What would have happened if Hannibal had won the battle of Zama?

Answer 1

If Hannibal would have won the Battle of Zama, this would not have made a big difference to the outcome of the Second Punic War. Hannibal's campaign in Italy had already come to a dead end. He has already lost two main cities in the south of Italy which had allied with him (Capua) or conquered by him (Tarentum). He had been further weakened by the Roman legions and got stuck in southern Italy. The army of his brother (Hasdrubal) which was bringing reinforcements and siege machines from Spain, had been destroyed in central Italy. As a result, Hannibal withdrew to the easily defensible mountains of Calabria (the toe of Italy). Scipio's Afircanus' victory against the Carthaginians in southern Spain led to the loss of the Carthaginian territories there (which were Hannibal's power base), which mean that Hannibal could no longer hope for further reinforcements from there. Hannibal had been confined to Calabria for four years. The point of Scipio Africanus taking the war to Africa (Tunisia), Carthage's homeland, was to force Hannibal to leave Italy. Carthage recalled Hannibal to Africa to to defend the city. Therefore, even if Scipio had lost the Battle of Zama, he would have still achieved his objective of getting Hannibal out of Italy. He would have probably just returned to Sicily.