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ANCIENT WAR STRATEGY:HANIBAL

Battle of Cannae

SARASIJ MAJUMDER

With the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal destroyed the Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gaius Terentius Varro. Why is this battle considered one of the great masterpieces of military tactical art? We will discuss that.

In theory, it is impossible to surround an enemy army with a numerically inferior force. But HANIBAL did that, and won.

But, before discussing above, we need to discuss about CARTHAGE which is less known. Everyone knows about ROMAN EMPIRE. The above battle was between Romans, and Carthageans. They fought several WARs known as PUTINIC WARS.

At the height of its power, Carthage was the center of the Phoenician trade network. It eventually became the richest city in the entire Mediterranean region. It was full of extremely wealthy people and boasted a harbour containing over 200 docks.

Romans ultimately destroyed CARTHAGE, and took control of Mediterranean TRADE ROUTES, Islands, all complete.

There are 2 strategies you can use in ancient warfare, involving CAVALRY, and Foot Soldiers- go wide or deep. If you go wide, you stretch your line out until it’s larger than your enemy’s line- this enables your men to envelop the enemy and destroy them. Doing deep is the opposite- you make your ranks as thick as possible with the goal of breaking through your enemy’s line.

A numerically superior force can go as “wide” as the enemy army while also having greater depth. So, in theory, the smaller army cannot surround the larger Army. Then comes Hannibal.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WAR

Hannibal had a simple plan.

1. Defeat the enemy cavalry and command the field.
2. Make the center of his army weak so that when the Romans press in, the center will move back faster than the flanks

The Romans went “deep” banking on breaking through Hannibal’s line. This played right into Hannibal’s hands though since his center was intentionally falling back. The Romans pressed deeper and deeper thinking they were winning when they were trapping themselves.

This is the brilliance of Hannibal’s plan. He knew the Romans would be trying to break his lines so he made his trap look like a near victory. The center had folded in and the flanks remained strong. This created a “U” shape with the Romans pressed on either side. The cavalry then came around the back and surrounded the Romans.

Hannibal was outnumbered 2 to 1 and yet he managed to surround and annihilate a numerically superior army.

This sort of thing isn’t unheard of but it’s exceptionally rare and require both enormous skill and lots of luck.

It was perhaps one of  the most complete victories of the ancient world. Depending on the source, between 50,000 and 70,000 Roman soldiers were killed, about 10,000 captured. Apparently only 5,000 survived.

After the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal was able to make alliances with many of the cities and tribes of southern Italy. The Romans recruited as much as they could from the remaining population of Romans and Latin allies. They even recruited some 10,000 slaves on the promise of freedom if they fought well.

Later, Scipio Africanus gained the strategic advantage over him with a series of brilliant manoeuvres and battles in Spain and North Africa that crippled the rest of Carthage's military forces and allies, leaving Hannibal no choice but to depart from Italy and return to the homeland that he had not stepped foot on since he was in ROME .

ANALYSIS

ROMANS could have given even the most basic thought towards tactics, rather than charging in blindly.

While the tactical genius of Hannibal should not be forgotten, it really was the Roman commanders who caused Rome's loss at Cannae. The Roman army outnumbered the Carthageans by 4-to-1, and could easily outflank the Carthageans’ line. Roman infantry was also vastly superior. Hannibal's army was made up mostly of Spanish mercenaries with low morale and zero training. The core of his army- the professional Carthageans’ infantry- was respectable, but still inferior to Legionnaires. Only the cavalry, made up of Numidians, was superior to the Romans.

So, what did the Romans do? They set up in a wide-open field, perfect for cavalry movements. Instead of setting up in a long line and out flanking Hannibal, they set up almost in a square, just barely matching the length of the Carthaginian lines. In order to prevent being out flanked themselves, they put their inferior cavalry on the wings and told them to hold off the far superior Numidians cavalry. They did absolutely nothing to give themselves an advantage. They even walked themselves into the trap, moving forward until the ends of the Carthaginian line wrapped around them and boxed them in. Predictably, the Numidians cavalry won out and swung around behind the Romans, completely surrounding them. Slaughter ensued.

So, what would ROMANS could do to prevent Cannae? Literally anything.

• Make the line longer and outflank the Carthaginians. If the Numidians want to try and stop them, let them. A frontal cavalry charge against a solid shield wall was suicidal.
• Move the army to the nearby hills, negating the Numidian cavalry. Make it solely an infantry battle. The Romans were experts at hill fighting, having just concluded a 20-year war against the Samnites, a nomadic hill tribe in Italy.
• Peel off 20,000 men and send them around behind. You still have a 3-to-1 advantage. Even if the battle starts going badly, once the detachment hits the rear of the Carthaginian line, the battle is as good as over. 20,000 Roman Legionnaires vs. 20,000 Spanish and Carthaginians would have been a slaughter.

While it's true that Hannibal may have just left, rather than fight the battle, that would have been the far better outcome. Hannibal was deep in Roman territory, with no easy way to get resupplied, and being followed by an army of  80,000 men strong. Even if he had retreated from Cannae, he wouldn't be able to hold out long.

The Roman overconfidence killed themselves at Cannae.

AND HANIBAL THE GREAT WAS BOURNE.

Source for further study:- I have read the following, and more books to write this BLOG.

1.0 Journal of Medieval Military History.

2.0 Slaughter-at-the-battle-of-Cannae.

3.0 Roman Warfare. By: Adrian Goldsworthy.