Fought on 2 August 216 BC near the village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy, the Battle of Cannae saw Hannibal's Carthaginian army annihilate a numerically superior Roman force. Hannibal arranged his line in a crescent, deliberately weak at the center, luring the Roman legions into a bulging advance before his veteran African infantry closed on both flanks and his cavalry sealed the rear, a double envelopment. The result was one of the worst single-day military disasters in Roman history and is still studied as the archetypal encirclement battle. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
LocationNear ancient Cannae, Apulia, southeast Italy. 1 OutcomeCarthaginian victory. The Roman army was surrounded and practically annihilated. 1 Battle Type
Battle Type (category) Connections
Led By
Source Wikipedia: Battle of Cannae
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia: Battle of Cannae
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Italy, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Battle of Cannae
WikipediaDate section
2 August
Location section
41 18 23 N 16 7 57 E
opening
Carthaginian victory
opening line
/ˈkæni, -eɪ, -aɪ/
Led By: Hannibal Barca, Commanders and leaders section
Carthaginian - Hannibal, Mago Barca, Maharbal
View the Source Wikidata: Battle of Cannae
Wikidata Q179591, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
Open Questions (1 open question)
What were Hannibal's and Rome's true troop strengths and casualties at the Battle of Cannae?
Ancient sources disagree by wide margins: Polybius reports 70,000 Romans killed, 10,000 captured and perhaps 3,000 survivors; Livy records 45,500 infantry and 2,700 cavalry killed. Carthaginian losses are given as about 8,000 (Livy) or 5,700 (Polybius). A modern scholar quoted on the source page questions the scale outright, asking whether Hannibal's 50,000 Carthaginians could really have slaughtered 48,000 to 70,000 Romans.
What would resolve this Archaeological or demographic corroboration of ancient troop and casualty figures, or a reconciliation of the Polybius and Livy traditions by a source not yet identified.
Ancient historiography and battlefield archaeologyWikipedia: Battle of Cannae
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the Battle of Cannae still studied at military academies today?
It is the first fully recorded double envelopment, a textbook encirclement maneuver still taught today.
At Cannae Hannibal used a numerically inferior army to encircle and annihilate a larger Roman force, deliberately weakening his center to draw the Romans into a bulging advance before closing his flanks and cavalry around their rear. Polybius's account is the first fully detailed record of a successful double envelopment, and the maneuver remains a textbook case in the study of encirclement tactics.
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