Cannae

=Battle of Cannae=

The Battle of Cannae occurred on August 2nd 216 BCE, it was fought between the Cathaginian army with their great leader Hannibal and the Roman army with their general Aemilius Paullus. Hannibals army consisted of Gauls, Spaniards, Numididans and Carthaginians. Roman commanders led a force of 60'000 men or more against Hannibal, who had 40'000 or less to face them.The Romans went into the battle with little or no plan or tactics and fought in an attempt to defeat them by shear numbers and brute force, the Roman legions were perhaps the finest military units of their day and by far the most dominant and successful in war up untill then. Hannibals army had been winning many victiories across Italy and had been known for his tactical prowess and his use of elephants in battle, but by the time his army had reached the town of Cannae all elephants had died. The battle took place near the town of Cannae in Apulia in south east Italy

The Romans had picked the battlefield and they had the superior numbers. Hannibal knew this and he was going to take full advantage of their over-confidence. His battle formation was shaped like the outside of a bowl, a curve to it facing the roman infantry. Just before the Romans began to advance Hannibal charged the Romans with his cavalry. By this stage, all of Hannibal‘s elephants had died or had been killed in previous battles with the local villages and towns’ garrisons so he couldn’t use the huge terrifying beasts that he had used in such a devastating way. When the Romans saw Hannibal's cavalry advancing, the Romans sent their cavalry to intercept them. Although Hannibal's cavalry managed to drive the Romans back, he did suffer huge losses. The Roman legions began to advance, after a few gory minutes they had pierced Hannibal’s lines. This was Hannibal's aim, although the Romans were sucked into the opening. The Romans were using their typical square/rectangular formation so when Hannibal used his reserves; it was easy for him to flank them on both sides. Then Hannibal threw the rest of his cavalry at the Romans’ rear. It was literally; a crushing defeat for the Romans, Hannibal had won, however he wrote that he felt no sense of Triumph after the defeat. This battle was Rome’s greatest defeat and Hannibal’s finest victory. Hannibal grew up in Carthage, modern day Tunisia; this is one of the northernmost countries in Africa. He had moved his troops through multiple countries of Northern Africa to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain, through France and into Northern Italy. He gained multiple victories in battles against the Romans in northern Italy before he attempted to cut of Rome’s access to the grain fields in the South. The Romans amassed a huge army of 87,000 men to confront him at Cannae although many historians argue that the number of Romans was only about 60,000.

Either way Hannibal was outnumbered. He had won every battle leading up to this one and he wasn’t going to let the Romans defeat him now. At the time, Hannibal was the greatest threat to the Roman Empire and the Romans wanted to eliminate him as quickly and as efficiently as possible however, the Romans could not defeat him. Eventually the Romans starved him out, not being able to keep the supply lines to his army going through northern to southern Italy, he could not sustain his army of mercenaries and elite African troops. He //was// Rome’s greatest threat, but he was fighting an un-winnable war. __Links__ [] [] __Bibliography__ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY-Hcr4bB3U http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae http://www.roman-empire.net/army/cannae.html http://www.unrv.com/empire/battle-of-cannae.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQNCGqfjaBc

__Link to a video showing the battle of Cannae__

 Occurred