taken place around 1200 B.C., that is, some 450 years before Romulus cut the first sod in the defence earthworks of his new village.

The Greeks were great travellers for they had mastered the arts of ship-building and seamanship, which the Romans were never to do with distinction. From the earliest period of their emergence as a prominent power, parties of Greeks had sailed about the Mediterranean and whenever they had come to a place which took their fancy they had decided to settle there. There were a number of Greek city-colonies in Spain, in what is now southern France, where one of the most important was at Marseilles, then called Masiliain Corsica, Sardinia and scattered along the long coastline of North Africa.

There were also a number of Greek cities in southern Italy and Sicily, the chief of which was Tarentum, now known as Taranto and famous as a naval base. Tarentum’s main industry was the manufacture of clothes made from the finest wool to be found in all Italy, and she carried on a large export trade in these products throughout the Mediterranean. To protect her merchant fleet carrying this trade, she had built a large and powerful navy.

Collection of ceramics produced in Taranto ca. 580 BC. Taranto Archaeological National Museum

As the Romans began to emerge as the dominant nation on the Italian peninsula, the people of Tarentum entered into an agreement with them, whereby the Romans, in return for favourable trading concessions, were pledged not to take their ships into Tarentine territorial waters. In the year 282 B.C., however, Thurii, another Greek city in southern Italy, found herself under attack from various Italian tribes and called to Rome for help. In responding to this call, the Romans broke their treaty with Tarentum and sailed their ships into Tarentine waters, whereupon, not unnaturally, Tarentum declared war on Rome.

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Though it may have been a natural reaction, it was at the same time a somewhat foolhardy gesture, for there was not one competent general to be found in Tarentum at this time. No one realized this better than the Tarentines, and to make good the lack, they called to their aid one of the Greek generals, Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus landed in southern Italy, and proved more than a match for the warlike Romans. His victories all proved somewhat hollow, however, for each time he won a battle his casualties in men killed were far heavier than he could afford. Even he realized that this was not a situation which could be prolonged indefinitely, so he withdrew his armies elsewhere.

Though Pyrrhus had defeated the Romans, the latter had demon­strated that they were a very strong power indeed. The discreet retirement of Pyrrhus was the first time for many centuries that any Greek army had felt discretion to be the better part of valour.

The action of the Tarantines provoked a not unjustifiable enmity in the Romans against all Greek colonies in Italy, and they attacked each in turn, defeated every one and made them into allies. By doing so, they secured the mastery of all central and southern Italy.

Rankled by his former pyrrhic victories, Pyrrhus returned to Italy in 275 B.C. in the hope of curbing Rome’s expansionist ambitions, only to be soundly defeated.

By 260 B.C. Rome had extended her influence to large parts of northern Italy. Thus, in a little under five hundred years from the founding of the city, the Romans had become a great and powerful nation, so powerful that it looked as if nothing could stop them from becoming masters of the Mediterranean, if not of the then known world, for by this time Greece has passed the zenith of her imperial greatness.

There was, however, another great Mediterranean power that was determined to stop the march of Rome, if she possibly could.

A little less than fifty miles to the north of the modern Israeli port of Haifa is one of the most ancient of Palestinian cities, Tyre. For several centuries before the Christian era, Tyre was the capital city of a people known as the Phoenicians, a strange and interesting people who were the greatest sailors of the then known world.

They knew what the Romans and others did not, that the world did not stop in the west at the Straits of Gibraltar; for they had sailed through the straits out into the Atlantic, and by following the coastlines of Spain and France had reached the Scilly Isles and Cornwall, and with the men of those places had exchanged their famous purple cloth for tin. It is thought that some of them must have sailed up the Channel into the Baltic Sea, because they are known to have owned yellow and red amber, which is found only in the eastern Baltic.

Their most amazing deed was carried out in 610 B.C. when some of them sailed through the Mediterranean, out through the Straits of Gibraltar, all the way round Africa, and up the Red Sea to southern Egypt.

They lived only to trade. Unlike other nations at this time, they were not interested in the acquisition of territory, but only to sell the many articles they manufactured.

