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Where was the Battle of Zama fought, and why is its exact location uncertain?
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Scipio Africanus
Silver coin from Carthago Nova, believed to be a portrait of Scipio Africanus the Elder; in the Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, National Museum, Copenhagen.
The Battle of Zama, which took place in 202 BCE, is the decisive engagement of the Second Punic War where Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal.1
While the Roman historian Livy identified the site of the battle as Naraggaraāmodern-day SÄqiyat SÄ«dÄ« YÅ«suf, Tunisiaāthe exact location remains uncertain to modern historians. The name "Zama" was applied to the site by the historian Cornelius Nepos approximately 150 years after the conflict occurred, and the precise geographical coordinates of this historic battlefield have never been definitively identified.1