Who Fought The Famous Historical "Battle Of Cannae"�?

Someone summed it up quite nicely; it's not the size of a dog in a fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog! This is probably the best way the famous "Battle of Cannae" can be described. The massive military power of the Romans, arguably the finest at that time, defeated by an army much smaller and less finely equipped in both manpower and artillery.

The Battle of Cannae which took place in the summer of 216 BC was fought between Hannibal and The mighty legions of the Roman Empire. Hannibal had crossed the Alps with his elephants and his army which was roughly 40000 strong to engage with an enemy which was easily 10000 or more stronger than his in number. The Roman way of war was to crush force with a bigger force. And so as the battle raged on Hannibal fooled the Roman's by leading them to think that they were advancing into enemy territory and all the while Hannibal's army was surrounding the Roman army from all sides eventually leading to the defeat of the Romans.


In the end it was the cleaver war tactics of the enemy that won them the battle and not brute force. This was perhaps one of the most humiliatingly painful lessons the Roman's ever learnt.

Hannibal and Scipio