After Rome suffered yet another stunning defeat
at the Battle of Cannae, people were in the mood for a radical change in direction. At the tender age of 19, Publius Cornelius
Scipio was one of the 6 Military Tribunes attached to the 2nd Legion at Cannae. We don't have a reliable account of how he
survived, but my best guess is that he was in one of the small groups that managed to
push their way through the encircling Carthaginians and make a run for it. Scipio had an unusual post-Cannae career. He was awarded the command of an army in his
20s, despite the fact that he had been elected to none of the prerequisite offices. He then spent several years successfully campaigning
against the Carthaginians in Spain. Very successfully. So much so that his army tried to hail him
as King. Scipio put a stop to it, but the Senate noticed. When Scipio returned to Rome, he was already
the most popular living Roman. He was elected Consul in a landslide election
even though he was technically ineligable for the office for a couple of different reasons. But Rome had been traumatized by the war and
seemed perfectly comfortable getting a little loosely-goose with the law. Scipio used his connections in the Senate
to get himself named as the governor of Siciliy after his term was up. He asked the Senate if, as the governor of
Sicily, he would have the authority to launch an invasion of North Africa, and they were
like "No..." And then Scipio was like "you know I might
just do it anyway," and they were like "well, maybe...only if you see a really good opportunity." But the Senate didn't actually want Scipio
to invade, so they added: "oh and by the way, we're assigning you zero legions." But this didn't deter Scipio. He announced that he was accepting volunteers
for a North African invasion, and thousands veterans flooded to Sicily. Most of these men had served against Hannibal,
and many of them had even served with Scipio at Cannae. In total, 7,000 men signed up, basically enough
for one and a half legions, not answerable to the Senate, but to Scipio personally. One and a half legions wasn't enough to invade
North Africa, but it was enough to get the attention of the Senate. They pretended to be impressed by Scipio's
initiative, but they were actually terrified. Scipio had already been offered the crown
by his men, and now with the snap of his fingers, he had shown that he was able to raise a small
private army. They still thought it was a bad idea, but
they let him have his way. Scipio would lead a full-fledged invasion
of North Africa. This campaign was complicated, it had a lot
of twists and turns, but it culminated with Hannibal being recalled to defend North Africa,
and with the two armies meeting at Zama, a town 5 days march inland from the coast. The city of Carthage had managed to throw
together thousands of raw recruits and at least 80 war elephants to help buttress Hannibal's
forces. Now this may surprise you but there's no internationally
recognized symbol for war elephants, so let's quickly make one. Let's take the cavalry, and shift the line
down like that, and add a couple of extra lines at the sides, and… PERFECT. When deploying for battle, Hannibal placed
the elephants at the front, followed by a line of experienced Gauls and mercenaries
from the Italian campaign. This was followed by a line of the new recruits
from Carthage. The third line was made up of the core of
of Hannibal's army from his Italian campaign. I've seen this third line referred to as the
most experienced army in human history. In their 16 years in the field, they had never
experienced a significant defeat. Hannibal had been unable to bring the majority
of his cavalry with him across the Mediterranean, but he had some left, and he placed them on
the wings. Scipio set up his army in an unusual way. He had his men form up in three lines like
normal, but not in the classic checkerboard formation that the Romans liked to use in
this period. Instead, he shifted his middle line over,
and filled the gaps with some light skirmishers. The line may have appeared solid from Hannibal's
point of view, but from the top down we can see that he left big open columns between
his maniples. He put his Roman cavalry on his left, and
his mounted Numidian allies on his right. The Romans were significantly outnumbered,
but with the help of the Numidians they had an advantage when it came to cavalry. The battle opened with a huge elephant charge,
which would have been terrifying. We don't know for sure, but this may have
been an accidental elephant charge, which is somehow even more terrifying. There is some talk among historians that these
elephants may have been newly captured and maybe only half trained, but nobody knows
for sure. Anyway, the elephants on the left charged
first, got a little confused, veered left and left and left and went straight into the
Carthaginian cavalry. The Numidians on the Roman right saw an opportunity,
and charged without warning. The Carthaginians on this side were in total
chaos, and fell into a route almost immediately. Everybody else was like, "oh, I guess the
battle has started," so Hannibal ordered the rest of his elephants to advance. The Carthaginian objective here was to use
the elephants as... tanks, basically, to disrupt the enemy lines, and then have their superior
infantry follow up and overwhelm the Romans. But it didn't work. As the elephants closed in, the skirmishers
fell back, revealing gaps in the line. Elephants have minds of their own, and can't
