
Having recovered from their previous losses at Trebia and Trasimene , the Romans decided to engage
Hannibal at Cannae, on August 2nd 216 BC.

The armies met on the Apulian plain near the town of Cannae next to the River Aufidus.
Leading into Battle:

The newly elected Roman Consuls, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus, were anxious to
begin their tenure with military achievement.
• They formed a large force to deal with the Carthaginians ravaging
southern Italy. Between the two Consuls, they levied a force of nearly
80,000 men.
• Hannibal meanwhile, still attempting to subvert Roman authority
in the allied areas of Italy, was waiting for the Romans with a
colourful mix of Gauls, Spaniards, Numidians and Carthaginians,
approximately 40,000 men.
•Hannibal placed his light slingers and spearmen at the front.
•He positioned his Celtic and Spanish swordsmen in a crescent in the centre.
•On his left wing he stationed his Celtic and Spanish heavy cavalry, on the right he stationed his light
Numidian cavalry.
•Preparing for battle, he now ordered his light troops at the front to fall back and act as reserves.
•The Romans meanwhile acted as usual. The velites (skirmishers) were positioned at the front to cover their
position. Behind them, in the centre the main body of the legion took its position, with allied Italian infantry
on either side of it.
The Romans drove in hard, using their superior infantry to best advantage. They had their velites fall back and
ploughed into their foe with their heavy infantry.
The crescent of Celtic and Spanish swordsmen buckled and retreated.
To the Romans this appeared to be due to their powerful drive into the opponents lines. In fact the troops had
been told to retreat.
The Roman infantry had continued to drive forward, and had driven itself into an alley formed by the
light Carthaginian infantry stationed at the sides.
Shielded by these Carthaginian troops, their comrades who had stayed at the rear could now swing
around and come in behind the Roman army. The Roman doomed legions were encircled and being
attacked from all sides.
In effect the Roman infantry had been defeated by the opposing infantry, although the returning
Carthaginian cavalry helped further accelerate their victory.

Defeat in this battle was a blow from which Rome should be reeling for some time to
come.
3000 Romans were
taken prisoner, Paullus
and Servilius were
dead and Varro fled
with about 15000 men.
Outcome
Polybius claims 70,000
dead and 10,000
captured, though Livy,
Appian and Plutarch
report only 50,000
dead.
Hannibal lost about
6000 men in his
greatest victory, and
Rome’s worst defeat.
Polybius notes, "How much more serious was the defeat of Cannae,
than those that preceded it can be seen by the behavior of Rome’s
allies; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now
it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of
Roman Power."
From: Polybius, The Histories of Polybius, 2 Vols., trans. Evelyn S.
Shuckburgh (London: Macmillan, 1889), I. 264-275.
Only 10,000 Romans
succeeded in forcing
their way out of the
trap.
Believed Roman
forces traditionally
numbered 80,000
men, but probably
nearer 50,000.
First Time Rome’s
allies showed grave
signs of disloyalty.
Boak and
Sinnigen
Syracuse went over to
Carthage. Capua, the
second city of Italy
opened its gates to
Hannibal.

Hannibal faced Scipio in the concluding Battle of the war, this time on Carthaginian soil.

Roman forces landed in Africa defeating the Carthaginian armies under Syphax and
supporting a Numidian rising against Carthaginian rule.

Carthage was ready to sue for peace when Hannibal with 15'000 veterans returned from
Italy, and so decided to continue War.

Zama marked the end of the power of the great Hannibal Barca.

Pinnacle in the career of the outstanding Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio, whose
reforms to the Roman army made him legendary.

Both armies numbered 35,000 to 40,000 men. Hannibal now had a strong elephant
corps.
The Elephants charge
The Cavalry returns
The Roman Cavalry charges, the Infantry deploys
Scipio applied the tactics of encirclement which he had learnt from Hannibal but adapted to
Roman military formations.
 The retreat of the Carthaginian mercenaries at a critical moment and the timely return of the
Roman and Numidian Cavalry from pursuit of the routed Carthaginian horse resulted in a
complete Victory for Scipio.
 Hannibal having lost the battle retreated to Carthage.
 20,000 men from Hannibal's army were killed with an equal number taken as prisoners to be
sold at slave auction. The Romans meanwhile, lost as few as 500 dead and 4,000 wounded


Scipio returned to Rome to triumph “over the Carthaginians and Hannibal” and to receive the
name of Africanus.
Zama did not decide the outcome of the war, which Carthage had already lost, but it did
determine the kind of peace terms that Rome would impose on her defeated enemy.

Spain was forever lost to Carthage and passed into the control of Rome for the next 7
centuries.

Carthage was reduced to the status of a client state and lost all power of enacting its own
treaties and diplomacy.

It was forced to pay a tribute of 10,000 talents, all warships, save 10 were turned over to
Rome along with any remaining war elephants.

Carthage was forbidden to raise an army without the permission of Rome.

Grain and reparations for lost supplies also had to be provided to Rome as well as having
the responsibility of collecting runaway slaves and returning them.

The defeat of Carthage transformed the Roman Republic from a growing regional power
into the super-powered Empire of the Mediterranean.

Rome became the master of not only all of Italy, but Africa, Spain and Greece as well.
 Titus Livius: History of Rome, books nine through twenty-six.
 Polybius: The Histories.
 Boak and Sinnegen: Conquest of Mediterranean Chapter 8.
 Hannibal School Handouts.
 http://www.unrv.com
 http://www.roman-empire.net/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal#Battle_of_Cannae