The battle of Zama Hannibal and Scipio's final showdown (Rome vs Carthage History)

hi this is Epimetheus and i'm thrilled to bring to you today another fantastic collaboration with flashpoint history where i got to do some drawing of Romans Carthaginians silhouettes and got to see them in some fantastic animations he has a passion for history and if you haven't done so already go head over to his channel and subscribe to see much more amazing content like this and the best part is want to know more about the Punic Wars after seeing this amazing episode he has 10 more videos on it I've watched them on can guarantee you'll love them if you have an interest in this time period and now Zama [Music] the war at this point had been going on for a very long time hundreds of thousands of men had been lost on both sides yet Rome and Carthage continued the fight Carthage however was on the decisively losing hand at the conflict the armies of the republic had pushed Carthaginian forces back on every front now Roman forces were at her very doorstep and were led by the general who Bleus Cornelius Scipio who proved he was up for any challenge but not all was lost Hannibal Barca the greatest military mind that Carthage had produced and arguably one of the best military minds in history had assumed command of the army their armies met on a dry dusty plain in North Africa in what would one day be the country of Tunisia these men were veteran generals who had never before been defeated in battle both had cunning minds that put them into a league of their own and perhaps this is part of the reason they decided to meet a few days before the battle Skippy Oh had managed to capture some of Hannibal spies in his camp but instead of executing them he gave these men a grand tour of his forces he knew that they'd report back exactly what they saw but Skippy OHS cavalry had not yet arrived and he specifically wanted the spies to report that as well however Hannibal already knew about the missing cavalry and he was intrigued by his opponents use the deception he wanted to meet this man who had heard so much about a man that seemed to use the same tactics that he himself would have used skippy owed to was captivated he was after all at the Battle of cannae and he saw firsthand what Hannibal was capable of they met face to face the day before their armies were to fight Scipione did the time to bring in his horseman and Hannibal wanted to arrange his new conscripts but it was more than just tactical maneuvering they wanted to size each other up and perhaps they were just curious about what their opponent was really like they quickly discovered that they had a lot in common Anibal was born into the upper class and was a consummate warrior he was trained by his father Hamilcar Barca who was also a military genius a general that defeated Roman armies in Sicily during the First Punic War when it was Hannibal's turn he decided to invade Italy in 218 and one impressive confrontations at trevia Trasimene and canny which is still regarded as one of the most impressive triumphs in all of history his dagger thrust into the heart of Roman Italia brought the Republic nearly to her knees but Rome decided to fight on they adopted a policy of non-intervention Ian government was unable to provide timely reinforcements and so his dutiful brothers Hasdrubal and a goat tried valiantly to come to his aid both men died in their attempt to help out their sibling there were simply more casualties in this massive conflict but Hannibal was not the only one to lose his family members Skippy Oh was also born into aristocracy he was the son of a Roman consul by the same name his father and uncle were lost in the war both were killed in Spain two Carthaginian forces but the young Skippy Oh barely escaping death himself at the Battle of cannae would go on to command a Roman army he took this force to Spain in the year to ten and then using military brilliance won decisively yet new cartilage Bakula and a lip oh this was this masterpiece victory and it was in this baptism by fire that Skippy Oh honed his abilities in tactical audacity now it was also in Spain that he encountered the superb Numidian cavalry commander Massa Nisa who at the time was working for the Carthaginians Skippy Oh ironically knew he needed mass aneesa's expertise and despite the fact that this new midian was partially responsible for the deaths of Skippy OHS family the Roman commander went to work bringing mass Anisa to the Roman side in 205 Skippy Oh return to Rome and became one of the youngest consuls and Roman history and by unanimous vote but when he proposed the direct invasion of Carthage he was immediately rejected after considerable effort he was able to finally get approval yet his political opponents denied him the ability to levy new forces in Rome Skippy Oh did manage to gain some volunteers in the capital but he knew a place where he could find more men for the army on the island of Sicily the 5th and 6th legions had been placed in exile these were the remnants of the men who had been defeated at canny they had been left as a result in a state of living the limbo as punishment for their failure Skippy Oh was gonna give them a shot at redemption and so he incorporated these men into his army and then trained to all of his men to peak efficiency with his men well-prepared the Roman