October 202 BC
The armies deploy
Scipio draws up his legions in their three lines, but places each maniple of principes straight behind a maniple of hastati instead of in the usual checkerboard. This leaves open lanes running through the army, and the velites stand in them. Masinissa’s 4,000 Numidian horsemen hold the right, and Laelius with 1,500 Roman and Italian cavalry the left. Modern historians usually give the Romans 29,000 or 30,000 men.
The battle of Zama, Gobelins tapestry made for Louis XIV after designs by Giulio Romano, 1686 to 1689, LouvreWikimedia Commons, Tangopaso, Public domain (La bataille de Zama (Tapisserie, Louvre, OA 5394).jpg)
Hannibal sets his 80 elephants in front, about 30 m apart. Behind them stands a first line of 12,000 mercenaries, Ligurians, Gauls, Balearic slingers and Moors, many of them from Mago’s army, and a second line of Carthaginian and African levies. His veterans from Italy form a third line about 200 m further back. His Numidian cavalry face Masinissa on the left and his Carthaginian cavalry face Laelius on the right. Polybius gives him about 40,000 men, of them 4,000 cavalry.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 15, 9 to 11.
- Livy, History of Rome, book 30, 32 to 33.
- John Lazenby, Hannibal’s War (1978).
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