Battle of Zama ends the Second Punic War
- Date
- 19 October 202 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- North Africa (Tunisia)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
At Zama in North Africa the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio (later 'Africanus') decisively defeated Hannibal, ending the Second Punic War and Carthage's status as a great power. After Scipio carried the war into Africa, the Carthaginians recalled Hannibal from Italy to defend their homeland.
At Zama Hannibal deployed war elephants and three lines of infantry, but Scipio arranged his maniples in lanes so the charging elephants passed harmlessly through, while the superior Roman and Numidian cavalry under Masinissa drove off the Carthaginian horse and then struck the rear of Hannibal's infantry, deciding the battle. The peace imposed on Carthage in 201 BCE stripped it of its overseas empire, restricted its fleet to ten warships, imposed a vast fifty-year indemnity, and forbade it to wage war without Rome's permission. Carthage was reduced to a subordinate regional state, and Rome emerged as the dominant power of the western Mediterranean, free to project force eastward into the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Greek world.
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Empires active in 19 October 202 BCE
- Maurya Empire322 BCE – 185 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Seleucid Empire312 BCE – 63 BCE
- Odrysian Kingdom480 BCE – 46 CE
- Ptolemaic Kingdom305 BCE – 30 BCE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire1 October 331 BCE
- Alexander the Great invades the Persian Empire334 BCE
- Meng Tian links the northern walls into the Qin Great Wallc. 215–214 BCE
- Battle of Cannae: Hannibal annihilates a Roman army2 August 216 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires
The accessible standard on Nubia's great Nile kingdom.
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