The Battle of Cirta was a battle during the Second Punic War between the forces of the Roman Republic under Publius Cornelius Scipio and Carthage's main ally, Syphax. On Scipio's orders, two of his ablest commanders, Laelius and Masinissa, followed Syphax's retreat to the town of Cirta, wherein Syphax garnered fresh forces to meet the two generals in the open. He proceeded to organise them on the Roman model, hoping to copy the continuous success of Scipio on the battlefield; he had a force large enough to take on the Romans but nearly all of his soldiers were raw and unexperienced. The first encounter was between the two opposing cavalry units, and though the battle was initially hard-fought, when the Roman infantry line reinforced the intervals of their cavalry, the raw troops broke and