They were also the discoverers of mass production, and as time went by and their production increased, they went farther and farther afield to find markets for their goods. To facilitate their marketing arrangements, they set up trading posts throughout the Mediterranean.

Originally a collection of store houses and houses for the traders and their families, eventually all the trading posts developed into cities, and in some cases these cities grew into powerful city-states. The most powerful of all these city states was Carthage, on the North African coast immediately below the toe of Italy, which had been founded as a trading post in 814 B.C., sixty one years before Rome was founded.

Site of Carthage

The site for Carthage had been well chosen. It is practically midway along the north coast of Africa at a spot where only a narrow strip of sea separated it from Sicily. Through this narrow sea all ships passing from the east Mediterranean to the west and back again had to sail. Thus, the Carthaginians could control all Mediterranean shipping.

Then the hinterland of Carthage was a good rich land. If the post grew into a city, the citizens would be able to be self supporting as regards food.

The development of Rome and Carthage coincided, but the Carthaginians were more enterprising at this time, for they established colonies all over the Mediterranean, and seized Sardinia and Corsica, and the western end of Sicily. To keep this empire under control, money, men and ships were needed.

To raise the money they taxed their subject peoples, in exact contrast to Rome. This was only one of the many differences between the two. For example, while Romans themselves formed the greater part of Rome’s armies, Carthage relied on troops supplied by her vassals and mercenaries from any other nation willing to supply them. Both the imposition of taxes and the pressing of unwilling men to fight their battles for them were eventually to prove the Carthaginians’ undoing.

Quite early on both Rome and Carthage had recognized the threat which each constituted to the other, and in 509 B.C. had signed a treaty of friendship, believing this to be the most sensible way out of the difficulties which opposition might bring to both. Under this treaty, the Romans promised not to interfere with Carthaginian trading in the western Mediterranean in return for a Carthaginian promise not to set up any trading-posts in Italy.

Unfortunately, Rome was so taken up with gaining control of the Italian peninsula that she did not notice, until it was almost too late, how powerful Carthage was making herself in the western Mediterranean, and soon the friendship began to grow cold. The actual break came when the Carthaginians began to establish themselves in the whole of Sicily. The outcome was the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) which was mainly fought at sea, and ended in Roman victory, with Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica taken over by Rome.

In order to make up for these losses, the Carthaginians decided to seize large parts of Spain, and were so surprised with the success they achieved here that very soon they were secretly plotting to have their revenge on Rome. By this time Rome was beginning to turn her attention to Gaul, and were finding the Gauls very tough fighters. With her attention distracted thus, once more she did not notice what Carthage was planning.

A marble bust, reputedly of Hannibal, originally found at the ancient city-state of Capua in Italy.

The Carthaginian leader during the First Punic War had been Hamilcar, who, as a result of his defeat, had formed a great hatred for the Romans, a hatred which he passed on to his son Hannibal. When Hamilcar died in 228 B.C., Hannibal, though he was only twenty six, was made commander-in-chief of the armies in Spain. From this moment he decided to make war on Rome as soon as possible.

This he did in 219 B.C. by attacking one of Rome’s Spanish allies, Saguntum, which fell to him after a fierce struggle. Rome at once sent an ultimatum to Hannibal to surrender Saguntum, and when he refused, declared war on Carthage, which was exactly what Hannibal wanted.

Leading his armies out of Spain, he marched at lightning speed through southern Gaul towards Italy. A Roman army sent to intercept him was soundly beaten in the valley of the Rhone, and the Romans realized that they were confronting a really brilliant general. This view was underscored when Hannibal, who’s Intelligence, informed him that the Romans were blocking all the usual routes into Italy, led his armies, with elephants, over the Alps.

In Italy Hannibal subjected all the Roman forces sent against him to crushing defeat, and when he inflicted on them his greatest blow of all at Cannae, it seemed that nothing but a miracle could prevent him from becoming master of all Italy, including Rome. But already a miracle was on the way.

