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ANTE DIEM QVARTVM NONAS SEXTILIS QVINGENTI TRIGINTA SEPTEM AB VRBE CONDITA – PROELIVM CANNENSE (August 2, 216 BC – Battle of Cannae)
In 216 BC Rome and Carthage have been facing each other in the western Mediterranean for almost two years. The army of Hannibal, from the Iberian Peninsula, where it took possession of the city of Sagunto, allied with the Romans, crossed in succession the Pyrenees and the Alps. Arriving by surprise in the Po plain the Carthaginian army manages to get the best on the different legions that Rome has not stopped throwing against: the Ticino (November 218 BC), the Trebbia (December 218 BC) and especially the Trasimeno (June 217 BC) Hannibal inflicts on the Romans more and more heavy losses.
After the 20 thousand deaths of the Trasimeno, the Romans decided to take time and avoid direct confrontations with the Carthaginian forces, preferring a guerrilla and disturbing action in order to gradually wear out its forces. In response to this strategy, advocated by the consul Quintus Fabius Maximus called precisely the "Temporator" (Cunctactor), Hannibal multiplies the raids and looting. His army puts the peninsula on fire, leaving behind a trail of devastation.
Faced with the risk of seeing their allies move away, the Romans can no longer remain inactive before an irreducible enemy who challenges their power. For this reason the Senate decides to send his legions back against Hannibal, but this time the commitment will be maximum. In fact, the morning of August 2 216 BC, almost 100 thousand men, or eight more auxiliary Roman legions, the largest army ever assembled from Rome, are camped in the plain of Cannae in Puglia, near the Adriatic coast and south of the near promontory of the Gargano.
Already the day before, Hannibal had tried to provoke the clash, aligning his own
who commanded that day he thought it appropriate not to let his troops out of the fortified camp. The consul Terentius Varro, who is in charge of the day, is rather determined not to miss the opportunity of a day of glory. Having the Carthaginians shown the intention to fight on the left bank of the river, the Romans will go to wait on the right bank, so as not to give the opponent the choice of battleground.
But this is exactly what his opponent hoped. Hannibal, informed of the intention of the Romans, preferred in fact the land on the other side of the river, more conducive to the maneuvers of his cavalry (which constituted the most aggressive and effective instrument of the Punic army). The Romans, however, hoped to rely on the preponderance of infantry, numerically almost double by number of men compared to the Carthaginian.
From dawn the trumpets resound in the Roman camp and the forces begin to cross the river Aufide, legion after legion, to take up the battle array. Opposite, several hundred meters away, a group of Punic riders gallop up the hill of the village of Cannae: Hannibal with his principal helpers, observes the enemy device. Under their eyes appears a large tingle of men who gradually takes the form of an immense steel wall that bares the entire plain for a front of about three kilometers. Some of the Carthaginian leaders, however experienced and veterans of many battles, do not hide a certain tension in front of an army of a greatness never seen before. But Hannibal appears rather relaxed and in his heart happy of the long-awaited opportunity. Also the Punic army takes a position protected on the forehead by the balearic archers and slingers, a kind of light infantry.
In the Roman files there are young and old that represent all of Rome, all of Lazio and all the allied cities. In their lines reigns a contained confidence because the opponent is fearful, but this time he will not be able to ambush and above all there is no fog like at the Trasimeno.
The two armies are now facing the plain of Cannae: the Romans have placed their cavalry on their left under the command of the consul Paullus Aemilius and at the center the immense mass of the legionary infantry under the orders of the two consuls of the previous year Minucius and Servilius, while Varro, the consul in charge, commands the allies' cavalry on the right wing of the deployment. Opposite, about a thousand meters, the gallic and iberian knights under the command of Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, occupy the left of the carthaginian device, while in the center there are 22,000 Iberian and Celtic infantrymen flanked by two African heavy infantry reserve, consisting of a total of 10 thousand Libyans; on the right of the line Hanno, nephew of Hannibal, is at the head of the cavalry numid. In both cases the generals are placed where the device appears weaker: Varro and Paullus Aemilius on the sides with the cavalry and Hannibal and his brother Mago, in the middle with the infantry.
The battle begins The Cretan archers, the Balearic slingers and the javelin throwers go out and return in turn from their ranks to hurl a shower of darts on the Romans. At the same time the cavalries come to the clash: the squadrons of Hasdrubal load the men of Paullus Aemilius, they hook them and force them to move back; on the other hand, instead, Marron and his allies are able to resist the assaults of the cavalry numide. In the middle, the two infantry walls come into contact in a hubbub of screams, shouts of war and sounds of swords hitting the shields.
