Batttle of ZamaHannibal deployed in 3 lines.
1st line: Barbarians
2nd line: Carthaginians and Libyans
3rd line: Veteran Infantry
Additionally, he placed 80 elephants in front of his troops. He placed Numidian cavalry on his left, and carthaginian cavalry on his right wing.
Hannnibal had less cavalry than the romans, and his three lines were under the command of different chiefs and commands had to be translated several times for the benefit of the diverse army.
Scipio Africanus deployed his hastati, principes and triarii not in the usual checkerboard fashion, but with each manile directly behind the other.
So instead of this
R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R
.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R
R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R
he had this (with velites in the gaps)
R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R
R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R
R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R
Additionally, he had Numidian cavary on the right, and
Italian cavalry on his left.
Scipio's army had been training and drilling on Sicily for several months, and so would obey orders efficiently and quickly.
The battle began with an elephant charge. The velites repelled most of the elephants with javelins, and although some elephants continued to charge, they went down the gaps in the line and were killed easily. The majority of the elephants changed back thrugh the carthaginian cavalty wings. The roman cavalry commanders capitalised on this and chased the carthaginians and their numidian allies off the field.
The front lines then clashed, with the hastati gradually pushing back the barbarians. Hannibals second line hung back, probably more due to the diffficulties in coordination rather than for any strategic reason.
The first Carthaginian line was pushed back into the second. Together they stopped the advence of the hastati, but at this point the principes entered combat, and routed the carthaginians. Hannibals veterans were unable to advance through the fleeing first 2 lines, so they stood still. The pursuing hastati reformed and the principes and triarii were placed on their flanks to form a single line, which advanced to meet Hannibal's veterans.
The fight was long and hard, but it was decided when the roman cavalry returned from chasing the carthaginian horse and attacked the back of hannibal's line.
Hannibal's plan was sound and would have probably succeeded had scipio not arranged his lines so that the elephants did little damage. The lack of coordination between Hannibal's lines was also a factor in his defeat, though
///scipio_africanus\\\
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