‘The two most famous generals, the two most powerful armies of the two richest nations on earth, came to do battle, destined either to double or destroy the countless battle honours they had previously won.’ (Livy 30.32) this is how the Roman historian Titus Livius Patavinus (nominally referred to as Livy) came to describe the Battle of Zama in his History of Rome. The Battle of Zama was the decisive battle of the Second Punic War, ending the war and effectively establishing Roman dominance over the Western Mediterranean. The battle took place near the town of Zama in modern day Tunisia, then part of the Phoenician City State of Carthage. The battle two of the worlds greatest military minds duke it out for the honour of their respected nations. …show more content…
At the time of the Battle of Zama Carthage and Rome had already been at war for nearly seventeen years. The 2nd Punic War began as a hegemony dispute over the Hellenized Iberian city of Saguntum (present day Sagunto, Valencia, Spain) who had recently developed diplomatic ties with Rome, Carthage, seeing this as a threat to their dominion over Iberia, proceeded to lay siege to Saguntum and after a desperate eight months resistance took the city under the command of Hannibal (Polybius 3.17) this was followed by a Roman declaration of war in 218 BC. Hannibal then surprised the Romans by marching his army of 59,000 including infantry, cavalry and most famously his thirty-seven war elephants across the Alps. Alliances with the local Gauls allowed the forces of Carthage to move through the area, mostly unmolested except for the Battle of Rhone Crossing, during which Hannibal's forces were unsuccessfully attacked by the Allobroges. For the next fifteen years Hannibal was the scourge of Italy, winning consecutive battles at Ticinus, Trebia and Lake Trasimene, culminating in the Battle of Cannae, the worst defeat in Roman military history. Between 210 BC and