Chapter VII: Zama

The following morning the opposing armies were drawn up in battle array as follows. Scipio placed in front the Hastati, with an interval between their maniples. The Principes came next, but these, contrary to the usual plan, were not placed so as to cover the intervals behind the Hastati. On the contrary, Scipio placed the maniples of the Principes directly behind the maniples of the spearmen in the front line. In the rear of these two lines he placed the Triarii, still leaving intervals. This he did to leave room for the enemy’s elephants to pass between the various ranks. Caius Lælius, who was fighting on land now, commanded the Roman cavalry on the left wing; but on the right was the traitor Massinissa with all his Numidians. As Maharbal viewed, before the beginning of the battle, this noble force of Numidian cavalry massed on the Roman side, some four thousand men in all, he groaned aloud, and cursed his cousin by all the gods of Avernus. And this he did the more heartily, since he saw waving amid their ranks various standards and emblems which he well remembered seeing in his boyhood borne by the troops of his jovial uncle Syphax.

Hannibal arranged his men as follows. He covered the whole of his front with no less than eighty elephants. Behind the elephants came twelve thousand mercenaries of various tribes and nationalities--Celts and Ligurians, Mauretani and Balearic Islanders. Behind these mercenaries came the native Libyans and Carthaginians, while in rear of all he placed the men upon whom he knew he could thoroughly rely. These were the men whom he had brought with him from Italy, whom he held in reserve more than an eighth of a mile in the rear. He placed his Numidian allies under Tychæus upon his left wing, while the Carthaginian cavalry were on the right. And now all was ready for the fray.

Before the battle actually commenced each of the commanders exhorted his men. Scipio bid them remember their former victories, to show themselves men of mettle worthy of their reputation and their country, and to understand that the effect of their victory would be not only to make themselves masters of Libya but to give them and their country the supremacy and undisputed lordship of the world. Thus he urged them to charge the enemy with the steady resolve to conquer or to die, and not to think of disgraceful flight under any circumstances.

Hannibal left the task of exhorting the men of the various forces to their own officers, with the exception of his own army of Italy. To them he addressed himself personally, and seeing what was the final result of the battle his speech was pathetic in the extreme. For he begged this army of Italy “to remember the many years during which they had been brothers in arms, and the number of battles they had fought with the Romans in which they had never been beaten or given the Romans even a hope of victory. Above all, putting all the countless minor successes aside, he charged them to remember the battle of the Trebia against Scipio’s father, the battle in Etruria against Flaminius, and the battle of Cannæ against Æmilius, with none of which was the present struggle to be compared, whether in regard to the number or the excellence of the enemy’s men. Let them only raise their eyes and look at the enemy’s ranks, they would see that they were not merely fewer than those whom they had fought before, but as to their soldierly qualities there was no comparison. The former Roman armies had come to the struggle untainted by memories of past defeats, while these men were the sons or the remnants of those who had been beaten in Italy and fled before him again and again. They ought not, therefore, to undo the glory and fame of their former achievements, but to struggle with a firm and brave resolve to maintain their former reputation of invincibility.”

Meanwhile the Numidians upon each side had become already engaged, and the plain was covered with the wheeling, charging, retiring and advancing bodies of cavalry. For the usual Numidian tactics were being pursued at this opening stage.

Now Hannibal gave the order for the elephants to charge. But many of these ferocious brutes, being only imperfectly trained, becoming frightened at the blaring of the Roman trumpets and horns, turned back again upon their own side and charged in among the allied Numidian cavalry fighting Massinissa upon the left wing, thus making it easy for that Numidian prince to rout his kinsman Tychæus thoroughly. The rest of the elephants did a considerable amount of damage to the Romans, but, owing to the spaces that Scipio had left between the maniples, down which many of them charged, not half the amount of damage that they ought to have done. And then, their bodies being full of darts, they ran away to the right, being driven off the field by further darts from the Roman cavalry in the Roman left wing. And the elephants being out of the way, Caius Lælius with all his horse charged the Carthaginian cavalry opposed to them and put them to flight, being joined by Massinissa with his Numidians in the pursuit, which resulted in an utter rout.

And now the Roman infantry and the mercenaries of the Carthaginian front line charged each other, the Romans clashing with their swords upon their shields as they advanced, making a deafening and terrible din.

But the Celts and Mauretani, the Balearic Islanders and the Ligurians were not disconcerted either by these terrifying sounds or by the awe-inspiring sight of the huge sombre plumes waving above the helmets of the advancing Romans, making them appear about two feet greater in stature than ordinary men.

Raising in turn their own fierce war-cries, each in his own tongue, the mercenaries stood their ground nobly, and now every man, foot to foot, body to body, and shield to shield, cut and thrust and cut and thrust again, while as each man went down, his comrade stepped up from the rear and filled his vacant place. For long the issue of the combat between the front lines of the infantry remained uncertain, while men went down in hundreds, never to rise again.

