War Elephants in Carthage

October 8, 2006 1:36 PM

The Battle of Zama was fought in October, 202 BC, between Rome and Carthage; it was the decisive battle in the Second Punic War. Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander, is famously known for marching an army including war elephants over the Alps to invade Italy at the outbreak of this war. Scipio, the Roman commander, neutralized Hannibal's war elephants at Zama through an innovative strategy; as the elephants charged, the Romans opened gaps in the lines and the elephants, unable to veer once charging, passed harmlessly through the lines and were picked off on the other side. The decisive Roman victory at Zama marked the end of Carthage as a serious threat to Rome.
posted by PercussivePaul (11 comments total)

Enough is enough.
posted by brassafrax at 1:40 PM on October 8, 2006

this is interesting, yet entirely unworthy of a front page post
posted by matkline at 1:40 PM on October 8, 2006

Look, I know that this elephant thing is de rigeur today, but a single-link post on the Battle of Zama?

There's plenty out there on the Second Punic War that could build a multi-link post that's Best Of The Web. Try harder.
posted by dw at 1:43 PM on October 8, 2006

OK, I got carried away. You guys can delete the post if you want.
posted by PercussivePaul at 1:49 PM on October 8, 2006

Best of the bunch because it points out how stupid this exercise is.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:56 PM on October 8, 2006

At least, add something interesting.
posted by muddylemon at 1:57 PM on October 8, 2006

Best of the bunch because it points out how stupid this exercise is.

Aren't you suppsosed to be on a walk smelling some flowers or petting a cat or something?
posted by loquacious at 1:57 PM on October 8, 2006

Aren't you supposed to keep comments about other members in Metatalk?
posted by solid-one-love at 2:02 PM on October 8, 2006

That comment, like this one, merely appears to reference other mefites. It is, in fact, a marvelous coincidence.
posted by cortex at 2:04 PM on October 8, 2006

Aren't you supposed to keep comments about other members in Metatalk?

Aren't you supposed to keep negative comments about posts in MetaTalk? Is your illogic confabulator totally and completely borked and munged or what?

Apologies for the derail, PercussivePaul. Normally I'd refrain, but this one is probably going down, anyway.
posted by loquacious at 2:09 PM on October 8, 2006

"Best of the bunchAren't you supposed to keep negative comments about posts in MetaTalk?

I don't see any instructions to do so below the live preview.

Into the greasemonkey filter you go. Sad, really.
posted by solid-one-love at 2:12 PM on October 8, 2006