general then invaded in North Africa and brushed aside a Carthaginian force at the battle at the Great Plains in 203 this victory prompted the Carthaginian government to sue for peace but in reality they use the time to recall Hannibal from Italy they were gonna need him for a last-ditch defense of the homeland Hannibal answered the call and brought the remains of his army with them but these men were his veterans they were also at the Battle of cannae but now they were fighting for the very continued existence of Carthage the Battle of Zama as it would be called was thus a rematch between men who were fighting on one end for their Redemption and on the other for their very survival Hannibal was the first to arrive on the battlefield he had 36,000 infantry 4,000 cavalry and 80 elephants he deployed his infantry into three lines the first line consisted of his weakest mercenary troops men who he had very little time to train his second line was as citizen-soldiers people who were levied from Carthage in Libya and in his third and last line he placed his veteran soldiers men who had served him well for more than 15 years going into the battle Hannibal knew that skippy Oh is famous for his envelope ensure a tack as he had done at the Battle of Aleppo and so he intentionally held back his third line to dissuade the Romans from doing this tactic on both flanks he placed his cavalry and with the intent of sending in an opening charging attack he placed his elephants right in the front on the other end of the battlefield skippy Oh also had his horses in three lines but he only had 29 thousand infantry in typical Roman formation from front to back were the hast a tea which were his youngest and least experienced followed by the Prince a phase who were men in the prime of their lives usually also rich enough to afford better equipment and finally the triarii older but most experienced and thus best equipped of his forces but unlike typical Roman formation Skippy Oh didn't place his base units known as maniples in the standard checkerboard pattern but rather in single file to create alleys between his men this was done because he correctly guessed that Hannibal would bring his elephants to the field and this prepared his men for the attack on the flanks he placed his numerically and militarily superior 6000 cavalry which included on the right flank the Numidian prince in commander Massa Nisa who felt it was now the Romans who gave him the best chance to claim his new Midian throne which was kind of his goal all along in the front of his line Skippy o placed his veal at ease these were skirmishers who masked his true formation from Hannibal's view the battle began as Skippy Oh predicted Hannibal charged out his elephants in a direct attack on the Roman centre as the elephants approached Skippy o ordered his cavalry to sound their horns which frightened some of the animals causing some of them to run back into their own lines trampling those in the way especially on the Carthaginian left wing as the rest of the elephants neared the Roman formation the villa T's blended back into the line revealing the alleys between the soldiers the elephants chose the path of least resistance running down the lanes which made them easy targets to be brought down by spearmen on either side mass Anissa watched as the Carthaginian elephants were dealt with and then launched his cavalry into the Carthaginian left wing the Roman cavalry on the other side under the command Elias did likewise unlike other battles where Hannibal had the superiority and half and thus had the potential to unleash drastic and very mobile attacks at Zama his horsemen were outnumbered and soon began to fall back with no alternative hannibal ordered his cavalry commanders to withdraw and lure their Roman and Numidian counterparts from the field which weren't for all their tactical brilliance the fight now between Hannibal and skip EO became an infantry brawl skip EO sent in all three of his lines animal did the same but he kept his veteran third line back in reserve just in case Skippy Oh tried anything unusual the hostile smashed into Hannibal's mercenary troops pushing them back but Hannibal's second line seeing a rout in the making began to lower their Spears and pointed them at their own comrades and thus got them back into the fight the Carthaginian counter-attack drove into the hostage and destroyed their line it was now the Romans turned to reinforce a crumbling front which was done by the Prince Epis this counter counter-attack stopped both of Hannibal's lines in their tracks the fighting started to intensify and soon the Carthaginian line began to falter and break down seeing his enemy's confusion Skippy oh now gave the order to change the entire configuration of his army and extend his front line his has studied soldiers regrouped and formed the center his principies assembled on their flanks and the veteran triarii rallied on the extreme wings perceiving the potential for an envelope meant Hannibal mirrored Skippy O's move he brought up his veteran soldiers to create a new center and then he assembled his mercenary and conscript Carthaginian and Libyan forces on the wings the Battle of Zama now came down to a single Roman line taking on a single Carthaginian one this was a gruesome confrontation and at one point Hannibal began to gain the upper hand polls began