User:Llywrch/Battle of Cannae
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The Battle of Cannae (/ˈkæni, -eɪ, -aɪ/)[lower-alpha 2] was a major battle of the Second Punic War that took place on 2 August 216 BC in Apulia, in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage, under Hannibal, surrounded and decisively defeated a larger army of the Roman Republic under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. It is regarded both as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and as one of the worst defeats in Roman history.
Battle of Cannae | |||||||
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Part of the Second Punic War | |||||||
Hannibal's route of invasion | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Carthage Allied African, Spanish, and Gallic tribes |
Roman Republic Allied Italian states: Etruscans Samnites | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Hannibal Maharbal Mago Gisgo Hanno Hasdrubal |
Gaius Terentius Varro Lucius Aemilius Paullus † Gnaeus Servilius Geminus † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
50,000: 32,000 heavy infantry, 8,000 light infantry, 10,000 cavalry |
86,400: 40,000 Roman infantry, 40,000 allied infantry, 2,400 Roman cavalry, 4,000 allied cavalry | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Killed: 5,700 (Polybius) * 4,000 Gallic * 1,500 Spanish and African * 200 cavalry |
Polybius:
Livy:
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Having recovered from their losses at Trebia (218 BC) and Lake Trasimene (217 BC), the Romans decided to engage Hannibal at Cannae, with approximately 86,000 Roman and allied troops. They massed their heavy infantry in a deeper formation than usual, while Hannibal used the double-envelopment tactic and surrounded his enemy, trapping the majority of the Roman army, who were then slaughtered. The loss of life on the Roman side was one of the most lethal single day's fighting in history; Adrian Goldsworthy compares the death toll in that battle to "the massed slaughter of the British Army on the first day of the Somme offensive in 1916."[1] Only about 15,000 Romans, most of whom were from the garrisons of the camps and had not taken part in the battle, escaped death. Following the defeat, Capua and several other Italian city-states defected from the Roman Republic to Carthage.
As news of this defeat reached Rome, the city was gripped in panic. Authorities resorted to extraordinary measures, which included consulting the Sibylline Oracles, dispatching a delegation led by Quintus Fabius Pictor to consult the Delphic oracle in Greece, and burying alive four humans as a sacrifice to their Gods. To raise two new legions, the authorities lowered the draft age and enlisted criminals, debtors and even slaves. Despite the extreme loss of men and equipment, and a second massive defeat later that same year at Silva Litana, the Romans refused to surrender to Hannibal. His offer to ransom survivors was brusquely refused. With grim determination the Romans fought for 14 more years until they achieved victory at the Battle of Zama.
Although for most of the following decades the battle was seen solely as a major Roman disaster, by modern times Cannae acquired a mythic quality, and is often used as an example of the perfect defeat of an enemy army. It was studied by German strategists prior to World War II, and General Norman Schwartzkopf claimed to have drawn inspiration for his devastatingly effective land offensive in the First Gulf War.