[C19fan]

The Germans were obsessed with Cannae. One can think of the Schlieffen Plan as trying to replicate Cannae on a strategic level.

[ichabod1]

Haven’t read the article, but... the double envelopment - that is Cannae, nay?

[KC_Lion]

We could argue about Cannae and The Punic Wars for Days and not get anywhere.

Cannae was an almost perfectly Executed Battle, but Hannibal Still lost the War because the Romans set aside their arrogance, employed the Fabian Strategy, went after The Carthaginian Cities and Reinforcements in Spain.

They defeated Hannibal over time without directly engaging him until they were outright winning the War.

[Pollster1]

Possible GGG ping - almost unmarked historic “grave”-site of 50,000 at Cannae.

Interesting contemporary visit. I’ve been to the main battlefields from our Revolutionary and Civil War, as well as Sparta, Thermopylae, and even Zama, but I never bothered to visit Cannae, and now I’m wondering why I never thought of going there.

[sphinx]

Hannibal’s problem was that while he was a great tactician and battlefield commander, he sucked when it came to strategy. Following this crushing victory he was unable to finish the war.

Not quite. The Romans simply refused to quit, no matter how heavy their losses. The remarkable thing is that their Italian allies also stood firm. Conquering Italy would therefore have required an endless series of costly sieges. This would have required far more men than Hannibal had, as he needed a mobile field army to maintain control of the operational area and did not have enough troops to detach for endless siege warfare. Nor did he have enough men for the continuous garrisons that would have been required. He was simply too far from his bases in Spain and North Africa, and it's not clear that Carthage could have mustered sufficient force (or been able to hire enough mercenaries) even had he been closer.

The familiar American analogue is the Revolutionary War, where the British, with a handful of celebrated exceptions, won most of the battles but could never maintain control of the countryside or towns without a continuous garrison, for which the British lacked men.

[bboop]

We went to see the site of Hannibal’s battle at Lake Trasimeno, a bit east of Orvieto. Same thing - dirt roads, absolutely no markers. There were streets named ‘sangria’ and ‘osso’ (blood, bones) throughout the area, though. I kind of liked it that way. We had just read a book about Hannibal, in homeschooling, and I was captivated.

[Rufii]

The battle was so famous that it even inspired a song--I Can Dream, Cannae!

[Rufii]

In that final battle, at a place called Zama, Hannibal finally lost. Which is sort of why you can visit Rome, but not Carthage, now.

Under Roman rule, Carthage once again became a great city. Several conferences were held there that contributed greatly to shaping the Christian religion. In the seventh century AD, when Constantinople was threatened by Muslims and barbarians, the emperor Flavius Heraclius even considered moving the capital of the Roman Empire to Carthage. However, thanks to urban redevelopment and population management programs instituted by the Arabs in AD 698 and the Crusaders in 1270, Carthage has been considerably downsized.

St. Louis Cathedral, Carthage

[Billthedrill]

Great stuff. The battle was all about maneuver, but the war was all about logistics. It is a minor miracle how Hannibal managed to keep the thing going for a decade with minimal reinforcement, up and down the Italian peninsula with a slowly dwindling number of troops. But the notion that the Romans didn't win any battles is mistaken. The pivotal one of the war was not at Cannae, but at the Metauro river some ten years later, when the relief force under Hasdrubal that would have reinvigorated Hannibal's effort was soundly defeated in the Battle of the Metaurus. After that it was just a matter of time before Hannibal was recalled.

[bert]

——Holding this collection of warriors from across the Mediterranean meant the application not just of money, but persona charisma and leadership.-——

Hmmm...... persona, charisma and leadership. those are the characteristics America is looking for and has discovered in Donald Trump

[Bull Snipe]

The victor at Zama was Publius Cornelius Scipio aka Scipio Africanus. He had been a junior officer at the Battle of Cannae