Editing Battle of Zama (section)

===Infantry engagement===

With the battlefield cleared of both elephants and cavalry all three ranks of the Roman heavy infantry and the first two of Carthaginian advanced towards each other. The Carthaginian third rank, Hannibal's Italian veterans, remained in place. The two front ranks charged enthusiastically and violently into each other and commenced a hard-fought, close-quarter, hand-to-hand combat. The Romans' superior weaponry and organisation eventually told and despite the {{lang|la|hastati}} taking further heavy losses, the Carthaginian front rank broke and fled. They attempted to make their way through the Carthaginian second rank, but these men refused to let them pass; according to Polybius to the point of fighting them off. The survivors of the front rank were forced to make their escape around the flanks of the second rank. Many of these then rallied and rejoined the fight by extending the flanks of the Carthaginian second rank.{{sfn|Bahmanyar|2016|p=70}}{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|pp=305–306}}

The {{lang|la|hastati}}, despite having taken casualties from the elephants and the Carthaginian first rank, now attacked the Carthaginian second rank. Polybius reports that the Carthaginian and other African spearmen who made up this force fought "fanatically and in an extraordinary manner".{{sfn|Lazenby|1998|p=224}} The Romans were pushed back in disorder. Bahmanyar opines that the Roman front rank came close to being broken at this stage.{{sfn|Bahmanyar|2016|p=71}} The Romans were forced to commit their second line, the {{lang|la|principes}}, to the fight.{{sfn|Bagnall|1999|pp=293–294}}{{sfn|Carey|2007|p=124}} [[B. H. Liddell Hart|Liddell Hart]] writes that even the {{lang|la|principes}} struggled to hold the line,{{sfn|Liddell Hart|1976|p=182}} but eventually this reinforcement was sufficient to break the Carthaginian second line; they fled, pursued impetuously by the {{lang|la|hastati}}.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=306}}

Both Bahmanyar and Goldsworthy suggest this was an opportunity for the Carthaginian third line to counter-attack the disorganised {{lang|la|hastati}}, but that Hannibal decided against it because his third line was some distance back, the fleeing Carthaginians from the first two lines were inadvertently blocking a clean charge and because the ground over which the third line would have attacked was strewn with corpses.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=306}}{{sfn|Bahmanyar|2016|p=76}} According to Polybius the gap between the fighting lines "was now covered with blood, slaughter, and dead bodies&nbsp;... slippery corpses which were still soaked in blood and had fallen in heaps".{{sfn|Koon|2015|pp=91–92}} Bagnall suggests the withdrawal of the Carthaginian second line was more deliberate and orderly than the ancient sources portray.{{sfn|Bagnall|1999|p=294}} Taylor believes that Hannibal had hoped that the Romans would rush forward in pursuit at this stage and that he had prepared an infantry envelopment in anticipation of this. In the event, Scipio saw the potential trap and his troops were disciplined enough to break off their pursuit when recalled.{{sfn|Taylor|2019|pp=324–327}}