The Carthaginian lines present a curious advance in a semicircle, with celts and Iberians in the forefront. Approximately thirty feet the legionaries of the first ranks launch their javelins, but they are too numerous, too tight and mutually disturb. Despite this the Roman infantry advances, reabsorbing the salient created by the Punic array, beginning to erode the heart of the enemy lineup. The Iberians and the celts recede without losing tactical cohesion. The Roman legionaries, taken from the heat of combat and exalted by the prospect of a near victory, accentuate their pressure, inflicting their adversaries on terrible wounds with their short gladius
Now the Carthaginian front has taken the form of a salient concave with an arc of a circle, towards which almost all the Roman units converge in an infernal crowd. Nearly exhausted by the fighting, the veterans search for the units that must take their place but they see them coming on the sides of the columns of Roman armed soldiers who initially exchange for friends. The tribune Gneus Lentulus realizes the situation: it is about African and non-Roman soldiers, equipped with the weapons of the dead of the Trasimeno. Lentulus immediately tries to give the order to retreat to his men but in the din of the fight and the cries of the wounded are not heard.
By now it is too late: on the back of the Roman lines the two Libyan bodies, still fresh and well-trained, complete the encirclement of the Roman forces, blocking every escape route and throw themselves against the legions trapped. The panic and disorganization take possession of the young Roman recruits, moreover without their officers, priority targets of archers and slingers.
At the forefront, the veterans see the gauls and the Iberians again take up the attack, but when the Roman legions try to reform the squares to get out of the trap, here comes the cavalry of Hasdrubal. This, after his victory over Paullus Aemilius, continued his action by throwing himself together with the numbers on the squadrons of Varro who, overcome by the mass of the adversaries, must withdraw from the battlefield
Left to the numidians the task of chasing the fugitives, Hasdrubal returns with his own forces on the battlefield, inflicting the decisive blow to the Romans.
The Roman army is completely surrounded by the next phase of annihilation. Despair, resignation, fatigue, terror overwhelm the legionaries, who succumb one after the other to the adversary's action. There are cases of madness and some Romans kill each other. The consul Paullus Aemilius, reached by numerous shots, dies at the center of his guard. The fight has now turned into a massacre.
When the evening comes, after about 9 hours of combat, the quietness on the battlefield returns that brought to Rome the bloodiest of the defeats in its history: three consuls or former consuls, 80 senators, more than 30 senior officers and no less of 60 thousand soldiers fell on the plain of Cannae; about 10 thousand men were taken prisoner.
Cannae, a battle of encirclement and annihilation, which has since become exemplary in military history, sanctions the victory of the Carthaginians over a twice-numbered adversary and consecrates the triumph of Hannibal's tactical intelligence over brute force.
But what Hannibal still does not know, while the next day he contemplates with pride the rich booty conquered, is that the magnitude of the ecstatic victory has not solved anything. On the contrary, it has now made every possibility of an agreement with Rome impossible. In fact, around 70 years later, in 146 BCE. the final and total destruction of Carthage will be the consequence and the definitive conclusion of the battle of Cannae.
After the 20 thousand deaths of the Trasimeno, the Romans decided to take time and avoid direct confrontations with the Carthaginian forces, preferring a guerrilla and disturbing action in order to gradually wear out its forces. In response to this strategy, advocated by the consul Quintus Fabius Maximus called precisely the "Temporator" (Cunctactor), Hannibal multiplies the raids and looting. His army puts the peninsula on fire, leaving behind a trail of devastation.
Faced with the risk of seeing their allies move away, the Romans can no longer remain inactive before an irreducible enemy who challenges their power. For this reason the Senate decides to send his legions back against Hannibal, but this time the commitment will be maximum. In fact, the morning of August 2 216 BC, almost 100 thousand men, or eight more auxiliary Roman legions, the largest army ever assembled from Rome, are camped in the plain of Cannae in Puglia, near the Adriatic coast and south of the near promontory of the Gargano.
Already the day before, Hannibal had tried to provoke the clash, aligning his own
who commanded that day he thought it appropriate not to let his troops out of the fortified camp. The consul Terentius Varro, who is in charge of the day, is rather determined not to miss the opportunity of a day of glory. Having the Carthaginians shown the intention to fight on the left bank of the river, the Romans will go to wait on the right bank, so as not to give the opponent the choice of battleground.
But this is exactly what his opponent hoped. Hannibal, informed of the intention of the Romans, preferred in fact the land on the other side of the river, more conducive to the maneuvers of his cavalry (which constituted the most aggressive and effective instrument of the Punic army). The Romans, however, hoped to rely on the preponderance of infantry, numerically almost double by number of men compared to the Carthaginian.
From dawn the trumpets resound in the Roman camp and the forces begin to cross the river Aufide, legion after legion, to take up the battle array. Opposite, several hundred meters away, a group of Punic riders gallop up the hill of the village of Cannae: Hannibal with his principal helpers, observes the enemy device. Under their eyes appears a large tingle of men who gradually takes the form of an immense steel wall that bares the entire plain for a front of about three kilometers. Some of the Carthaginian leaders, however experienced and veterans of many battles, do not hide a certain tension in front of an army of a greatness never seen before. But Hannibal appears rather relaxed and in his heart happy of the long-awaited opportunity. Also the Punic army takes a position protected on the forehead by the balearic archers and slingers, a kind of light infantry.
