Battle of Cannae: Hannibal annihilates a Roman army
- Date
- 2 August 216 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Italy (Apulia)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
During the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who had invaded Italy by crossing the Alps, inflicted on Rome one of the worst defeats in its history near the village of Cannae in Apulia.
Outnumbered, with roughly 50,000 troops against a much larger Roman force commanded by the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, Hannibal deliberately allowed his centre to give ground while his cavalry routed the Roman horse and his infantry wings closed in, encircling the entire Roman army in a textbook double envelopment. Tens of thousands of Romans were killed in a single day, including the consul Paullus and large numbers of senators and officers. Cannae became the classic example of tactical encirclement, studied and emulated by commanders for two millennia, and it cemented Hannibal's reputation as one of history's greatest tacticians. Yet Rome refused to negotiate; adopting attritional 'Fabian' strategy and drawing on deep reserves of Italian manpower, it recovered and ultimately defeated Carthage, demonstrating the Republic's extraordinary resilience under catastrophe.
One piece of history in your inbox, weekly
New empires, events and features as they land — one good email a week. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Empires active in 2 August 216 BCE
- Qin Dynasty221 BCE – 206 BCE
- Maurya Empire322 BCE – 185 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Odrysian Kingdom480 BCE – 46 CE
- Seleucid Empire312 BCE – 63 BCE
- Ptolemaic Kingdom305 BCE – 30 BCE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire1 October 331 BCE
- Alexander the Great invades the Persian Empire334 BCE
- Meng Tian links the northern walls into the Qin Great Wallc. 215–214 BCE
- Battle of Zama ends the Second Punic War19 October 202 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Gripping popular narrative of the Republic's fall.
Get it on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, Human Saga earns from qualifying purchases.