How Scipio Beat Hannibal's War Elephants

Autumn, 202 B.C. On a dry plain in North Africa, five days' march west of Carthage, two men rode out between their armies and met face to face: Hannibal, who had destroyed Roman army after Roman army at the Trebia, at Lake Trasimene and at Cannae, and Publius Cornelius Scipio, who had escaped from Cannae as a young officer fourteen years before. Hannibal offered peace. Scipio refused. The next morning they fought, and by evening Hannibal's army was gone. On the battle map we follow how it happened: Scipio's long road through Spain and into Africa, Masinissa and his Numidian horsemen, the spies Scipio showed around his camp, and the morning of the battle, when he lined up his maniples one behind the other and left open lanes running through his whole army. Then the battle in seven moves: the trumpets and horns that turned Hannibal's elephants back onto his own cavalry, the elephants running harmlessly down the lanes, the empty wings, the mercenaries turning on the Carthaginians, the veterans lowering their spears against their own fugitives, Scipio re-forming over the dead, and the Roman cavalry coming back to strike Hannibal's line from behind, just as Hannibal had struck Rome at Cannae. A NOTE ON THE SOURCES The battle is told by Polybius (Book 15), who wrote within living memory and knew Scipio's friend Laelius, and by Livy (Book 30), who follows him closely. The meeting of the two generals, the spies shown around the camp, the maniples placed one behind the other, the velites in the lanes, the trumpets and horns, the elephants turning onto Hannibal's own Numidians, the mercenaries fighting the Carthaginians, the veterans keeping out the fugitives with their spears, Scipio re-forming over the dead, and the cavalry returning to strike the rear all come from Polybius. The losses (over 1,500 Romans; about 20,000 of Hannibal's men killed and nearly as many taken) are his figures. The size of both armies is debated: Polybius gives over eighty elephants and about 12,000 mercenaries; modern estimates put Scipio at roughly 29,000 - 35,000 men (about 6,000 of them cavalry) and Hannibal at about 40,000. Whether Hannibal's cavalry fled on purpose to draw the Romans away is a modern theory. The exact battlefield has never been found; the map shows one proposed site west of Zama, near Naragara, and the film lays the armies out north and south for clarity. Hannibal's words in the council and the meeting at Ephesus are reported by Polybius and Livy; the Ephesus story is very probably a legend. SOURCES Polybius, The Histories, Book 15 (translated by W. R. Paton) Livy, The History of Rome, Books 30 and 35 John Lazenby, Hannibal's War (1978) Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage (2000) Brian Todd Carey, Hannibal's Last Battle: Zama and the Fall of Carthage (2007) Dexter Hoyos, Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy (2008)