What were the aftermath and casualties of the Battle of Cannae?
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Horse and foot mingled as the shifting phases of the battle, or the attempt to escape, had brought them together. Here and there, wounded men, covered with blood, who had been roused to consciousness by the morning cold, were dispatched by a quick blow as they struggled to rise from amongst the corpses.
Others were found still alive, with the sinews in their thighs and behind their knees sliced through, baring their throats and necks and begging who would to spill what little blood they had left. Some had their heads buried in the ground, having apparently dug themselves holes and by smothering their faces with earth had choked themselves to death.
Most strange of all was a Numidian soldier, still living and lying with nose and ears horribly lacerated, underneath the body of a Roman, who when his useless hands had no longer been able to grasp his sword, had died in the act of tearing his enemy in bestial fury with his teeth. So that was the account of the battlefield of Cannae by Livy.
And he's describing the morning after one of the bloodiest and most notorious days in the entire history, not just of Rome or of the Punic Wars, but of armed conflict generally, because this is one of the most studied, most discussed, most famous battles in all world history. It took place on the 2nd of August, 216 BC.
And Tom, for the Romans, this was the darkest day in all their history, wasn't it?
It was. And for as long as their empire endured, Roman historians who wanted to emphasize some particular shattering defeat would say, oh, this was the worst day ever, except for Cannae. And they would always acknowledge that even the worst defeat wasn't as terrible as Cannae had been.
And I think what is fascinating is that modern historians as well have been kind of equally fascinated by the scale of the slaughter that was inflicted on Rome on that terrible day. So there are two really excellent studies of this battle. One by Greg Daly, Can I? The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War.
He writes, very striking fact, that there were more Romans and Italians killed in one day of fighting at Cannae than Americans killed in combat during the whole Vietnam War.
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