At the Battle of Cannae on 2 August 216 BC, Hannibal's outnumbered Carthaginian army destroyed the largest Roman field army ever assembled. Roughly how many Roman soldiers died in a single afternoon?
Cannae killed approximately 50,000–70,000 Romans in roughly four hours, including one of the two consuls and about 80 senators. The single-day death toll wasn't exceeded by a Western army until the first day of the Somme in July 1916, 2,132 years later. Hannibal's tactical formation — a deliberate convex bow in his centre that withdrew under Roman pressure while his African infantry on the wings closed in from both sides — is still studied at every military academy. Rome didn't surrender. Within fifteen years it had destroyed Carthage.
Read the full facts →Hannibal Barca (247–c. 183 BC) was a Carthaginian general who invaded Italy with elephants across the Alps in 218 BC and won three of the most famous victories in military history against the Roman Republic. After his eventual defeat at Zama in 202 BC he served as Carthaginian chief magistrate, then as advisor to the Seleucid king Antiochus III, before killing himself in exile in Bithynia to avoid Roman capture.
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