|
|
||
|
In August 2, 216 B C, Hannibal - general of Carthago in Numidia, defeats Terentius Varro - Consul of Rome, at the Aufidus river near the city of Cannae in southern Italy. Hannibal with his 50.000 men fought with their backs against the river which at that point flows in a shallow "U" form. As he had his left flank touching the Aufidus river, he didn�t have to worry about being outflanked by the 80.000 Roman troops, in fact his whole tactic was based on this secure flank. His center consisted only of a thin line of infantry. Hannibals main force was concentrated on the flanks. The left and right wings each contained deep phalanxes of heavy infantry and eight thousand cavalry next to the river on the left. His open right flank was guarded by two thousand cavalry. In the rear his camp was protected by eight thousand men. |
Varro, feeling confident of victory with his more than 80,000 Roman soldiers, accepted battle, but as he saw that Hannibals flanks were well protected, Varro decided to crush the Carthagians by throwing allmost all his men through Hannibals center. With 65,000 men in his center, 2,400 cavalry on his right and 4,800 cavalry on his left he sent the remaining 11,000 men to attack Hannibals camp.
After some preliminary skirmishes, Hannibal let his light center advance into a salient against the Romans. When the Romans reacted by attacking the center of Carthago, which slowly started an orderly but fighting retreat under the sheer might of Varros forces, Hannibal let his heavy cavalry on the left crush the opposing Roman cavalry. After that Hannibals cavalry rode around the Roman armys rear and attacked the Roman |
cavalry on Varros left flank from behind, while Hannibals right flank attacked the same cavalry from the front. The Roman cavalry panicked and fled the field, pursued all the way by Hannibals right flank cavalry.
The heavy cavalry of Carthago then turned back to assault the rear of the Roman infantry who had pressed back Hannibal's thin center line. While this happened Hannibal let his left and right infantry wings turn against the flanks of the Roman center which had advanced deep due to the weak center of Carthago. Now the weak center stopped their retreat and dug their heels in as the encircelment was complete. Varro, boxed in, unable to maneuver lost approximatively 60.000 men as his army was thoroughly destroyed.
|
Copyright © 1999, Jan Hjelm, All rights reserved.