ONE MINUTE HISTORY - October 19, 2022

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Incitatus Ch.

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Published on October 19, 2022 3:01:00 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buCfDxs79xY

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On this day, a Roman general avenged 17 years of humiliation with an audacious victory. On October 19th, 202 BC, the Romans defeated Hannibal’s Carthaginian army near Zama in modern-day Tunisia. Following Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps in 218 BC, the Carthaginians ran unchecked all over Italy. To force them to stop, Roman General Scipio Africanus proposed a daring invasion of Carthage itself. The plan worked, and Hannibal returned home and met Scipio on the plains outside of Zama. The key moment in the battle came when Scipio devised a tactic to finally counter Hannibal’s war elephants, opening lanes in his ranks to let them pass through without doing damage. Zama was a crushing defeat for Carthage and forced it to accept harsh peace terms, which crippled its power and allowed Rome to establish itself as the dominant force in the Mediterranean.