Gratuitous Historickal Geek Posting - Classical Civ Division

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Zama (located in North Africa - modern Tunisia, I believe), fought in 202 B.C. between the Roman army of Scipio Africanus and the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal. The battle ended in the obliteration of Hannibal's army and Carthage's loss of the Second Punic War, and established Rome's unchallengable control of the Mediterranean Basin. (Rome would later destroy Carthage - literally stone by stone - after picking a fight to provoke the Third Punic War.)

Here's a pretty nifty little animated walk-through of the battle. Scipio went into it with three major factors in his favor. For one, he had the excellent Numidian cavalry on his side (Roman cavalry itself being something of a joke). Second, he had a plan for dealing with Hannibal's elephant force (luring them into lanes created in the Roman ranks and picking off their drivers - it worked beautifully). Third, he had a keen understanding of Hannibal's battle tactics and, knowing how Hannibal would behave, actually was able to pull a reverse of Hannibal's own encircling movement that had destroyed the Roman army at the Battle of Cannae in 216 B.C.