The Roman invasion of Africa lasted from 204 to 201 BC when a Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio landed near Utica and decisively defeated the Carthaginian Empire, thus ending the Second Punic War. The First Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome for 23 years, from 264 to 241 BC. After a 23-year interbellum, war broke out again in 218 BC. After a further 13 years of war—marked by Hannibal's campaign in Italy—Scipio, Rome's most successful commander, was assigned to Sicily with the intention of invading the Carthaginian homeland in North Africa.

Scipio's army landed in North Africa in 204 BC, pillaged a large area and laid siege to the port-city of Utica, intending to use it as a permanent base and a harbour proof against the winter weather. A large Carthaginian army, supported by a larger force of allied Numidians, set up camp south of Utica. This caused the Romans to break off the siege and withdraw into their own camp for the winter. In the spring of 203 BC, while feigning that he was renewing the siege of Utica, Scipio launched night attacks on the enemy camps, wiping out both armies. The Carthaginian army reassembled from Utica, but the Romans marched to meet them, leaving the siege largely in the hands of the navy. At the battle of the Great Plains the Carthaginians were again badly beaten. A large Carthaginian-supporting force of Numidians retreated towards their capital, Cirta. They were pursued by an army of Roman-aligned Numidians supported by a Roman cadre. The Romans won the subsequent battle of Cirta and captured the city. Meanwhile, after the Great Plains the majority of the Roman army marched on Tunis, only from the city of Carthage. Shortly after the Carthaginian fleet sailed from Carthage to relieve Utica. When it arrived it found that the Roman fleet had adopted a novel formation which they were unable to fully overcome; they retreated after a day's fighting.

The Carthaginian Senate recalled Hannibal from Italy and entered into peace negotiations with Scipio to end the war. A draft treaty was agreed, which the Roman Senate ratified, but because of mistrust and a surge in confidence when Hannibal arrived from Italy, Carthage repudiated it in early 202 BC. Hannibal set out to engage Scipio and after the protracted and hard-fought battle of Zama his army was annihilated. The Carthaginians sued for peace. The Romans enforced harsh terms in the subsequent peace treaty, agreed in 201 BC, although they did leave North Africa. Thereafter, it was clear that Carthage was politically subordinate to Rome.

Primary sources

The main source for almost every aspect of the Punic Wars is the historian Polybius (), a Greek sent to Rome in 167BC as a hostage. His works include a now largely lost manual on military tactics, but he is best known for The Histories, written sometime after 146BC. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view. He was an analytical historian and wherever possible interviewed participants, from both sides, in the events he wrote about.

The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus is to accept it largely at face value and the details of the war in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. The modern historian Andrew Curry sees Polybius as being "fairly reliable"; while Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". Much of Polybius's account of the Second Punic War is missing, or only exists in fragmentary form.

The account of the Roman historian Livy, who relied heavily on Polybius, is used by modern historians where Polybius's account is not extant. However, the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy says Livy's "reliability is often suspect"; and the historian Philip Sabin refers to Livy's "military ignorance". Dexter Hoyos describes Livy's account of the battle of Zama as "bizarrely at odds with Polybius' which he seems not to understand fully".

Other, later, ancient histories of the war exist, although often in fragmentary or summary form. Modern historians usually take into account the writings of Appian and Cassius Dio, two Greek authors writing during the Roman era; they are described by John Lazenby as "clearly far inferior" to Livy, but some otherwise-lost fragments of Polybius can be recovered from their texts. The Greek moralist Plutarch wrote several biographies of Roman commanders in his Parallel Lives. Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions.

Background

The First Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome: the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC struggled for supremacy primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. The war lasted for 23 years, from 264 to 241 BC, until the Carthaginians were defeated. Under the Treaty of Lutatius, Carthage evacuated Sicily and paid Rome an indemnity of 3,200 silver talents over ten years. Four years later, Rome seized Sardinia and Corsica on a cynical pretence and imposed a further 1,200 talent indemnity. actions which fuelled Carthaginian resentment. Polybius considered this act of bad faith by the Romans to be the single greatest cause of war with Carthage breaking out again nineteen years later.

In 236 BC, an army commanded by the leading Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca landed in Carthaginian Iberia, now part of southeast Spain and Portugal, which became a quasi-monarchial, autonomous territory ruled by the Barcids. This expansion also gained Carthage silver mines, agricultural wealth, manpower, military facilities such as shipyards and territorial depth, enabling it to resist future Roman demands. Hamilcar ruled as viceroy until his death in 228 BC, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, then his son Hannibal in 221 BC. In 226 BC, the Ebro Treaty established the Ebro River as the northern boundary of the Carthaginian sphere of influence. A little later Rome made a separate treaty of association with the city of Saguntum, well south of the Ebro. In 218 BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked Saguntum. In early 219 BC Rome declared war on Carthage.

