By Adrian Goldsworthy
On 2 August 216BC, Hannibal received his maximum victory within the simple north of the small, hilltop city of Cannae in southern Italy. through the top of the day his outnumbered mercenaries had enveloped and massacred the higher a part of the biggest military Rome had ever fielded, turning this into one of many bloodiest battles ever fought, rivalling even the industrialised slaughter of the 20 th century advert. For the Romans Cannae turned the yardstick during which different defeats have been measured, by no means passed and just once or two times equalled within the subsequent six centuries. Cannae is still the most recognized battles ever fought, often alluded to in smooth army writing, and Hannibal's strategies are nonetheless taught within the army academies the place present day officials are informed. This quantity is a new examine the conflict, and explains truly and concisely precisely the way it was once that Hannibal accomplished his historical victory.
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Example text
The f ace has some- most senior magistrates hold joint command from the very beginning of the ti mes been seen campaign. These men, Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Caius Terentius Varro, as the image of were elected to lead the largest army Rome had ever fielded to the anticipated one of the Barcid family, great victory. In spring 216 it is doubtful that anyone could have guessed at perhaps even the scale of the subsequent disaster, but all our sources were Hannibal himse lf , written with the benefit of hindsight.
Therefore th e two new consuls were positio ned with th eir armies on eit he r side of th ese moun tains . Cnaeus Servili us Ge mi nus was sta tio ne d at Arimin um (modern Rimini) in case Hannibal thrust down The Battle of Trebia along the coastal plain of Eastern Italy, whilst Gaius Flaminius' was fought in December force lay to the west of the mountains at Arreti um in Etruria. 218 and was the first time Hannibal faced a full Neither of the consuls was really strong enough to face Roman army in battle .
Polybius ' testimony is clear, but Livy says that the different sources for the battle included a huge variation in the size of the Roman army. He mentions the Polybian figure of eight legions of 5,000 foot and 300 horse , but according to another tradition, the arm y of four legions commanded by the con suls of 217 outside Gerunium was on ly augmented by a levy of 10,000 new recruits. If the latter account is true, then the arm y at Cann ae ma y hav e been no larger than around 50,000 men. Several modern sch olars hav e favoured thi s version, arguing that, sin ce numbers were frequently exaggerated in ancient acco unts or distorted as th e manuscript was copied over th e cen turies, it is always better to accept the lowest figure .