Scipio’s own position was briefly threatened by the inquiry into Pleminius’ behaviour at Locris, but in spring 204 BC he sailed from Lilybaeum across to Africa with a force of some thirty thousand men. He landed at Cape Farina on the northwestern point of the Gulf of Tunis, where he was soon joined by Masinissa and his cavalry. Utica (which he hoped to capture as a base) on the left (north) bank at the mouth of the Bagradas (=Medjerda) River, was nearby to the south.
Scipio hurried inland and occupied a ridge overlooking the shore where his army was unloading its equipment and supplies. His cavalry screen encountered five hundred horse under Hanno (13) reconnoitring along the coast. Hanno was killed and the Carthaginians suffered heavy casualties.
Scipio moved his force closer to Utica and encamped on a line of hills, about a mile southwest of the city. Hanno (14), commanding four thousand cavalry, occupied Salaeca about fifteen miles (24 km) from the Roman camp. Scipio decided to attempt to lure Hanno into a trap at the Tower of Agathocles, near the coastal road from Utica to Bizerta.
Scipio sent Masinissa with his two hundred cavalry to approach the walls of Salaeca. Hanno eventually appeared with his forces and engaged with Masinissa, who gradually gave ground while moving to where the Romans were waiting in ambush. Scipio’s cavalry rushed out and fell on Hanno’s flank, while Masinissa’s men wheeled about and attacked from the front. Hanno was killed and many of his men died with him.
In the autumn Scipio moved on to Utica. When direct assault was repulsed he began a siege of the city. After forty-six days he had to abandon the action because 08Hasdrubal Gisco and his son-in-law Syphax were amassing a large army in the area. Scipio withdrew to a peninsula again not far from Utica at a site later called Castra Cornelia and set up his winter quarters. Hasdrubal and Syphax built separate camps about eight miles (13 km) from the Roman position.
During the winter Syphax attempted to negotiate peace on the terms that Hannibal withdrew from Italy and the Romans withdrew from Africa. Scipio had no intention of accepting these conditions, but he sent his envoys to the enemy’s camps under the guise of diplomacy to gather intelligence.
In the following spring Scipio placed a detachment on a hill overlooking Utica to make the enemy think that he was going to attack the city. Leaving a detachment to guard the Roman camp he marched with the main part of his army at night towards the enemy camps which he reached just before dawn.
Laelius and Masinissa were sent to the Numidian camp and they set fire to the Numidians’ reed huts. Thinking the fire was an accident, the men rushed out unarmed and were cut down in large numbers. The soldiers in the other camp saw the flames and they too rushed out, again not armed, to assist their allies. Scipio now launched his own attack and torched the Carthaginians’ wooden huts. The assault became a massacre. Hasdrubal and Syphax managed to escape with a small force, but most of their army had been destroyed.
Within a month of the disaster Hasdrubal and Syphax had assembled a new force of about twenty thousand men inland at Magni Campi (=Great Plains) on the upper reaches of the Bagradas (=Medjerda) River, seventy-five miles (120 km) from Utica. Leaving part of his army to continue the siege of Utica, Scipio set out with some twelve thousand men and in five days camped opposite the enemy.
Hasdrubal put the Celtiberian mercenaries in the centre, the Carthaginians on the right wing and the Numidians on the left, flanked by the Carthaginian cavalry. Scipio placed his infantry in the centre in the usual three lines, i.e. the hastati in front, principes second and triarii to the rear, flanked by the Italian cavalry on the right and Masinissa’s on the left.
A charge by the Roman cavalry made the Carthaginian cavalry and infantry flee from the field; the Celtiberians were of about equal number to the first line of the Romans and held firm. Scipio ordered the principes and triarii to turn into columns, half right and half left, then march behind the hastati line and attack the flanks of the Celtiberians, who were routed with only a few managing to escape.
