Zama Minor

Coordinates: 36 ° 6 ′ 42.7 ″  N , 9 ° 17 ′ 7.7 ″  O Zama Minor was an ancient city in Numidia , a historic region in North Africa. The settlement is located about 10 km northwest of today's Siliana in northern Tunisia .

Historically, Zama Minor is associated with the Numidian city of Zama (also called Zama Regia ) mentioned in historical records . Here took place in the year 202 BC. The Battle of Zama between the Carthaginians under their general Hannibal and the Romans took place, in which Hannibal was defeated by the Roman general Scipio Africanus the Elder .

The exact location of the ancient place Zama is controversial among historians to this day. The Greek historian Polybios mentions the place five days' journey from Carthage, the Roman historian Sallust as a citadel built on flat ground. The Tabula Peutingeriana represents the city between Uzappa and Assuras , on the way to Thysdrus . What is certain is that the ancient Zama must have been in the plain between Siliana and Sers .

In historiography several epithets are for the place (epithets) : known Zama major (the "big Zama"), even Zama Regia called (The Royal Zama). This city is now believed to replace the modern city of Sers. Zama Minor was probably a nearby colony near the Ouadi Mahrouf, four kilometers east of Lemsa on a small hill. Here an inscription mentions a colonia zamensis . The nearby village of Jama is also associated with the ancient Zama minor. Some remains of the ruins have been preserved here. An inscription mentions a colonia augustua zama .

The Roman Catholic titular bishopric of Zama Minor goes back to an extinct bishopric in Zama Minor .

literature

• Theodor Mommsen : Zama. In: Hermes. Journal of Classical Philology. Vol. 20 (1885), pp. 144-156
• Abdelmajid Ennabli:  Zama (“Aelia Hadriana Augusta”) Tunisia . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Advisor.Travel - Website accessed on January 11, 2012

Web links

• Lexicorient on lexicorient.com - information and pictures from the excavation site
• Zama Minor in the Catholic Encyclopedia at newadvent.org (English)