THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
In 218 BC war broke out between Rome and Carthage, the second of the Punic Wars. Hannibal had an army of mixed forces. In the ranks were Carthaginians, Numidians, Spaniards and Gauls. They fought their way northwards crossing the treacherous alps in the middle of winter. This was an astonishing feat and took the Romans by surprise.
Hannibal needed to feed his troops in order to continue the invasion of Italy. This brought Hannibal to the corn-growing province of Cannae in southern Italy. In the centre of the province was a vast granary used to supply the Roman legions. Hannibal camped on the right bank of a river south of Cannae.
Hannibal had already defeated the Romans on two previous occasions and with the Roman's grain supplies threatened, the Senate mustered the greatest army that Rome has ever put to field. This Roman force was placed under the command of consul Paulus and consul Varro. They alternated supreme control over the army so that each consul commanded the army on different days.
The August sun beat down upon the soldiers who faced each other for three days before any action took place. Paulus was a lot more experienced than Varro in the art of war. Paulus didn't want to face the Carthage army head on which Varro ignored. On the fourth day while in command Varro began the battle as he was confident of victory with superior numbers and gave battle for the honour of Rome.
The Roman army consisted of 80,000 infantry troops and 6,000 cavalry this was deployed with a skirmish line in front of tightly packed phalanx of foot soldiers with Roman cavalry and Rome's allies cavalry on the flanks.
Hannibal deployed his Spaniards and Gauls in a half moon formation facing the skirmish line of the Romans. At the end of the crescent was his higher quality Carthaginian infantry. The left flank was protected by Hannibal's heavy cavalry led by Handrubal, while the right flank was protected by light Numidian cavalry. The Numidian light cavalry were free to operate on the open ground away from the river (the river was past Hannibal's left flank).
The fighting really began when Hannibal sent his heavy cavalry to engage the Roman cavalry. The Roman cavalry was led by consul Paulus. Hannibal's heavy cavalry destroyed the Roman cavalry and what was left of it left the field of battle. The Spanish and Gaulish infantry then engaged the Roman legions. By weight of numbers the Roman's pushed the half-moon crescent inside out so the Romans sensing an easy victory rushed into the apparently disintegrating centre. While this was happening the Numidian light cavalry routed the allied cavalry under the command of Varro. Hannibal then split his reserve infantry and sent them round the back of the Roman legions, the highly trained Carthaginian infantry attacked both flanks of the Roman legions and the Numidian light cavalry attacked the unprotected backs of the legions, slaughtering the legions.
Hannibal crammed the Roman legions with his 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry so tightly that the close packed soldiers had no space to swing a sword. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 Romans died in battle for the loss of only 6,000 of Hannibal's men. This tactic is now called double envelopment and has been used by many generals since 216 BC when the battle took place, for example at Tannenberg.
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