In the Roman files there are young and old that represent all of Rome, all of Lazio and all the allied cities. In their lines reigns a contained confidence because the opponent is fearful, but this time he will not be able to ambush and above all there is no fog like at the Trasimeno.
The two armies are now facing the plain of Cannae: the Romans have placed their cavalry on their left under the command of the consul Paullus Aemilius and at the center the immense mass of the legionary infantry under the orders of the two consuls of the previous year Minucius and Servilius, while Varro, the consul in charge, commands the allies' cavalry on the right wing of the deployment. Opposite, about a thousand meters, the gallic and iberian knights under the command of Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, occupy the left of the carthaginian device, while in the center there are 22,000 Iberian and Celtic infantrymen flanked by two African heavy infantry reserve, consisting of a total of 10 thousand Libyans; on the right of the line Hanno, nephew of Hannibal, is at the head of the cavalry numid. In both cases the generals are placed where the device appears weaker: Varro and Paullus Aemilius on the sides with the cavalry and Hannibal and his brother Mago, in the middle with the infantry.
The battle begins The Cretan archers, the Balearic slingers and the javelin throwers go out and return in turn from their ranks to hurl a shower of darts on the Romans. At the same time the cavalries come to the clash: the squadrons of Hasdrubal load the men of Paullus Aemilius, they hook them and force them to move back; on the other hand, instead, Marron and his allies are able to resist the assaults of the cavalry numide. In the middle, the two infantry walls come into contact in a hubbub of screams, shouts of war and sounds of swords hitting the shields.
The Carthaginian lines present a curious advance in a semicircle, with celts and Iberians in the forefront. Approximately thirty feet the legionaries of the first ranks launch their javelins, but they are too numerous, too tight and mutually disturb. Despite this the Roman infantry advances, reabsorbing the salient created by the Punic array, beginning to erode the heart of the enemy lineup. The Iberians and the celts recede without losing tactical cohesion. The Roman legionaries, taken from the heat of combat and exalted by the prospect of a near victory, accentuate their pressure, inflicting their adversaries on terrible wounds with their short gladius
Now the Carthaginian front has taken the form of a salient concave with an arc of a circle, towards which almost all the Roman units converge in an infernal crowd. Nearly exhausted by the fighting, the veterans search for the units that must take their place but they see them coming on the sides of the columns of Roman armed soldiers who initially exchange for friends. The tribune Gneus Lentulus realizes the situation: it is about African and non-Roman soldiers, equipped with the weapons of the dead of the Trasimeno. Lentulus immediately tries to give the order to retreat to his men but in the din of the fight and the cries of the wounded are not heard.
By now it is too late: on the back of the Roman lines the two Libyan bodies, still fresh and well-trained, complete the encirclement of the Roman forces, blocking every escape route and throw themselves against the legions trapped. The panic and disorganization take possession of the young Roman recruits, moreover without their officers, priority targets of archers and slingers.
At the forefront, the veterans see the gauls and the Iberians again take up the attack, but when the Roman legions try to reform the squares to get out of the trap, here comes the cavalry of Hasdrubal. This, after his victory over Paullus Aemilius, continued his action by throwing himself together with the numbers on the squadrons of Varro who, overcome by the mass of the adversaries, must withdraw from the battlefield
Left to the numidians the task of chasing the fugitives, Hasdrubal returns with his own forces on the battlefield, inflicting the decisive blow to the Romans.
The Roman army is completely surrounded by the next phase of annihilation. Despair, resignation, fatigue, terror overwhelm the legionaries, who succumb one after the other to the adversary's action. There are cases of madness and some Romans kill each other. The consul Paullus Aemilius, reached by numerous shots, dies at the center of his guard. The fight has now turned into a massacre.
When the evening comes, after about 9 hours of combat, the quietness on the battlefield returns that brought to Rome the bloodiest of the defeats in its history: three consuls or former consuls, 80 senators, more than 30 senior officers and no less of 60 thousand soldiers fell on the plain of Cannae; about 10 thousand men were taken prisoner.
Cannae, a battle of encirclement and annihilation, which has since become exemplary in military history, sanctions the victory of the Carthaginians over a twice-numbered adversary and consecrates the triumph of Hannibal's tactical intelligence over brute force.
But what Hannibal still does not know, while the next day he contemplates with pride the rich booty conquered, is that the magnitude of the ecstatic victory has not solved anything. On the contrary, it has now made every possibility of an agreement with Rome impossible. In fact, around 70 years later, in 146 BCE. the final and total destruction of Carthage will be the consequence and the definitive conclusion of the battle of Cannae.
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