At length, owing to the steadiness of the rear ranks of the Romans, who supported and encouraged their front rank men, while on the other hand, the cowardly Carthaginian levies, in rear of the mercenaries, began to waver and then to give way, the Romans began to gain ground. Thus the mixed bodies of foreign troops, being forced back by the weight of the Romans, and realising that they were being shamelessly deserted by their own side, turned their backs upon the Romans in front of them and joined them in falling upon the Carthaginian troops in their rear who had failed to support them.

And as Hannibal, who, with Maharbal, was remaining in rear with the reserves of the army of Italy, would by no means allow them to enter his ranks, but had them thrust back with the spear’s point, these flying Carthaginians were now compelled, whether they would or no, to face to the front again and fight. This they did with the fury and courage of despair when it was too late, and, furiously charging their own mercenaries and the Romans combined, not only killed many of their own men, but threw the ranks of the hitherto successful Hastati into confusion; whereupon Scipio advanced his Principes of the second line to drive them back. By this time, however, the greater part of the mercenaries and the Carthaginians had either killed each other or been killed by the Hastati, who were also many of them dead or dying. The ground was now so utterly encumbered with wounded men and corpses, and so slippery with blood, while arms and shields were tossed about everywhere in helpless confusion, that it was impossible for Scipio to advance in line formation his Principes, with their supports of the third line--that is, the Triarii against the main body of the army of Italy which was waiting under Hannibal for their advance.

Sounding a bugle, therefore, Scipio recalled such of the Hastati as had pursued beyond the zone where the bodies were lying thickest, and halted them there.

Then putting his Principes and Triarii into formations of files two or four deep, he threaded his way with them through the area where the dead and dying lay in heaps, and then re-formed all these fresh men into line again upon the other side, one line being as before in rear of the other.

He now caused such of the Hastati as had survived to fall in on the flanks of the new troops. These arrangements being made, he continued his advance.

Now Hannibal and Maharbal and all their veterans of many a hundred combats were thirsting for the fray, which they had been compelled, while inactive themselves, to witness for so long.

“Charge!” cried Hannibal.

“Charge!” re-echoed Maharbal.

“Charge!” repeated every one of the captains.

With a roar like the roar of the sea did the gallant remnant of the army of Italy advance and throw themselves upon the Romans with a fury that was terrible to behold. For the Romans, man for man, were no better, nay, not so good as their antagonists, and soon they began to fall back, slowly at first, then faster and faster, until at length they were falling backwards over the heaps of corpses they had, while advancing, just passed, the Carthaginians following, cutting down and slaying them with triumphant shouts of victory. It seemed as if the day were indeed lost for Scipio, and as if, despite the double misfortune of the stampede of the elephants and the cowardice of the Carthaginian levies, Hannibal would once more prove the victor, upon Carthaginian even as on Roman soil.

But alas! what is this? From the left rear comes a thundering sound! it is the Numidian Massinissa returning from the pursuit of Tychæus and falling with his horsemen in a solid body upon the Carthaginian left flank and rear. And alas! what again is this? From the right rear also there comes a thundering sound as Caius Lælius, with his five thousand Roman cavalry, returning from the pursuit of the Carthaginian horse, falls upon the right flank and rear in turn.

Fight hard now and invoke the gods, ye soldiers of Hannibal! fight hard and strike home, for never again shall ye fight under your beloved leader!

Strike now, Maharbal! strike, Bostar! strike, Hanno! Hamilcar! Adherbal! Strike, all ye captains, for the dying lion’s sake, and if ye must die, see that ye die as becometh your leader’s reputation. A life for a life! die but yield not!

And so for want of cavalry, hemmed in upon all sides, even as Hannibal himself had hemmed the Romans in at Cannæ, did the army of Italy fall. Seeing at last that all was lost, hopelessly, irretrievably lost, Hannibal called together Maharbal and such of the other mounted officers as still lived, and forming them up into a little group, boldly charged, sword in hand, the surrounding cavalry on the right flank.

And as many of these were Roman soldiers, who had seen Hannibal and Maharbal at Cannæ and in many other encounters, they were filled with alarm at the sight of these two well-known warriors falling upon them. Therefore even in this, their very moment of victory, they fell back, terror-stricken, before the defeated lion and his giant companion. Thus they cut their way through, themselves unharmed, and riding off the battle-field, continued to retreat at full gallop for several miles before drawing rein, taking the route to Adrumentum, which had been left garrisoned. Thus ended the battle of Zama, which decided the fate of the world; and thus, for the first and the last time in his life, was Hannibal, the great, the hitherto invincible Hannibal, forced to fly before the face of an enemy.