to form and Skippy O's forces the Roman formation exhausted by fighting at the set began to lose ground but just as this was about to be a Punic victory the Roman and the midian cavalry under Mass Anisa appeared again on the field the horsemen drove directly into the rear of Hannibal's army and the results were inevitable it was no longer a battle but a massacre the Carthaginians suffered 20,000 dead with another 20,000 captured the Romans sustained only a fraction of that but they had won the fight the second Punic War was now over Carthage had to sue for peace and was strapped with a punishing treaty in massive indemnities skip EO recognized Hannibal as being a worthy adversary in an honourable man their meeting before the battle only reinforced in the Roman commander that there was something redeeming in his opponent so instead of being dragged back in Chains to a Roman triumph Hannibal was allowed to live and would serve Carthage now in an administration aleihi would come to lead the establishment but as the war came to a close both men returned to governments that were hostile towards them Hannibal did too good of a job in government bringing wealth to the rank-and-file people instead of just the aristocracy this incurred the wrath of other politicians who ironically reported him to the Romans and forced him to run for his own life he escaped as a fugitive to the east but eventually was cornered and decided to drink poison rather than ever becoming a prisoner skippy Oh had also come too far too fast many of his colleagues in the Roman Senate hated him and while they couldn't take down a war hero of his magnitude they instead accused his brother of misdeeds eventually a disillusioned and frustrated Skippy Oh would go into a voluntary exile strangely enough both men died in the year 183 Hannibal died as he lived on his own terms as he drank the poison he was remembered as saying let us relieve the Romans from the anxiety that they are so long experienced since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death Skippy Oh made it a point to be buried away from the city of Rome the inscription on his tombstone read in Grotta patria they both suck what am mia habeas on grateful country you shall not even possess my bones Carthage recuperated from the war a little too well she paid off her debts in no time and grew once again to be an economic powerhouse this frightened the Romans who wanted her to be submissive at best the Roman senator Cato the Elder became the biggest proponent for the annihilation of Carthage and he would end all of his speeches with delenda Carthago asked that is Carthage must be destroyed eventually he got his wish and fifty years after the second Punic War ended the third Punic War began a Roman army under the command of Skippy O's adopted grandson a man named Skippy OA Milly honest managed to take the city in 146 it was now that the pent-up hatred that the Romans had was finally unleashed temples were torn down the city walls destroyed the foundations uprooted and her people dispersed and sold into slavery Skippy oh Emily honest then gave the final command to set whatever was left to the torch and a firestorm of unprecedented magnitude consumed and gutted what was once the proud capital of an empire but as he watched the flames he began to weep and became pale at the sight he was approached by his mentor Polybius who recorded that when he had given the order for the firing of the town he immediately turned around and grabbed me by the hand and sent Polybius it is a grand thing but I know not how I feel a terror and dread lest someone should one day give the same order about my own native city and so it came to pass that five hundred and fifty years later Rome would also face the carnage of her own firestorm [Music] flashpoint history is dedicated to making history accessible to everyone if you enjoyed this video give it a like and subscribe please also share on social media it's the only way a video podcast like this can continue to grow I'd like to take this time to thank my patreon subscribers it's lovely people like you who allow for videos like this to be made now for those of you who want to help with the process consider contributing on patreon the link will be in the description you can also follow along with flashpoint history on Facebook and Twitter also a big thanks to Epimetheus who helped me with the artwork he's got a great youtube channel as well and should definitely check it out IVA me Thea's here again don't forget to head over to flashpoint histories channel sub leave him a bunch of likes he put a lot of work into this fantastic series and it is always a rewarding to receive feedback so let him know what you think

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 466,822

Keywords: The battle of Zama Hannibal and Scipio's final showdown, The battle of Zama, Rome vs Carthage, punic wars, The battle of Zama Hannibal and Scipio's final showdown (Rome vs Carthage), history, The battle of Zama Hannibal and Scipio's final showdown (Rome vs Carthage, documentary, hannibal carthage, ancient rome, ancient carthage, battle of zama, rome vs carthage, punic rome, punic carthage, carthaginian, rome documentary, roman empire, ancient civilizations, hannibal barca, rome

Id: cIDdHWr_RAk

Length: 18min 11sec (1091 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018