Talk:Battle of Thapsus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- 1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points are appropriately cited. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- 2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain major omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- 3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- 4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- 5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no Related task forces (periods and conflicts): Classical warfare task force (c. 700 BC–c. 500 AD)

The reason Scipio and most of his officers were all killed at the end of the battle is that Caesar's soldiers were overcome by bitterness and rage ("ira et dolore incensi"). The soldier did the killing in spite of Caesar's direct orders to spare the opponents after surrender. That event is described in a contemporary report: "De bello Africo" (authorship uncertain, perhaps Aulus Hirtius, who served under Caesar), published as "Alexandrian, African and Spanish wars" in the Loeb Classical Library (section 90 - page 278). The soldiers appear to have had a grudge against the upper class officers (senator and knight classes) since in the same after-victory rampage they even slaughtered some of Caesar's officers who were of the same social extraction. I recommend to update the description.

Why, for gods' sake, there is reference to battle of Bagradas in battlebox? the Battle took place almost 200 years before Ceasar's Civil War, nor any Roman took important role in it! I suppose it should be replaced with "Rubicon".--MWeinz 07:08, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Months?

I was looking at this link and they use the same date as this article for the landing at Hadrumentum, but instead of the February date for Thapsus, they have April 4th. Anybody have a better reference? Jolomo 22:38, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "The battle proceeded peace in Africa"

Does the author mean "preceded peace?" "Preceded" is itself an odd choice of words, but "proceeded" makes no sense at all. I could see "proceeded apace," but the battle is already over at that point in the narrative.