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does Scipio. Appian closes the scene when Hannibal‟s men are defeated and Hannibal
decides to escape (Appian, Pun. 8.7.47).
Silius Italicus‟ representation of Zama is different again. If there was an elephant
charge, it is not in the Punica, but there may be a poetic allusion to the pathways created
by the Romans stepping aside to allow the elephants to pass when Silius says that wide
passages appeared as men fell which others rush to fill (Pun. 17.420-5). Silius Italicus
placed Macedonian horsemen fighting for Hannibal as well as Greek infantry in their
traditional phalanx whereas Livy only mentions Macedonian infantry in the second line
behind the Carthaginians: in secunda acie Carthaginienses Afrosque et Macedonum
legionem (Livy, 30.33.4; cf. Pun. 17.413-9). The epic Scipio searches out Hannibal for
single combat: illum igitur lustrans circumfert lumina campo rimaturque ducem (Pun.
17.517-8). For the last time, Juno intervened and removed Hannibal from the field of
battle in order to protect him. She is invisible to the Carthaginians who believe that
Hannibal has deserted them, consequently they lose heart: ingruit Ausonius versosque
agit aequore toto rector (Pun. 17.585).
Florus summarised Zama as an evenhanded battle at which the two sides fought long
and hard. He says that everyone agreed that both armies made the best of the occasion,
Scipio said as much about Hannibal and Hannibal about Scipio: hoc Scipio de Annibalis,
Annibal de Scipionis exercitu praedicaverunt (Florus, 1.22.60).
At Scipio‟s triumph 401 the greatest attraction for the crowds, and the final image of
Hannibal in the Punica, is a painting that depicts Hannibal running away: sed non ulla
magis mentesque oculosque tenebat quam visa Hannibalis campis fugientis imago (Pun.
17.643-4). Of course, a painting 402 is no substitute for parading Hannibal in person and
the dying Syphax made a poor second choice. 403
401 Livy 38, 52-3 casts a retrospective cloud over Scipio Africanus‟ triumph in Scipio‟s trial some years
later. See Beard, 2007, 253. Some suggest that Scipio „allowed‟ Hannibal his freedom, De Beer, 1969,
290; Lancel 1998, 180, and that Scipio had the foresight to recognise that Hannibal as the most capable
person to aid Carthaginian recovery.
402 Appian, 8.66, lists categories of items in Scipio‟s triumph, including paintings depicting events from
the war; he does not name any of the prisoners.
403 Silius Italicus favours the tradition that is today extant in Polybius but not in Livy when describing the
dying Syphax being carried through Scipio‟s triumphal procession on a litter (Pun. 17.629-30). Livy says
that Syphax died in prison beforehand thus denying Scipio the satisfaction of displaying either Hannibal
or Syphax (Livy, 30.45.4-5). Polybius said that Syphax died soon after the triumph (Hist. 16.23). See
Beard, 2007, 129-132 for an argument that the supposed ancestral custom to kill kings or foreign leaders
paraded in triumphal processions is a myth based on very little evidence. Beard notes that most captives
executed in one text are found to have remained alive in another text. Syphax is another example with
opposing traditions but no-one claims that he was killed as part of the triumphal celebration.
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