Page "Hannibal" Paragraph 46

In 203 BC, Hannibal was recalled from Italy by the war party in Carthage.

After leaving a record of his expedition engraved in Punic and Greek upon bronze tablets in the temple of Juno at Crotona, he sailed back to Africa.

His arrival immediately restored the predominance of the war party, which placed him in command of a combined force of African levies and his mercenaries from Italy.

In 202 BC, Hannibal met Scipio in a fruitless peace conference.

Despite mutual admiration, negotiations foundered due to Roman allegations of " Punic Faith ," referring to the breach of protocols that ended the First Punic War by the Carthaginian attack on Saguntum, and a Carthaginan attack on a stranded Roman fleet.

Scipio and Carthage had worked out a peace plan, which was approved by Rome.

The terms of the treaty were quite modest, but the war had been long for the Romans.

Carthage could keep its African territory but would lose its overseas empire, a fait accompli.

Masinissa ( Numidia ) was to be independent.

Also, Carthage was to reduce its fleet and pay a war indemnity.

But Carthage then made a terrible blunder.

Its long-suffering citizens had captured a stranded Roman fleet in the Gulf of Tunis and stripped it of supplies, an action that aggravated the faltering negotiations.

Meanwhile Hannibal, recalled from Italy by the Carthaginian Senate, had returned with his army.

Fortified by both Hannibal and the supplies, the Carthaginians rebuffed the treaty and Roman protests.

The decisive battle at Zama soon followed ; the defeat removed Hannibal's air of invincibility.