Hannibal At Cannae

[Robert Crisman]

He lined his 45,000 men to the east, infantry centered, cavalry flanked, and had the line bend like a bow in the middle as 86,000 Romans and allies pressed forward.

He'd lined his men to the east, ensuring the Romans would also battle the sun as it rose, and eat the dust that blew west from the sea; moreover, the Romans had no water to drink as the dust filled their throats, as Hannibal's raiders had choked off supplies from their camps.

His center bent to the Romans, and his peripheral footmen and cavalry threshed at their flanks like scythes out of hell, then circled behind, minced their rear.

The Romans encircled, no room to maneuver or fight, pressed tight like grapes and crushed to the tune, Livy tells us, of 45,000 dead, the rest captured or ghosts who'd fled to the hills.

The first-ever victorious pincer attack, marveled at, studied, and used by the generals for over 2,000 years.

Rome held, it is true, and later came Zama, but Hannibal lives, as perhaps the greatest strategist/tactician in warfare's blood-ridden annals...

[Javed Baloch]

The first-ever victorious pincer attack, marveled at, studied, and used by the generals for over 2,000 years. Wow!

A nice tribute to one of the greatest war Generals in the history.

[Robert Crisman]

The battle took place in the region of Apulia in Southeastern Italy in 216 b.c.e. during the Second Punic war. This after Hannibal had crossed the Alps and run the Romans ragged up and down the Italian peninsula.