谢邀,扎马战役,迦太基兵力处于优势,还有80头战象。战前汉尼拔派出几名间谍刺探西庇阿军情报,被罗马军擒获,西庇阿非但不杀,(至少按照罗马方面的说法)反而还让军事保民官带着这几名间谍把军营里里外外都看一遍,想看什么就给他们看什么。你们想看马西尼萨的精骑是不是已经到我军了?就给你们看,然后放他们回去给汉尼拔报告。扎马之战后,汉尼拔转为主和,其一因为西庇阿在北非战役期间战术、管理都打出了人生巅峰,无懈可击(不然光这事就自暴其短了),其二此事也体现了西庇阿争取努米底亚人倒戈后的绝对自信,而战场上也印证了这一点。
李版罗马史:
[30.29].Hannibal had reached Hadrumetum where he remained a few days for his men to recover from the effects of the voyage, when breathless couriers announced that all the country round Carthage was occupied by Roman arms. He at once hurried by forced marches to Zama. Zama is a five days' march from Carthage. The scouts whom he had sent forward to reconnoitre were captured by the Roman outposts and conducted to Scipio. Scipio placed them in charge of the military tribunes and gave orders for them to be taken round the camp where they were to look at everything they wished to see without fear. After asking them whether they had examined all to their satisfaction, he sent them back with an escort to Hannibal. The report they gave was anything but pleasant hearing for him, for as it happened Masinissa had on that very day come in with a force of 6000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. What gave him most uneasiness was the confidence of the enemy which he saw too clearly was not without good grounds. So, although he had been the cause of the war, though his arrival had upset the truce and diminished the hope of any peace being arranged, he still thought that he would be in a better position to obtain terms if he were to ask for peace while his strength was still unbroken than after a defeat.
阿版罗马史:
Then the Carthaginians ordered Hannibal to break the truce and begin war against Scipio, and to fight as soon as possible on account of the scarcity of provisions. Accordingly he sent word that the truce was at an end. Scipio marched immediately, and took the great city of Partha and encamped near Hannibal.
The latter moved off, but he sent three spies into the Roman camp who were captured by Scipio. The latter did not put them to death, however, according to the custom of dealing with spies, but ordered that they should be taken around and shown the camp, the arsenals, the engines, and the army under review. He then set them free so that they might inform Hannibal concerning all these things.
所以阿版罗马史的著名段子:“汉尼拔天下无双,但是如果赢了扎马就是古今无双”之说也不无道理,其一如果扎马是汉尼拔赢了,那罗马肯定就不会再打了,元老院绝对不可能还继续派人到北非送人头。
其二,汉尼拔在扎马取胜的难度可能还要高于坎尼,因为对手已经不是隆古斯、弗拉米尼乌斯、瓦罗之流了,而是同样打了10几年仗的西庇阿(从在老西庇阿身边算起),最为倚重的天下名骑也成了敌人的了。杜普伊甚至认为如果换马塞拉斯或尼罗(梅托罗之战击杀哈斯德鲁拔)来指挥此战,汉尼拔恐怕也难胜。古代战争,将领的能力和经验还是很有决定性的,罗马基本就是靠第二次布匿战争战火锻炼出来的一代人才,之后连续打垮了马其顿和塞琉古,这一段时间其实并不长,但之后消化却消化了很长时间。