Scipio moved towards Carthage receiving submission of towns he passed and encamped south of the Bagradas at Tunis ten miles southwest from the capital. Carthage sent a fleet to break the siege of Utica at sea and dispatched a message to Italy ordering Hannibal to return. When Scipio saw the enemy fleet heading for Utica he hastened back to the siege and took command of his fleet. The next day the Carthaginian fleet was repulsed and retired with some captured ships.
Syphax retreated westwards into Numidia, pursued by Laelius and Masinissa and part of the Roman army. He turned to fight at Cirta, but was defeated and taken to Rome where he died soon after. Masinissa occupied Cirta and recovered the Massilian kingdom in the east, but princes of Syphax’s line kept control of the Massilian kingdom in the west.
On receiving the news that Syphax had been captured, the Carthaginians recalled Hannibal from Italy and sent thirty of their senators to Scipio to sue for peace. Terms were agreed and armistice declared. While the terms were being ratified in Rome, Hannibal returned to Africa and landed near Hadrumetum seventy miles (113 km) south of Tunis, and was soon joined by his brother Mago’s army from Italy.
In spring 202 BC the armistice was broken when the war party in Carthage seized the cargo of more than one hundred Roman transports and attacked the envoys sent by Scipio to protest. Scipio moved down the Bagradas Valley to join Masinissa, whom he had summoned from Numidia. Anticipating this, Hannibal marched northwestwards towards Numidia to intercept and deflect Masinissa before the junction could be made. Moving quickly, however, Masinissa with his six thousand cavalry managed to reach Scipio and then together they confronted Hannibal near the village of Zama, a town near Siliana about eighty miles (129 km) southwest of Tunis.
Both armies numbered about thirty-five thousand to forty thousand men. Hannibal had a strong elephant corps with him, but Scipio had the advantage in cavalry. Hannibal’s army faced northwest. Hannibal put his inexperienced Carthaginian cavalry on the right, the Numidians on the left, and aligned his infantry in three lines behind his elephants. Scipio positioned his strong Numidian cavalry commanded by Masinissa on the right wing, the Italian cavalry under Laelius on the left, and his troops also deployed as usual in three lines.
Scipio, knowing that when elephants charged forward they could only continue in a straight line, abandoned the usual draughtboard pattern of his troops and created a number of gaps across the depth of his infantry and hid them with skirmishers. The plan was that when the elephants charged, these lanes would open and allow the elephants to pass through the legionaries’ ranks to be dealt with at the rear of the army.
The battle opened with the elephants charging at the Roman front. Scipio’s cavalry blew loud horns to frighten and disrupt the beasts. Several of them turned back and disrupted their own lines, while the others passed through the Roman lines and dealt with as planned. Scipio’s cavalry then charged both wings and drove the enemy cavalry off the battlefield.
The Roman infantry advanced and defeated the Carthaginian first line. Scipio reinforced the hastati with his second line and pushed back the Carthaginian second line. But by this time the legionnaires were nearly exhausted and they had yet to close with the third line, which consisted of Hannibal’s most reliable troops – the veterans from the campaign in Italy.
At this crucial moment Masinissa’s cavalry returned from their rout of the enemy cavalry and attacked the rear of the Carthaginian infantry, who were soon crushed between the combined Roman infantry and cavalry assault. Some twenty thousand Carthaginians died in the battle and the rest were captured, while the Romans lost about fifteen hundred dead. After the battle Hannibal and his staff escaped to Hadrumetum. Scipio collected supplies at Castra Cornelia and after making a demonstration at Carthage he received a peace deputation at Tunis. The terms he dictated were harsh: surrender of the navy, elephants, prisoners and deserters; reduction of her fleet to ten triremes; loss of Spain and the islands; restoration to Masinissa of his possessions in Numidia; a war indemnity of two hundred talents a year for fifty years, guaranteed by hostages; and the subordination of her foreign policy to Rome. The Senate ratified Scipio’s terms and he returned victorious to Rome.
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