A Brief History
On August 2, 216 BC, the Carthaginian army of Hannibal defeated the larger Roman Army at Cannae, a major battle during the Second Punic War. This battle was one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of Rome and is considered one of the great strokes of tactical military genius of all time.
Digging Deeper
After losing 2 major battles to the Carthaginians at Trebia and Lake Trasimene (218 and 217 BC respectively), the Romans had regrouped and sought a decisive battle against the invaders. Able to field an army of 86,000 men against only 50,000 Carthaginians the Romans were confident of success. Led by Gaius Varro and Lucius Paullus, the Romans had mainly heavy infantry units and only 6400 cavalry, whereas the Carthaginians had 10,000 cavalry at Hannibal’s disposal. Additionally, fully half the Roman army was made up of allied soldiers rather than true Romans.
The Carthaginians proved much more mobile and quicker to deploy, creating a double envelopment of the stacked up Romans, leading to encirclement and virtual destruction of the Roman army. About 11,400 Carthaginians and their allies were lost in the battle, but as many as over 75,000 of the Roman army perished, with another 10,000 captured. Whatever remained of the Roman army deserted, fleeing the battlefield.
The massive defeat put Romans into a panic, and for a time chaos ruled. Human sacrifices were made in a desperate attempt to stave off total defeat, and some of the Roman city-states defected to Carthage. Despite this defeat and those preceding it, the Roman Senate refused reasonable peace demands by Hannibal and continued the war, eventually winning the war of attrition with Carthage. This eventual success was accomplished only by a near total mobilization of Roman men, including the drafting of peasants and slaves.
The defeat of the Roman army, which had used rigid phalanx type close formations, showed the vulnerability of such tactics to being enveloped and out maneuvered. The Roman army apparently learned from this mistake and modified its fighting tactics afterwards. Hannibal of course is remembered by history as one of the greatest battlefield generals of all time.
(Side note: Hannibal had a brother named Hasdrubal, and the Cleveland Indians major league baseball team actually had a player named Asdrubal Cabrera from 2007 to 2014 that was named after this obscure historical figure!)
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Charles River Editors. The Battle of Cannae: The History and Legacy of Ancient Rome’s Most Decisive Military Defeat. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
Daly, Gregory. Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War. Routledge, 2003.
O’Connell, Robert L. The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2011.
