The Punic Wars
Battle of Cannae
The losses at the Trebbia River and Lake Trasimine were devastating. In the crisis, the
Senate chose Fabius Maximus to be dictator.
Fabius Maximus undertook an entirely different
strategy toward the invader. He avoided pitched battles and instead kept his army at
Hannibal's heels. In the meantime, he worked fervently to keep the allies loyal, promising
that Rome would protect them.
The strategy worked. In these critical months, few cities left Rome's side, which meant that the full force of Roman resources was scarcely dented. Hannibal was in danger of losing the political side of his gamble even as he was winning the military side brilliantly.
Fabius Maximus' tactics were hardly designed to rouse the admiration of the common people, or to stir the hearts of ambitious politicians. When the term of the dictatorship was up, Rome once again held consular elections, and the winners had campaigned specifically on the promise that they had a plan for achieving a swift, decisive victory over the devious Carthaginian.
So, in 216, once again Roman consuls led Roman armies against Hannibal. The Senate voted them double armies; with a normal consular army nominally at 20,000, a double army would be 40,000. Since both consuls were operating together, this should have produced 80,000 men; the promise of the consuls was that overwhelming force would carry the day. It is a measure of how badly Hannibal had hurt Rome that the double consular armies numbered only 70,000.
Nevertheless, the odds were better than 2 to 1 in favor of the Romans. Moreover, the consuls were sure they had learned a valuable lesson. Hannibal was notoriously tricky; indeed, Carthaginians could not beat a Roman army in open combat but could succeed only by ruses. So, this time, they would bring the fox out into the open where he could not trick them.
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| Valley of Cannae |
Near
Cannae,
in central Italy, Hannibal obliged the Romans. The field was indeed wide open - there was
no possibility of surprise. The Roman front was much wider than the Carthaginian front,
and Hannibal must surely be flanked.
The fox still knew some tricks, though. When the Romans advanced, with most of their strength in the center, Hannibal gave way before them. The Roman front closed around the Carthaginian infantry and it indeed looked as though Rome would win.
But on the flanks were the cavalry for both contestants, and the Punic cavalry defeated the Roman. Once they won the field, they were able to attack the rear of the advancing Roman infantry. Thus, even though the Roman infantry nearly surrounded the Carthaginian, the Romans were in turn surrounded by horsemen.
At this point, the Carthaginians counter-attacked. Trapped, with nowhere to retreat, the Roman lines dissolved into chaos. Thousands of Romans died. The consul Paulus perished in the battle. Fleeing Romans were hamstrung (that is, the pursuer rather than trying to kill the fleeing enemy simply slashed at the man's hamstring muscle, returning later to kill the crippled man). Out of the 70,000 Romans to take the field, about 10,000 survived; the survivors were placed in two special legions that were forced to remain under service for the duration of the war, as a punishment for their failure.
It was a terrible slaughter. When the first survivors staggered back to Rome, they were met with disbelief. As more arrived, disbelief changed to horror. Hannibal now had defeated the equivalent of eight consular armies in the space of two years. No one before or after him ever had such brilliant success against Roman arms.
The Battle of Cannae has served as a classic example of a double-envelopment maneuver, a way for an inferior force to defeat a superior force on open terrain. Hannibal's tactics at Cannae are still studied in military academies.



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