ZAMA
ZAMA (
Ζάμα μείζων,
Ptol. 4.3.33), a town of Numidia, situated five days' journey to the SW. of Carthage. (
Plb. 15.5;
Liv. 30.29.)
It lay between Sicca Veneria and Suffetula, and bore the name of “Regia;” whence we find it erroneously written Zamareigia in the
Tab. Peut. Zama is particularly renowned as the scene of Scipio's victory over Hannibal in 201 B.C.
It was a very strong place, and hence adopted as a residence by Juba, who brought his harem and his treasure hither, as to a place of safety. (Hirt,
B. Afr. 91;
Vitr. 8.3. (or 4.) § 24.) Strabo represents it as destroyed by the Romans, and as being in a ruinous state in his time (xvii. pp. 829, 831).
But it must have been subsequently restored, since Pliny (
5.4. s. 4) mentions the Zamense oppidum as a free city.
It also appears in the
Tab. Peut., and a bishop of Zama is mentioned by St. Augustine. (
De Civ. Dei, 7.16.)
In an inscription in Gruter (364. 1) Zama Regia appears with the title of a colony (Col. Aelia Hadriana); though it is not mentioned as a colony in any of the ancient writers.
It is the present
Jama, SE. of
Kess. (Cf.
D. C. 48.23; Sail.
J. 60, 61.)
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