Hannibal's (247–183 BC) double envelopment (i.e., encirclement) of a Roman army almost twice its size in the Battle of Cannae, 216 BC, is one of the best military feats of all time.
On that fateful afternoon, '50,000-70,000 Romans [out of 76,400] were killed or captured at Cannae. Among the dead were the Roman consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus, as well [as] two consuls for the preceding year, two quaestors, twenty-nine out of the forty-eight military tribunes, and an additional eighty senators (at a time when the Roman Senate was comprised of no more than 300 men, this constituted 25%–30% of the governing body). This makes the Battle of Cannae one of the most catastrophic defeats in the history of Ancient Rome, and one of the bloodiest battles in all of human history ...'
The historians Livy (59 BC-17 AD) and Polybius (203-120 BC) estimate that 47,000 to 70,000 Romans died on Cannae that day. In comparison, the Carthaginians' casualties were 6,000 only.
Mark Healy in Cannae 216 BC (1994): 'Caught between the 'vice' of the twin African phalanxes on their flanks and assailed to the fore and rear, the encircled Roman legions tried desperately to fight their way out of the trap ... It was to no avail. So compressed had their ranks become that many were unable even to raise their swords before they were cut down by the advancing army. Stepping over the dead and dying, the encircling Carthaginian forces drew the net ever tighter on the diminishing Roman force ... 'as their outer ranks were continually cut down and the survivors were forced to pull back and huddle together they were finally all killed where they stood' [Polybius].'
Military historians and commanders have studied the Cannae battle ever since. The latest significant war the Cannae Model was used was in the Gulf War in 1991 by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.
Gregory Daly's Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War (2002) is another good book on Cannae. It was written in the tradition of John Keegan's classic The Face of Battle (1983).
Livius.org has a diagram of the Cannae battle. Histoire du Monde offers an animated map.
[Image credit: US Military Academy at West Point]
Related post: More Cannae, 216 BC: the lesser known side of warfare
Related post: Cannae, 216 BC -- the clash and the aftermathTechnorati Tags: ancient Rome, Battle of Cannae, Cannae, Carthage, Hannibal, military blunders, military feats, Punic War
Interesting stuff, but what is the connection to cosmology?
Posted by: Alfonz | April 25, 2006 at 08:36 AM
Hello Alfonz. Military history is another interest of mine. I just can't help posting about Cannae. I added "[Off topic]" in the heading for clarity, now that you mentioned it. Thanks!
Posted by: MK/CC | April 25, 2006 at 03:50 PM