Zama

I just added this "On this Day in History" feed from the BBC into my blog. I am happy about that. I would not have known that Zama happened on an October 18. This event has, I believe, no real parallel in history. Zama was the culmination of a decades long conflict between the 2 great superpowers of the time: the well established Carthaginian empire, and the dynamic Roman Republic. To come up with a modern analogy, is as if NATO and the Warsaw Pact had gone to war at the apex of their power. Never in human history, has there been a titanic struggle for world domination like the Punic Wars. At stake was the dominion over the Mediterranean. The Greeks were already second rate powers, the future spoils of the winner.

The second Punic war, whose name was derived of the Latin naming of the Carthaginians, "Poeni", or Phoenicians, had some of the great dramas of human history: the epic of Hannibal Barca and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.

This war gave the opportunity, in my not so humble opinion, for the greatest generals in ancient history to combat each other, and created the legend of Hannibal. This Carthaginian general was raised with hatred towards Rome, the upstart Latin Republic that had taken Sicily from Carthage in the First Punic War. He would then conquer Iberia (Spain) for his country, and from there, take an army with elephants through the Pyrenees, fighting through Gaul-infested lands (modern southern France), crossing the Alps, and finally falling on Rome's legions to utterly defeat them in Trebia (20,000 Roman losses), Lake Trasimene (30,000 Romans killed or drowned and 10,000 captured), and Cannae (76,000 Romans killed). The magnitude of these feats and the crushing victories on the several consular armies would have dealt a death blow to any city-state. In 2 years, one man and his army had been responsible for the death of over 120,000 Roman citizens in arms. After such massive losses, Hannibal ad portas would always become a phrase to describe a great calamity and fear. The word cannibal, it is said, derives from his name.

But this is where Rome showed its true character, and decided to show that they were destined to shape history and not be shaped by history. In my mind, while reading Polybius and Livy about this moment in human history, I cannot but find admiration in the leaders and spirit of those Romans. In spite of having lost almost everything, they did not give up. They raised another army. For years, the army would not present battle to Hannibal in Italy, but they would harass him and deny him victory. They learned. And then, the son of the Roman general dead in Spain, Publius Cornelius Scipio, came to age.

Scipio would not fight in Italy, but take the war directly to the enemy. First in Spain, where he conquered, and then in northern Africa, the seat of Carthage. At his arrival in Africa, the Carthaginians recalled Hannibal from Italy. Without fighting Hannibal in Italy, he had finally liberated Rome from its hated enemy.

The conclusion of this epic would take place near Carthage, in Zama. Two equally matched forces, two geniuses as generals. The two met before the battle, yet they could not agree to an armistice. If you read this in fiction, you would dismiss it as incredible. Yet, it happened. Scipio won. Thus, Scipio, the Roman general that would never lose a battle, defeated Hannibal, the most creative military genius of the Ancient world. For this, he would be given the cognomen Africanus. Scipio would end his life in a self imposed exile, reviled by a Senate that distrusted and would continue to distrust great men.

Carthage sued for peace afterwards. Its territory was reduced to the vicinity of the city itself. It's fleet dismantled, it would rely only on commerce. However, after so much hatred, Rome would also show eventually its darker side. Fifty years after the end of the Second Punic War, Rome would declare war on Carthage again, worried of the wealth created by its flourishing commerce. Carthage would be burned to the ground. Carthage would be no more.