While they had been fighting Hannibal in Italy, the Romans had sent a young general called Scipio; he was only twenty five, so younger than Hannibal, to Spain to attack the Carthaginians there. Here Scipio proved that he was as brilliant a commander as Hannibal. Within three years he had driven Carthage entirely out of Spain.

After Cannae, while Hannibal was waiting for reinforcements, Scipio made arrangements to return with his army to Italy, where he arrived to meet a reception of wild enthusiasm. He realized that Rome would never be safe from Carthaginian attack until Hannibal was utterly defeated in battle, and Carthage was stripped of her power. But he believed that it was useless to confront Hannibal in Italy; he must get him on to a broad plain. So he proposed that to attract him to such a terrain he should take an army over to North Africa and attack Carthage, which must lure Hannibal back to its defence.

Gold signet ring from Capua (late 3rd or early 2nd century B.C.) signed by Herakleides, and bearing the portrait of Scipio Africanus the Elder, a notable representative of the family.

After some opposition from the older members of the Senate, the plan was eventually approved, and in the spring of 204 B.C. Scipio set sail for Africa with an army of 30,000 men.

There he quickly defeated the second class armies which the Carthaginians had hoped would be sufficient to defend them. The frightened Carthaginian merchants at once demanded that peace should be made with Rome, but while ambassadors were being sent to Rome, Hannibal landed with his army.

At this moment, Scipio was having some trouble with some of the African allies of Carthage, but as soon as he received the news of Hannibal’s landing he went to meet him. They met at a place called Zama, some five days’ march from Carthage.

When Hannibal’s scouts reported to him that Scipio’s army was much stronger than he had believed and that the Romans were in fine heart, Hannibal came to the conclusion that peace might be advisable. So he asked Scipio to meet him to talk matters over.

The two greatest generals the world had so far known met alone except for one servant each. They admired each other as soldiers, and eyed one another for a few moments before Hannibal at last spoke. When he had put his point of view, Scipio put his terms. These Hannibal was unable to accept and battle between them, they agreed, would supply the only solution.

On 19 October, 202 B.C., the two armies met on the plain of Zama. They were about equal in men, having roughly 40,000 each. But as well as his infantry and cavalry, Hannibal had eighty battle elephants, the largest number he had ever used in battle before. These constituted the greatest threat to Scipio.

But there was also another very great difference between the two armies. Whereas Scipio’s was composed of Romans and Italians, except for his Numidian ally Massinissa, Hannibal’s was a very mixed lot, which included Greeks and Spaniards, Moors and Gauls, and the Bruttii, a tribe from southern Italy. These men had nothing to lose but their pay, and they did not consider their pay worth dying for.

Now, although the Romans had often met elephants in battle, no Roman general had ever devised tactics to overcome them. Scipio had, however. He changed the normal fighting order of his infantry, and ordered the ranks to open and let the elephants pass through when they led the charge, and then attack them from the rear. Also at the moment that the elephants began to lumber forward, Scipio ordered all his trumpeters and horn blowers to make the loudest noise they could.

These tactics were completely successful. The elephants panicked and were an easy prey to the Romans. When the Carthaginians saw their elephants routed, most of the army turned and fled. Scipio gave pursuit, and when the battle was over Hannibal had lost 20,000 men killed and eleven elephants. The Roman casualties were a mere 1,500 killed.

The Romans inflicted such heavy terms upon Carthage that her power was completely destroyed for ever though she did subsequently attempt to make a comeback.

But the victory at Zama did much more than destroy Carthage. It left the Romans masters of the Mediterranean. Until now they had been content to be masters of Italy; now they began to turn their attention seriously to empire building, and for the next three hundred years they concentrated on building the greatest empire the world has known.

The Romans were great law givers, great builders of roads and buildings, great farmers, writers, poets and teachers. Wherever they went they took these things with them, and when, between A.D. 300 and 400 their empire at last began to break up, every country of which they had once been masters had good roads, fine laws and many other benefits derived from Roman civilization.

Few other battles have so changed the course of world history as did Scipio’s defeat of Hannibal at Zama.