Second Punic War

Hannibal led a large Carthaginian army from Iberia, through Gaul, over the Alps and invaded mainland Italy. During the next three years Hannibal inflicted heavy defeats on the Romans at the battles of the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae. At the last of these alone, at least 67,500 Romans were killed or captured. The historian Toni Ñaco del Hoyo describes these as "great military calamities", Brian Carey writes that they brought Rome to the brink of collapse. Hannibal's army campaigned in Italy for 14 years before the survivors withdrew. There was also extensive fighting in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa. In 211 BC the Romans suffered a severe reverse at the battle of the Upper Baetis and were penned back by the Carthaginians to the north-east corner of Iberia. In 210BC Roman reinforcements stabilised the situation; later that year Publius Cornelius Scipio arrived with further Roman reinforcements to take command in Iberia. In a carefully planned assault in 209BC, he captured the lightly defended centre of Carthaginian power in Iberia, New Carthage, During the following four years Scipio repeatedly defeated the Carthaginians and drove them out of Iberia in 205 BC.

Opposing forces

Rome

Most male Roman citizens were eligible for military service and would serve as infantry, with a better-off minority providing a cavalry component. Traditionally, when at war the Romans would raise two legions, each of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. Approximately 1,200 of the infantrypoorer or younger men unable to afford the armour and equipment of a standard legionaryserved as javelin-armed skirmishers known as velites; they each carried several javelins, which would be thrown from a distance, a short sword and a shield. The balance were equipped as heavy infantry, with body armour, a large shield and short thrusting swords. They were divided into three ranks, of which the front rank also carried two javelins, while the second and third ranks had a thrusting spear instead. Both legionary sub-units and individual legionaries fought in relatively open order.

It was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year as senior magistrates, known as consuls, who in time of war would each lead an army. An army was usually formed by combining a Roman legion with a similarly sized and equipped legion provided by their Latin allies; allied legions usually had a larger attached complement of cavalry than Roman ones. By this stage of the war, Roman armies were generally larger, typically consisting of four legions, two Roman and two provided by its allies, for a total of approximately 20,000 men. The Roman army which invaded Africa consisted of the now standard four legions, the Roman pair each reinforced to an unprecedented 6,200 infantry and the more usual 300 cavalry. Modern historians estimate the army to have totalled 25,000–35,000 men, including perhaps 2,500 cavalry.

Carthage

Carthaginian citizens only served in their army if there was a direct threat to the city of Carthage. When they did they fought as well-armoured heavy infantry armed with long thrusting spears, although they were notoriously ill-trained and ill-disciplined. In most circumstances Carthage recruited non-citizens to make up its army. Many were from North Africa and these were frequently referred to as "Libyans". The region provided several types of fighters, including: close order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers; close order shock cavalry (also known as "heavy cavalry") carrying spears; and light cavalry skirmishers who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat. The latter were usually Numidians, as were many of the African light infantry. The close order African infantry and the citizen-militia both fought in a tightly-packed formation known as a phalanx. The Carthaginians also employed war elephants; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time.

In addition both Iberia and Gaul provided many experienced infantry and cavalry. The infantry from these areas were unarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. The Gallic cavalry, and possibly some of the Iberians, wore armour and fought as close order troops; most or all of the mounted Iberians were light cavalry. Slingers were frequently recruited from the Balearic Islands. The Carthaginians relied on the troop types mentioned above to make up their armies which participated in the campaigns of 204 and 203 BC. The proportions and numbers of the different troop types in these armies are not known, other than that 4,000 freshly recruited Iberian warriors took part in the battle of the Great Plains in 203 BC. The competing Numidian forces which supported both the Carthaginians and the Romans consisted predominately or entirely of their javelin-armed light cavalry and infantry, with a high proportion of cavalry.

For the campaign of 202 BC, which climaxed in the battle of Zama, as well as an unclear number of troops raised in Africa the Carthaginians were reinforced by the armies of Hannibal and Mago who had been campaigning in southern and north-west Italy respectively until recalled. A contingent of Ligurian came from north Italy and among Hannibal's veterans were many Bruttians from the south west; both fought as heavy infantry.

Prelude