would have recalled him, had not the popular enthusiasm in his favor
been too strong to be resisted.

In 204 he sailed from Lilybaeum, and landed near Utica. He was
welcomed by Masinissa, whose friendship he had gained in his previous
visit to Africa from Spain. Syphax, however, sided with Carthage; but
in 203 Scipio twice defeated him and the Carthaginian forces.

Negotiations for peace followed, but the war party in Carthage
prevailed. Hannibal was recalled. He returned to fight his last battle
with Rome, October 19, 202, at ZAMA, a short distance west of
Carthage. The issue was decided by the valor of the Roman legions, who
loved their commander and trusted his skill. Hannibal met his first
and only defeat, and Scipio won his title of AFRICÁNUS. The battle was
a hard one. After all the newly enrolled troops of Hannibal had been
killed or put to flight, his veterans, who had remained by him in
Italy, although surrounded on all sides by forces far outnumbering
their own, fought on, and were killed one by one around their beloved
chief. The army was fairly annihilated. Hannibal, with only a handful,
managed to escape to Hadrumétum.

The battle of Zama decided the fate of the West. The power of Carthage
was broken, and her supremacy passed to Rome. She was allowed to
retain her own territory intact, but all her war-ships, except ten,
were given up, and her prisoners restored; an annual tax of about
$200,000, for fifty years, was to be paid into the Roman treasury, and
she could carry on no war without the consent of Rome. Masinissa was
rewarded by an increase in territory, and was enrolled among the
"allies and friends of the Roman people."