Tom Holland

There are 10,000 men in the large camp.

There are refugees in the smaller camp.

They're separated by this river.

So Hannibal in the morning turns his attentions to the Romans who've taken refuge in the town of Cannae and in this smaller fort.

The fugitives in Cannae are very quickly taken prisoner.

Then Hannibal is preparing to move on this small Roman camp, which is of course fortified.

I mean, the Romans there can hope to hold out.

And officers in the main Roman camp, so on the other side of the river, they've been urging the fugitives to, you know, don't stay there.

You're going to be, you know, you're going to be wiped out if you do stay there.

Cross the river, come and join us.

You can add to our numbers and hopefully we can kind of get away from here.

But the Romans fugitives are so demoralized that ultimately only about 600 make the attempt and managed to get away across the river.

And so they and the 10,000 reserves had then managed to march out of the main camp to avoid being cornered by Hannibal's cavalry.

And they cross the plain and they reach a walled town called Canusium, which is about six miles from the battlefield.

So the fact that so few people had wanted to take the risk and escape from that smaller camp to join the large camp, I mean, this to Hannibal is an indicator that Roman morale is broken.

But also what then happens in Canusium is another indicator of this.

Because even in the relative safety of Canusium, which is a walled town, it's evident that morale is really, really at rock bottom.

So one officer...

who is the son of a consul, the consul is the kind of the leading magistrate in the Republic, he is reported by Hannibal's spies to have insisted publicly that all is lost, to quote him, the future has nothing to offer but misery and despair.

And there are other officers who, again, are men of very high birth, high rank, who are said to be planning to flee overseas.