Battle of Zama  Battle of Zama, (202 bce), victory of the Romans
led by Scipio Africanus the Elder over the Carthaginians
commanded by Hannibal. The last and decisive battle of the
Second Punic War, it effectively ended both Hannibal’s command
of Carthaginian forces and also Carthage’s chances to
significantly oppose Rome. The battle took place at a site
identified by the Roman historian Livy as Naraggara (now Sāqiyat
Sīdī Yūsuf, Tunisia). The name Zama was given to the site (which
modern historians have never precisely identified) by the Roman
historian Cornelius Nepos about 150 years after the battle.  By
the year 203 Carthage was in great danger of attack from the
forces of the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio, who had
invaded Africa and had won an important battle barely 20 miles
(32 km) west of Carthage itself. The Carthaginian generals
Hannibal and his brother Mago were accordingly recalled from
their campaigns in Italy. Hannibal returned to Africa with his
12,000-man veteran army and soon gathere