26
BEFORE 1000 CE
The invasion of Italy
in 218
BCE by Carthage’s
young military leader
Hannibal Barca met with
early success, but two
years later the Romans
had regrouped, helped by
a series of delaying campaigns fought by Fabius
Maximus. Now impatient to drive the invader out, the
Roman Senate ordered the recruitment of an army of
80,000 men, including eight infantry legions. This
headed south to confront Hannibal, who had just
seized a supply depot at Cannae, in southern Italy.
The legions found Hannibal on the banks of the
Audius River, but with command alternating daily
between the consuls Aemilius Paullus and
Terentius Varro, the Romans' strategy was unclear.
Hannibal knew that Varro was the more impetuous,
and on August 30 he tempted him to battle with a
deployment that had weak infantry units in its
center and cavalry on its wings. Varro ordered a
charge, and the Roman legions closed in, pushing
back Hannibal’s center. However, the undefeated
African infantry on the wings then closed in against
the Romans’ anks, and the Carthaginian cavalry,
which had routed the Roman horsemen, returned
and sealed o the Roman rear. Stuck in a trap, almost
70,000 Romans perished, including Paullus.
With the main eld force destroyed, Rome itself
was only saved by Hannibal’s hesitancy in marching
on the city—a delay that gave the Romans time
to recover. The Carthaginian campaign in Italy
subsequently lost momentum, ending in 202
BCE,
when Hannibal was recalled to Africa to stave
o a Roman invasion.
Cannae
216 BCE
◼
SOUTHERN ITALY
◼
CARTHAGE VS. ROMAN REPUBLIC
SECOND PUNIC WAR
4
CANNAE, 216
BCE
Hannibal formed his center in a crescent facing
the Roman infantry. As the legionaries advanced, the Carthaginian
line bowed back, and Varro’s men were drawn in. Hannibal’s African
infantry then attacked their anks and the Carthaginian cavalry on
the left wing wheeled and completed the encirclement. It was the
Roman Republic’s worst ever military defeat.
HANNIBAL
TARENTUS
VARRO
Cannae
Carthaginian
camp
Roman camp
San Ferdinando
River Audus
(Ofanto)
€
Carthaginian infantry
advances, then
withdraws, pulling
Roman infantry
into centre
#
Carthaginian cavalry
attacks exposed
Roman flanks
¢
Carthaginian cavalry
encircles Roman rear
¡
Roman infantry pushes
into Carthaginian infantry
N
Carthaginian infantry
Carthaginian cavalry
Roman infantry
Roman cavalry
0 km
0 miles
1.5
1.5
1
1
0.5
0.5
US_026-027_Cannae.indd 26 09/04/2018 11:46
27
CANNAE
◼
216 BCE
There was no longer any Roman camp, any
general, any single soldier in existence.
LIVIUS TITUS, ROMAN HISTORIAN, DESCRIBING HANNIBAL’S INVASION IN THE HISTORY OF ROME, BOOK 22
1
FIELD OF BATTLE
Produced by K. de Putter
in 1729, this engraving
gives an idealized
impression of the forces
arrayed at the battle of
Cannae. The Audus River
lies to the left, with the
greater Roman camp on
its western side. In the
foreground, Hannibal's
army of Spanish, Gallic,
and African infantry, plus
Carthaginian and Numidian
cavalry, assembles before
its adversaries.
Rome fought three wars with the North African
city-state of Carthage between 264 and 146
BCE.
In the second of these, sparked by Roman fears of
Carthage’s burgeoning empire in Spain and tensions
over competing interests in Sicily, the brilliant
Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca brought an
army over the Alps—which the Romans had thought
impassable. Despite his stunning victories in Italy,
the war ended after Hannibal suered his only
battleeld defeat at the hands of Scipio Africanus at
Zama in 202
BCE (see p.42). Stripped of its army and
most of its lands, a much-weakened Carthage was
nally captured and destroyed by Rome in 146
BCE.
THE PUNIC WARS 264146 CE
4Hannibal brought 38 war elephants with him
on his Italian campaigns, but almost all of them died
during the crossing of the Alps.
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