
The Battle of Cannae, August 2, 216 BC, was a decisive battle of the Second Punic War. A Carthage army under Hannibal destroyed a numerically superior Roman Republic army under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro near the town of Cannae in Apulia (SE Italy). The battle is famous for Hannibal's tactics as much as for the role it played in Roman history. ==Prelude== At the start of the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal boldly crossed into Italy by traversing the Alps during winter-time and quickly won two smashing victories over the Romans at the Battle of Trebia and the Battle of Lake Trasimene. After these disasters the Romans appointed Fabius Maximus as Roman dictator, who set about fighting a war of attrition against Hannibal, cutting off his supply lines and refusing to engage in pitched battle. These tactics proved unpopular with the Romans, however, who in 216 appointed two consuls with the express purpose of fighting a decisive battle against the Carthaginians. ==Battle== The consular forces at the battle amounted to 16 Roman legion, 8 of them Roman plus an equal number of Latium allied legions, for a total of 80,000 men. Subtracting 10,000 for those left to guard the camp, the Romans brought to the field the following forces: * 55,000 heavy infantry * 8-9,000 light infantry * 6,000 cavalry Opposing them was a Carthaginian army made up of: * 32,000 heavy infantry * 8,000 light infantry * 10,000 cavalry The conventional deployment for armies of this time was to place infantry in the centre and split the cavalry between the wings. The Romans followed this fairly closely, but chose extra depth rather than breadth for their infantry (resulting in a front of about equal size to the numerically inferior Carthaginians) in the hopes of quickly breaking through Hannibal's centre. Hannibal in his turn modified the conventional deployment by placing his lowest quality infantry (Iberian peninsula and Celtiberians) in the middle, and his better quality infantry (African mercenaries) either just inside or behind his cavalry on the wings. Polybius describes the weak Carthaginian centre as deployed in a crescent, curving out toward the Romans in the middle, but some historians have called this fanciful, and say it represents either the natural curvature that occurs when a broad front of infantry marches forward, or else the bending back of the Carthaginian centre from the shock action of meeting the heavily massed Roman centre. In any case, when battle was joined, the Carthaginian cavalry drove the Roman cavalry off on both flanks and attacked the Roman centre in the back, causing it to halt its forward charge. At the same time the veteran Carthaginian infantry flanked and boxed them in on the sides, creating an encirclement of the Roman infantry in an early example of the pincer movement. The trapped Romans were hemmed in and almost completely slaughtered. Polybius claims that 50,000-60,000 Romans died—including Lucius Aemilius Paullus, one of the two consul commanders, as well as the two consuls for the preceding year—10,000 were captured, and 16,000 escaped (among them the future Scipio Africanus Major). For their part the Carthaginians lost 5,700 men, the Celts and Iberians accounting for about 5,000 of these. A map of the battle can be found in ''Atlas of Classical History''. Hannibal's victory at the Battle of Cannae is often viewed as ''the'' classical example of a smaller army thoroughly defeating a larger opponent, purely through the use of superior tactics on open terrain. == Aftermath == "''Never before, while the City itself was still safe, had there been such excitement and panic within its walls''", wrote Livy, on the Senate's reaction to the defeat. [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy22.html#livy.hist.22.54] Hannibal had his men collect the gold jewelry rings from the corpses on the battlefield, and sent this collection to Carthage as proof of his victory; this collection was poured before the Carthaginian Senate, and was judged to be "three and a half measures." A gold ring was a token of membership in the upper classes of Roman society. Though one of the most crushing victories in all of military history, Hannibal's triumph proved the high-water mark of Carthaginian fortunes in the war, as no decisive strategic advantage followed from it. Despite his policy of leniently treating Rome's Latin allies in an attempt to induce their defection to his side, only Capua, Syracuse, Italy, and a few other cities in the Hellenistic south of Italy did so following Cannae; the rest of Rome's allies held firm. Hannibal was too weak numerically and lacked the siege equipment to attack Rome itself, and so he offered to negotiate a peace treaty on non-outrageous terms. Despite the multiple catastrophes it had suffered fighting him, though, the Roman Senate refused to parley and instead raised a new army to defend Italy and another army to take the offensive against Carthage's holdings in Spain. See Second Punic War for the complete strategic follow-on to the battle and the conclusion of the war. ==References== * Polybius * Livy * Hans Delbrück, ''Warfare in Antiquity'' (1920) ISBN 0-8032-9199-X * Richard J. A.Talbert, ed., ''Atlas of Classical History'' (Routledge, London / New York, 1985) ISBN 0-415-03463-9 * General Fieldmarshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen's book Cannae http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/Cannae/cannae.asp#cannae Battles of the Punic Wars Roman battles 216 BC
