u and your country must throw yourselves on
our mercy, or else conquer us.'

* * * * *

So the armies drew up opposite each other on the field of Zama, on the
bright spring morning of 202 B.C. which was to decide whether
Carthaginians or Romans were to be masters of the world. Hannibal had
about five thousand men more than his enemy, but he was weak in cavalry,
and the eighty elephants which he had placed in front were young and
untrained. The cavalry of the Romans was under the command of Massinissa
and of Laelius, friend of the historian Polybius, and it was this strong
body of Numidian horse which ultimately turned the fate of the day. As
for the elephants, the sound of the Roman trumpets frightened them
before the battle had begun, and threw them into confusion. They charged
right into the middle of the Carthaginian cavalry, followed by
Massinissa and by Laelius, who succeeded in breaking the ranks of the
horse and putting them to flight. For a moment it seemed as if the heavy
armed foreign troops which Hannibal then brought up would prevail
against the Roman legions, but at length they were forced back on to
their own lines, which took them for deserters.

With a cry of 'Treachery!' the foreign soldiers fell on the
Carthaginians, and fighting hard they retreated on Hannibal's reserve,
the well-trained Italians.

* * * * *

At this point there was a pause, and both commanders made use of it to
re-form their armies. Then the battle began afresh, and the generals
left their posts and fought for hours in the ranks of the common
soldiers. At last the cavalry returned from pursuit and threw itself on
the rear of the Carthaginians. This time they gave way, and Hannibal,
seeing that the battle was lost, quitted the field, in the hope that
somehow or other he might still save his country from destruction.

How bitter, in after years, must have been his regret that he had not
died fighting among his men at Zama!

* * * * *

Though Hannibal and the Romans hated each other so much, they were alike
in many respects, and in nothing more than in the way that no defeat
ever depressed them or found them without some plan to turn it into
victory. In truth, in spite of his love for his country, which was
dearer to him than wife or child, Hannibal was far, far more of a Roman
than a Carthaginian.

* * * *