really be trained to do something suicidal, like running into a wall of spears. So they ran into the gaps. This is the moment the Roman skirmishers were
waiting for. They pelted the elephants with ranged weapons,
killing many and driving rest off. The elephant threat had now been neutralized,
and they had done more damage to the Carthaginians than they had to the Romans. As the battle was heating up, the cavalry
on the Roman left clashed with the Carthaginians opposite them. After an initial skirmish, the Carthaginian
cavalry turned and fled, with the Romans in hot persuit. The elephants had been eliminated, and the
cavalry was off the board. Now, Hannibal's 36,000 infantry faced off
against Scipio's 23,000. Fortune had favoured Rome in the first few
clashes, but now that only the infantry remained, it was becoming clear that Hannibal had the
bigger and better army. Maybe this was all according to his
plan. Maybe the Romans were walking into another
trap. Hannibal ordered his first two lines forward,
keeping his elite 3rd line in reserve. As the two sides met, the fighting was immediately
intense. The mercenaries and Gauls on the Carthaginian
side had a personal enmity towards Rome, and fought like wild-men. The Romans fought very conservatively at first,
hiding behind their shields just trying to survive the first wave of attacks. Then, after the enemy began to grow tired,
the Romans slowly moved forward, slamming into the Carthaginians with their shields
and forcing them to give ground. At this time, some of the mercenaries tried
to flee, and were cut down by their own men. Not great for morale. The Carthaginian second line charged forward,
and stopped the Romans momentum. The fighting here dragged on for some time,
with many losses on both sides. The Roman first line was tore to shreds, and
it wasn't until the second line moved up and reinforced them that the stalemate was broken
and the Romans continued their advance. Eventually, the Carthaginian second line was
routed. These were the new recruits, after all. They did pretty well to go toe to toe with
the Romans for as long as they did. The Roman first line was in tatters. They had fought their way through two lines
of Carthaginian infantry, and had barely survived. All this time, the Carthaginian third line,
the core of Hannibal's elite army, hadn't moved. Remember that Hannibal had started this battle
with a significant numerical advantage, and had only used his weakest troops. The two armies were now roughly the same size,
more or less, but the Romans had basically just fought an entire battle, while Hannibal's
third line, the most experienced army in human history, had yet to even break a sweat. Scipio realized - maybe too late - that this
was Hannibal's plan all along. He gave the signal, and had his men fall back. The Carthaginians didn't move. The Romans took their time, caught their breath,
and reformed their line. Instead of forming up in the normal 3 lines
of attack, they repositioned themselves in one solid line, with the tattered first line
in the middle, the blooded second line next to them, and the fresh third line at the wings. Weak centre, strong wings. Just like Hannibal always used to do. Neither side had enough men left for any tricks,
or complicated maneuvers. The Romans just advanced directly into the
waiting Carthaginian line, and it was a straight up brawl. Neither side gave an inch of ground. It was looking like it was going to be a stalemate,
until... OH MY GOD IT'S THE CAVALRY. They had broken off their pursuit when they
figured out that the Carthaginians were deliberately trying to lead them away from the battle. They rode to the rescue, and crashed right
into the back of Hannibal's third line. After 16 years, Rome had finally pulled off
a Hannibal-style maneuver. And that was pretty much it. The Carthaginians fought on bravely, but it
was all over. Rome imposed strict peace terms on Carthage,
and basically made them into a client state. There's a story - probably apocryphal, but
whatever - that years later, when Hannibal was asked about his legacy, he would say that
if not for the Battle of Zama, he would have been remembered as the greatest general of
all time. It sounds like an empty boast, but then you
go down the resume. Trebia. Trasememe. Cannae. It might be true.
I could watch Historia Civilis all day. This channel is the reason I'm taking a course on Rome next semester.
Love this channel. Here are other great videos of his:
The battle of Cannae (This was the inspiration for Battle of the Bastards in GoT)
Julius Caesar's Greatest Military Victory (The Battle of Alesia) This one is my favorite.
These videos make me feel like I'm actually watching the battle.
This is one of the only YouTube channels I've ever subscribed to. These are amazingly well made and explained even better.
I love this channel. Hope he makes more great videos like this.
Any other channels like his?
Worth pointing out that there is debate over whether this battle actually happened, whether it was actually many different battles that were incorrectly linked into one large battle, or whether it is a complete fabrication and just a giant pile of steaming Roman propaganda.
TLDW: Cheers luv, cavalry's here
Easily my favorite Roman battle, the lead up to this fight was so many years in the making and the amount of fortune it took on Romans side to happen after bleeding so much is just preposterous. He doesn't really go into it, but you guys should look into what Scipio did following the battle that killed his father, and brought him to Africa.