''An event mentioned in this article is a Template:August 2 selected anniversaries'' ---- Your numbers need work. You mention the Roman army fielded 80,000 men at Cannae - which is generally seen as correct. How, then, did the Romans suffer between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties *and* have 16,000 survive to escape? 96,000 is a higher number than 80,000 in most numerical systems. ---- I have heard that the battle of Cannae had the greatest number killed in a battle in one day in all of history, more even than the first day of the Somme. Is this true? If so, this should be given a mention. User:Gingekerr 21:43, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC) :Highly unlikely. In the ancient world perhaps, but my sources don't even make that claim. User:Stan Shebs 14:02, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC) ---- I would like to note that this page is inconsistent as to the number of casualties with the page Second Punic War. In particular, that page claims that less than a hundred Romans survived. --User:Pmetzger 19:16, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Roman Forces == I think the number about Roman Forces should be revised. As far as I know, there are two versions on that: 1 - Romans had 2 "standard" Consular armies, each consisting of 2 legions, for a total of 4 legions. 2 - Romans had 2 "augmented" consular armies, each consisting of 4 legions, for a total of 8 legions. This should set the Roman forces at 6000x4=24000 or 6000x8=48000 legionary infantry, plus the cavalry and auxiliary troops. Moreover, during the early republic there were no legions formed entirely by Italic allies. Instead, every single legion was formed by approximately the same number of Roman and Allied men, organized in manipuli. == Roman Tactics == Like many people, I've always wondered how this battle came to be such a disaster. How do you surround a larger force with a smaller one? If Hannibal had his weakest troops in the centre, why weren't the Roman legionaries able to break through them like they did at Trebia and Trasimene? Here's the only theory I can come up with. Trasimene and Trebia were both heavy defeats for the Romans. It's just possible that in the recriminations that must have followed, someone blamed the legionaries who cut their way out for not staying to help their colleagues. So maybe, when the Carthaginian centre began to collapse, it was actually someone in the van of the Roman army who gave the order to halt. With that huge depth of legionaries behind, some of whom were beginning to be pressed from the sides and behind, utter confusion would have been caused. The retreating Carthaginian centre would have seen their foes halted and in confusion, and would have counter-attacked. At this point the entire Roman army would have been in panic, and it's possible that the majority of them were killed by crushing, not by Carthaginian weapons. Just a theory... Why can't some people just accept that on the day of battle the Carthaginians were better soldiers lead by Hannibal an ackowledged millitary genius of all times? The carthaginian Army was as much a mercenary army and more professional at that point than the Roman army which in the early early repblic was not a professional force. That made part of the difference. Now by the end of the second punic war those men who survived cannae, transimene etc were hardy veterans looking for revenge led by Scipio Africanus who was at least as good of a general as Hannibal. Hannibals army of carthaginans that he raised to conter Scipio (in the last battle of the Second punic war fought just outside Carthage) was mostly inexperenced. Dont believe me here is a source. http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/army-carthage.htm --User:68.164.231.3 20:04, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC) == very wrong info about the battles exxecution == To the above poster - this battle was the most people killed in one day UNDER THE COMMAND of one field general. so, patton for example, never kllled that many people in one day. ya know? to the other above poster - The weak Gallic center did not break 1) because the Gauls were fierce warriors who wanted revenge for their own war with Rome and 2) because the Romans could not even swing their swords because they were being crushed together by the elite african phalanxes. Roman spearmen were usually in the rear of the army to deal with cavalry or for emergency situations... the romans in the front were short sword carriers and the roans couldn't break out of the sides because the punic infantry used phalanx discipline and romans were short swords probably couldnt even TOUCH them. Also keep in mind that Hannibal himself was behind the Gauls and his presence must have inspired the center to hold fast. The dusty wind also blew in the Roman front line's direction with a strong gust - thus "Pushing" the gauls into the Romans and giving them an advantage on the field. Now, the major inaccuracu in the article is that Hannibals cavalry only fought and won on Hannibal's left flank. the numidian light cavalry and the roman light cabalry were waiting around not doing much of anything. the spanish/gallic heavy cavalry won against the outnumbered romans, then charged across the back of the roman lines in a show of great discipline and rode towards the roman light cavalry. the roman light cavalry werer young pretty boy nobles, and when they saw the spears of the heavy cavalry instead of the lighter weapons of the numidian cavalry, they ran. in fact, the carthaginians pointed their spears upwards towards the roman youths' faces to scare them from potential scars.
