The Battle of Zama, 202 BC, where Scipio Africanus and
Hannibal met, decided the Second Punic War with the decisive defeat of Hannibal.
Scipio, who may have had less infantry but considerably more cavalry, turned the
tables, as it were, by his tactics, such as neutralizing the elephants used by
Hannibal and supposed to have numbered eighty, but at a later moment, the
battle was again in balance, until two cavalries under Laelius and Massinissa
returned to the field from the pursuit of Hannibal's cavalry earlier and
attacked Hannibal from two sides. The battle ended in a slaughter of the
Carthaginians.
Polybius, in The Histories, fragments of Book XV, gives a dramatic description, beginning with the meeting between the two
generals before the battle. Livy, in Book XXVIII.29ff, is no less dramatic, and admiring:
"…Their armed attendants having retired to an equal distance, they met, each attended by one interpreter, being the greatest generals not only of their own times, but of any to be found in the records of the times preceding them, and equal to any of the kings or generals of any nation whatever. When they came within sight of each other they remained silent for a short time, thunderstruck, as it were, with mutual admiration."
Adrian Goldsworthy in The Fall of Carthage throws water on all this eloquence by remarking, "…that it is questionable whether the speeches attributed to them preserve anything of their actual conversation." Appian, In Punic Wars §39ff concludes with "Great slaughter ensued and innumerable wounds, mingled with the shouts of the combatants and the groans of the dying, until, finally, the Romans routed these also and put them to flight. Such was the brilliant issue of this engagement".
Unfortunately, I can't locate my Delbrück: Warfare in Antiquity: History of the Art of War, 1920. Maybe someone else can comment on his take of the battle.
Most of the books I have include excellent maps, some showing the various stages of the battle. Online, WikiCommons has a map from the Department of History, U.S. Military Academy, below. Click on image for a larger size.
War gamer and Ancient Military historian Greg Pitts has written a brief article on the battle, which lists the battle line-up of both sides. He is currently working on a detailed historical piece about the battle.
In art there is an engraving, The Battle of Zama above, by Cornelis Cort, 1567 from a painting by Raphael.
