CASUALTY RECORD // -201 BCE
Battle of Zama
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
2 sides catalogued · combined 21,500 estimated
Rome
1,500
Medium-confidence figure
Carthage
20,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Zama ended the Second Punic War by delivering a decisive defeat to the Carthaginian army under Hannibal. The scale of the Carthaginian collapse — some 20,000 casualties against Roman losses of approximately 1,500 — was sufficient to compel Carthage to capitulate rather than continue the conflict. Hannibal, who had led Carthaginian forces through years of the war and inflicted major defeats on Roman armies in Italy, was driven into exile as a direct consequence. The engagement thus resolved the central strategic contest of the war: whether Carthage or Rome would hold dominant power in the western Mediterranean. With Carthaginian resistance extinguished at Zama, Rome secured the position it would build upon throughout the remainder of the ancient period.
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