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Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Cannae, August 2, 216 BC, was a decisive battle of the Second Punic War. A Carthage army under Hannibal destroyed a numerically superior Roman Republic army under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro near the town of Cannae in Apulia (SE Italy). The battle is famous for Hannibal's tactics as much as for the role it played in Roman history. ==Prelude== At the start of the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal boldly crossed into Italy by traversing the Alps during winter-time and quickly won two smashing victories over the Romans at the Battle of Trebia and the Battle of Lake Trasimene. After these disasters the Romans appointed Fabius Maximus as Roman dictator, who set about fighting a war of attrition against Hannibal, cutting off his supply lines and refusing to engage in pitched battle. These tactics proved unpopular with the Romans, however, who in 216 appointed two consuls with the express purpose of fighting a decisive battle against the Carthaginians. ==Battle== The consular forces at the battle amounted to 16 Roman legion, 8 of them Roman plus an equal number of Latium allied legions, for a total of 80,000 men. Subtracting 10,000 for those left to guard the camp, the Romans brought to the field the following forces: * 55,000 heavy infantry * 8-9,000 light infantry * 6,000 cavalry Opposing them was a Carthaginian army made up of: * 32,000 heavy infantry * 8,000 light infantry * 10,000 cavalry The conventional deployment for armies of this time was to place infantry in the centre and split the cavalry between the wings. The Romans followed this fairly closely, but chose extra depth rather than breadth for their infantry (resulting in a front of about equal size to the numerically inferior Carthaginians) in the hopes of quickly breaking through Hannibal's centre. Hannibal in his turn modified the conventional deployment by placing his lowest quality infantry (Iberian peninsula and Celtiberians) in the middle, and his better quality infantry (African mercenaries) either just inside or behind his cavalry on the wings. Polybius describes the weak Carthaginian centre as deployed in a crescent, curving out toward the Romans in the middle, but some historians have called this fanciful, and say it represents either the natural curvature that occurs when a broad front of infantry marches forward, or else the bending back of the Carthaginian centre from the shock action of meeting the heavily massed Roman centre. In any case, when battle was joined, the Carthaginian cavalry drove the Roman cavalry off on both flanks and attacked the Roman centre in the back, causing it to halt its forward charge. At the same time the veteran Carthaginian infantry flanked and boxed them in on the sides, creating an encirclement of the Roman infantry in an early example of the pincer movement. The trapped Romans were hemmed in and almost completely slaughtered. Polybius claims that 50,000-60,000 Romans died—including Lucius Aemilius Paullus, one of the two consul commanders, as well as the two consuls for the preceding year—10,000 were captured, and 16,000 escaped (among them the future Scipio Africanus Major). For their part the Carthaginians lost 5,700 men, the Celts and Iberians accounting for about 5,000 of these. A map of the battle can be found in ''Atlas of Classical History''. Hannibal's victory at the Battle of Cannae is often viewed as ''the'' classical example of a smaller army thoroughly defeating a larger opponent, purely through the use of superior tactics on open terrain. == Aftermath == "''Never before, while the City itself was still safe, had there been such excitement and panic within its walls''", wrote Livy, on the Senate's reaction to the defeat. [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy22.html#livy.hist.22.54] Hannibal had his men collect the gold jewelry rings from the corpses on the battlefield, and sent this collection to Carthage as proof of his victory; this collection was poured before the Carthaginian Senate, and was judged to be "three and a half measures." A gold ring was a token of membership in the upper classes of Roman society. Though one of the most crushing victories in all of military history, Hannibal's triumph proved the high-water mark of Carthaginian fortunes in the war, as no decisive strategic advantage followed from it. Despite his policy of leniently treating Rome's Latin allies in an attempt to induce their defection to his side, only Capua, Syracuse, Italy, and a few other cities in the Hellenistic south of Italy did so following Cannae; the rest of Rome's allies held firm. Hannibal was too weak numerically and lacked the siege equipment to attack Rome itself, and so he offered to negotiate a peace treaty on non-outrageous terms. Despite the multiple catastrophes it had suffered fighting him, though, the Roman Senate refused to parley and instead raised a new army to defend Italy and another army to take the offensive against Carthage's holdings in Spain. See Second Punic War for the complete strategic follow-on to the battle and the conclusion of the war. ==References== * Polybius * Livy * Hans Delbrück, ''Warfare in Antiquity'' (1920) ISBN 0-8032-9199-X * Richard J. A.Talbert, ed., ''Atlas of Classical History'' (Routledge, London / New York, 1985) ISBN 0-415-03463-9 * General Fieldmarshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen's book Cannae http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/Cannae/cannae.asp#cannae Battles of the Punic Wars Roman battles 216 BC
Battle of Cannae
