Zama: The Battle That Never Was?

[Hasdrubal]

A lot of plausible arguments. However, my main problem would be with the main event - how can you expect to fabricate an entire battle (and not a small skirmish) and expect to get away with it? You'd expect reactions from your readers or your fellow historians - or are we treating this as a giant, empire-wide, cover up?

I mean Polybios was born a year after the battle (let's still call it that) so there may even have been people alive who fought in Africa, or direct descendants. It's as if a historian would invent a major WWI battle, and expect us to believe it?

We also have to think of the documentation that I'm sure Polybius had to write on that no longer exist. We have to remember a lot of Polybius work is no longer available. We can't even fathom how much history was lost to the sack of Rome, and the literature that was burnt and destroyed. This was over 2000 years ago on top of that. 

I'm 100% positive that the battle did happen.