.:: Battle at Cannae | (Chapter 5) ::. The date is August 2nd. The consul in charge this day is Gaius Terentius Varro, a man who will be responsible for the impending disaster. He has two armies and hopes to surround Hannibal before crushing him between the two. Hannibal’s Numidian cavalry quickly dispatches their Roman counterparts but his infantry are not so lucky. The Iberian and Gallic Celts fighting for Carthage (positioned at the forward-center point of a v-formation and led by none other than Hannibal and his brother Mago) refuse to break ranks, however, which allows the Numidian cavalry to re-position, hidden, at the back of Varro’s army.

Rome’s infantry line is head-to-head with Carthage and has enjoyed a concave throughout this battle due to their greater numbers. However, as the Celts are falling back, the Roman center pushes forward while Carthage’s flanks, the strongest, most-skilled of Hannibal’s infantry, still hold. Hannibal sees this perfect moment and closes the jaws of his trap. The flanks tighten on the Roman legion, stopping their forward advance against the Celts. The Numidian cavalry charge into the Roman rear at this moment, murdering troops with no room to fight or flee. The bulky Roman legionnaires are forced into a confined space, too little room to even swing their swords and yet again the result was slaughter. Varro successfully flees, unwilling to accept the consequences of his brashness; Paullus has the opton to flee but valiantly stays to fight and die with his soldiers, asking the tribune who offers escape to tell the senate to fortify Rome and tell Fabius privately “I have ever remembered his precepts in life as in death.”

Despite the brutality of the scenario–Hannibal threatening to lash anyone not zealous enough in their slaughter, giving orders to hamstring opponents fleeing, only later returning to seal the deal–Hannibal releases all prisoners much to the dismay of his commanders. He also honors Paullus’ valor–who disagreed with Varro’s decision to engage in battle but supported him nonetheless–with ceremonial rituals in the Roman tradition. This is the ancient equivalent of a Hamas general performing the taharah for a fallen member of Mossad, a thing unimaginable.

Rome lost twenty-nine of their forty-eight highest-ranking officers, at least eighty senators (of three hundred) and at least 65,000 legionnaires. By comparison Hannibal lost only around 6,000 men, many of which were his newest Celtic recruits. This battle is studied to this day as one of the most important battles the world has ever known.

Here Hannibal hesitates. He is being urged by his lieutenants to go for Rome’s throat but he is rather more comfortable with the guerrilla tactics developed by his father. He avoids the direct engagement and continues to spur revolt among Rome’s allies. This is one of the big what-ifs of history, where the fate of the world hinges on one decision by a single man, where everything after might have been different. What if he had marched on Rome?

Instead Hannibal sues for peace. This is a charitable offer considering how he has dominated the war thus far. Rome rejects the peace terms and refuses to pay prisoner’s ransoms. Rome is in a state of total war.

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