''An event mentioned in this article is a Template:August 2 selected anniversaries'' ---- Your numbers need work. You mention the Roman army fielded 80,000 men at Cannae - which is generally seen as correct. How, then, did the Romans suffer between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties *and* have 16,000 survive to escape? 96,000 is a higher number than 80,000 in most numerical systems. ---- I have heard that the battle of Cannae had the greatest number killed in a battle in one day in all of history, more even than the first day of the Somme. Is this true? If so, this should be given a mention. User:Gingekerr 21:43, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC) :Highly unlikely. In the ancient world perhaps, but my sources don't even make that claim. User:Stan Shebs 14:02, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC) ---- I would like to note that this page is inconsistent as to the number of casualties with the page Second Punic War. In particular, that page claims that less than a hundred Romans survived. --User:Pmetzger 19:16, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Roman Forces == I think the number about Roman Forces should be revised. As far as I know, there are two versions on that: 1 - Romans had 2 "standard" Consular armies, each consisting of 2 legions, for a total of 4 legions. 2 - Romans had 2 "augmented" consular armies, each consisting of 4 legions, for a total of 8 legions. This should set the Roman forces at 6000x4=24000 or 6000x8=48000 legionary infantry, plus the cavalry and auxiliary troops. Moreover, during the early republic there were no legions formed entirely by Italic allies. Instead, every single legion was formed by approximately the same number of Roman and Allied men, organized in manipuli. == Roman Tactics == Like many people, I've always wondered how this battle came to be such a disaster. How do you surround a larger force with a smaller one? If Hannibal had his weakest troops in the centre, why weren't the Roman legionaries able to break through them like they did at Trebia and Trasimene? Here's the only theory I can come up with. Trasimene and Trebia were both heavy defeats for the Romans. It's just possible that in the recriminations that must have followed, someone blamed the legionaries who cut their way out for not staying to help their colleagues. So maybe, when the Carthaginian centre began to collapse, it was actually someone in the van of the Roman army who gave the order to halt. With that huge depth of legionaries behind, some of whom were beginning to be pressed from the sides and behind, utter confusion would have been caused. The retreating Carthaginian centre would have seen their foes halted and in confusion, and would have counter-attacked. At this point the entire Roman army would have been in panic, and it's possible that the majority of them were killed by crushing, not by Carthaginian weapons. Just a theory... Why can't some people just accept that on the day of battle the Carthaginians were better soldiers lead by Hannibal an ackowledged millitary genius of all times? The carthaginian Army was as much a mercenary army and more professional at that point than the Roman army which in the early early repblic was not a professional force. That made part of the difference. Now by the end of the second punic war those men who survived cannae, transimene etc were hardy veterans looking for revenge led by Scipio Africanus who was at least as good of a general as Hannibal. Hannibals army of carthaginans that he raised to conter Scipio (in the last battle of the Second punic war fought just outside Carthage) was mostly inexperenced. Dont believe me here is a source. http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/army-carthage.htm --User:68.164.231.3 20:04, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC) == very wrong info about the battles exxecution == To the above poster - this battle was the most people killed in one day UNDER THE COMMAND of one field general. so, patton for example, never kllled that many people in one day. ya know? to the other above poster - The weak Gallic center did not break 1) because the Gauls were fierce warriors who wanted revenge for their own war with Rome and 2) because the Romans could not even swing their swords because they were being crushed together by the elite african phalanxes. Roman spearmen were usually in the rear of the army to deal with cavalry or for emergency situations... the romans in the front were short sword carriers and the roans couldn't break out of the sides because the punic infantry used phalanx discipline and romans were short swords probably couldnt even TOUCH them. Also keep in mind that Hannibal himself was behind the Gauls and his presence must have inspired the center to hold fast. The dusty wind also blew in the Roman front line's direction with a strong gust - thus "Pushing" the gauls into the Romans and giving them an advantage on the field. Now, the major inaccuracu in the article is that Hannibals cavalry only fought and won on Hannibal's left flank. the numidian light cavalry and the roman light cabalry were waiting around not doing much of anything. the spanish/gallic heavy cavalry won against the outnumbered romans, then charged across the back of the roman lines in a show of great discipline and rode towards the roman light cavalry. the roman light cavalry werer young pretty boy nobles, and when they saw the spears of the heavy cavalry instead of the lighter weapons of the numidian cavalry, they ran. in fact, the carthaginians pointed their spears upwards towards the roman youths' faces to scare them from potential scars.
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