Battle of Zama

The Battle of Zama was fought in 202 BC between the forces of Carthage and the Roman Republic. It was the concluding action of the Second Punic War. The site of the battlefield is uncertain but somewhere in the region then known as Numidia which, in modern terms, spreads along the Mediterranean coast across north-east Algeria and north-west Tunisia.

A Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio (237–183 BC) had invaded Carthage in 204 and engaged the main Carthaginian army under Hannibal Barca at Zama. The principal early source for the battle is Polybius who was born soon after it took place. He says the infantries of the two armies became engaged in a tight confrontation which was broken by the timely arrival of Roman cavalry, who had successfully overcome the Carthaginian cavalry. They were able to attack Carthage's infantry in the rear and inflict devastating losses.

Hannibal fled the battlefield and later advised his government to sue for peace. A treaty was agreed in the spring of the following year with severe sanctions imposed on Carthage including the loss of all territory outside Africa. Scipio was honoured on his return to Rome by the title of Africanus (The African).