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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.)

[T.H.D]

hide References (5 total)
  • Cross-references from this page (5):
    • Polybius, Histories, 15.5
    • Vitruvius, On Architecture, 8.3
    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 5.4
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 30, 29
    • Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 4.3
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