The Battle of Cannae remains a classic example of Hannibal’s double envelopment trap. This engagement made Gen. Hannibal Barca the King of battlefield tactics.

Gen. Hannibal Barca’s Carthaginian Army employed the double envelopment tactic to defeat Gen. Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gen. Gaius Terentius Varro’s Roman Army in the Battle of Cannae. The double envelopment maneuver was a difficult battlefield tactic to execute successfully during ancient warfare. Hannibal’s battle centric tactical maneuver worked perfectly against the overly aggressive Romans and it delivered one of the greatest defeats to the Roman Army, according to Dr. Richard Holmes.

During the Second Punic War in 216 BCE, the Battle of Cannae emerged as the most famous conflict between Rome and Carthage. The Roman Empire’s titanic struggles with the Carthaginian Empire for the complete domination of the Mediterranean world was one of the most celebrated rivalries in Western military, political and economic history because this clash of civilizations led to three major Punic Wars that covered 118 years of violent military confrontations. During the Second Punic War in 216 BCE, the Battle of Cannae emerged as the most famous conflict between Rome and Carthage, according to Dr. Eric Nelson.

GEN. HANNIBAL BARCA

Carthage’s greatest military commander was Hannibal Barca. His strategy was battle centric and it was designed to destroy the Roman Republic’s confederation by a massive invasion of the Italian peninsula, according to Dr. Eric Nelson. Hannibal began from his base in the Iberian Peninsula where he traveled through Spain, Gaul, and across the Alps, and gathering Germanic and Celtic warriors from diverse tribes along the way toward Rome, according to Dr. Richard Gabriel. When he arrived in the Italian peninsula, Hannibal scored two major victories against the legions of Rome at the Battle of Trebbia and at the Battle of Lake Trasimene before fighting the Romans again near the ancient village of Cannae, in Apulia of southeastern Italy, according to Dr. Richard Holmes.

COMBAT OPERATIONS

Since Hannibal’s army regularly defeated the Romans in previous battles, with assistance from his allies, which was a mercenary army consisting of Africans, Gauls, and Spaniards, the Roman consuls of 216 BCE, Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gaius Terentius Varro, prepared to meet Hannibal in a major pitched battle. Therefore, they advanced to Cannae with about 80,000 infantrymen and 5000 cavalrymen. The Carthaginians had about 40,000 infantrymen and 10,000 cavalrymen. The Romans faced southwest, with their right wing resting on the Aufidus River and with the sea about three miles to their rear. They placed their cavalry on their wings and massed their infantry in an exceptionally deep formation in the center in the hope of breaking the enemy center by size, weight, and force. To counter this, Hannibal relied on the flexibility of his formation. He stationed himself and his Gallic and Spanish infantrymen in the center, two groups of his African troops on their flanks, and the cavalrymen on the wings. Before he engaged the Roman Army, Hannibal’s Carthaginian military formation adopted a crescent or curved shape, the center advancing with the African troops on their flanks. As he anticipated, his cavalry won the struggle on the flanks before they swept around behind the enemy where they began to annihilate Rome’s army, according to Dr. Richard Gabriel.

DOUBLE ENVELOPMENT TRAP

During the heat of battle, Hannibal’s forces allowed the Roman infantry to gradually force his army backward into Carthage’s center. As the battle continued victory or defeat depended upon whether Hannibal’s forces would bend, but not break. While Hannibal’s forces fell backward, they did not break, and the Roman center was gradually drawn forward into Hannibal’s double envelopment trap. Hannibal’s crescent formation had now transformed into a circle formation: the African troops, whom the Romans were fighting, turned inward against them, and the Carthaginian cavalry was in the rear. Pressed tightly together and thus unable to properly use their arms for offensive and defensive combat operations, the Romans were surrounded and cut to pieces. Approximately 60,000 Roman soldiers died on the battlefield, about 15,000 Roman soldiers escaped death, and at least 10,000 Roman soldiers were captured, while the Carthaginians lost only 6,000 fighting men, according to Dr. Richard Holmes.

ANALYSIS: STRATEGY AND TACTICS

Many military historians regard the battle of Cannae a classic example of Hannibal’s double envelopment trap. This battle was a perfect demonstration of the most brilliant strategic, operational, and tactical maneuver in military history ever to be employed by a military commander. While Hannibal’s victories caused many Roman prov

inces to revoke their allegiance to Rome, his campaign against Italy was a failure because he never destroyed Rome partly because Hannibal’s strategic plan was too battle centric, according to Dr. Mark Schwartz. Although Hannibal inflicted crushing defeats on Roman armies as he marched toward the city, he lacked the reinforcements necessary to completely defeat Rome partly because of the Carthaginian government’s lack of support for Hannibal’s campaign in Italy. Hannibal was recalled to Africa to defend Carthage against invading Roman forces, and there he was finally defeated by Scipio Africanus in 202 BCE.

RELATED SOURCES: Grant, R.G. and others; Battle; DK Publications, 2005. Grant, R.G. and others; Warrior; DK Publications, 2007. Grant, R.G. and others; Weapon; DK Publications, 2010. History Channel Documentary; Battles BC; 2010. Holmes, Richard; Battlefield; Oxford University Press, 2006. Nelson, Eric, Ph.D.; The Roman Empire; Alpha Books, 2002. Zimmerman, Dwight, D.; The Book of Weapons; Tess Press Publications, 2009. Zimmerman, Dwight, D.; The Book Of War; Tess Press Publications, 2008.