In 202 BC, near the North African city of Zama, the armies of two empires clashed. The Romans under Scipio Africanus won a bloody, decisive victory over Hannibal's Carthaginians. Scipio's victory signalled a shift in the balance of power in the ancient world. Thereafter, Rome became the dominant civilization of the Mediterranean. Zama also saw the eclipse of one legendary commander, Hannibal, the scourge of Rome and the preeminent general of the Second Punic War, by Scipio, one of the greatest leaders Rome ever produced...