Cannae

Name: Cannae
Rating: 2.5 (5 reviews)

by Ben Kane

Amazon

2.5(5)

In 216 BC, Hannibal Barca brings his army to Cannae and faces a Roman force almost twice its size. Soldiers from both sides prepare beneath the summer heat while the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro argue over how to use Rome’s overwhelming numbers.

The Romans drive their infantry into Hannibal’s deliberately weakened centre, believing that they are breaking the Carthaginian line. As the fighting tightens, Hannibal’s African infantry closes on the flanks and his cavalry returns against the Roman rear. Men trapped inside the encirclement fight for breath and space while their commanders lose control of the field. By nightfall, the survivors must escape a battlefield covered with the dead and face the consequences of Rome’s greatest defeat.