Cold Open

It’s fall 217 BCE, in the mountains of central Italy.

Amid a camp of Carthaginian soldiers walks Hannibal Barca, their 30-year-old general. While his soldiers rest and relax, Hannibal’s mind races.

For over a year, war has been raging between Carthage and Rome, as the two powers battle for supremacy over the Mediterranean. It's a conflict known as the Second Punic War. And Hannibal and his troops are fresh off a string of victories over Rome. But trouble is on the horizon. Hannibal and his forces are stuck. Roman troops have surrounded the Carthaginians’ camp, blocking any route out of the mountains.

Fortunately, Hannibal and his soldiers have plenty of food, having gleaned several thousand cattle through their recent victories. Hannibal’s troops are now enjoying the spoils of war, cooking meat over fires. But it’s only a matter of time before their situation grows more dire. Winter is on its way, and their cattle won’t last them indefinitely.

With the Romans ready to wait them out, Hannibal knows he needs to make a move now, while conditions are still favorable. As the general surveys the camp, staring into the eyes of the cattle among it, an idea comes to him — a way to use these animals as a distraction.

Immediately, Hannibal orders his troops to find good kindling. While they spring into action, Hannibal rounds up his commanders and shares his plan. He informs them that they’re leaving the valley the same way they came in. Commanders furrow their brows. They don’t know how they could possibly get past four thousand Roman soldiers blocking their exit, especially with all their cattle. They also don’t understand why Hannibal would want to exit the same way they came; the general is well-known for never taking the same road twice. But that, Hannibal tells them, is precisely why this plan could work.

The commanders consider this and begin to come around to the idea. But the next stage of Hannibal’s plan is so strange that some within his ranks question whether their leader has lost his mind. Because when his soldiers return with kindling, Hannibal orders his men to tie the branches around the horns of two thousand of their strongest bulls.

Despite their confusion, they do as they’re told. And as night falls, Hannibal instructs the soldiers to drive the cattle up the slopes to where the Roman army awaits the Carthaginians.

Then, on Hannibal’s orders, they set the kindling in the bulls' horns ablaze and send the cattle running up the hill, into the enemy camp.

The Romans respond to the bulls just as Hannibal hopes. Believing the noise and fire coming from the cattle are Hannibal’s men trying to escape, Romans rush to attack, leaving a wide path open for Hannibal and his men to walk to freedom.

Before the sun rises, Hannibal, his army, and his entire baggage train, and all their equipment and supplies will make it past the Roman defenses, garnering the Carthaginians another victory and bringing Hannibal one step closer to his ultimate goal. When he came to power at just 26 years old, the Carthaginian general vowed to devote his life to defeating the Roman Republic. As the Second Punic War rages on, Hannibal will stay true to his mission. Over the course of his life, the general’s tactical genius will earn him a reputation as one of Rome’s most formidable adversaries, a legacy cemented after he pushes the republic to the brink of collapse with a staggering defeat on August 2nd, 216 BCE.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is August 2nd, 216 BCE: Hannibal Defeats the Romans at Cannae.

Act One: Inferior Numbers, Superior Tactics

It’s early Summer 216 BCE, in the ancient village of Cannae in southeastern Italy.

Hannibal Barca looks out over the town’s port, now under Carthaginian control, after proving himself victorious once again.

It’s been almost a year since Hannibal bested the Romans in the Italian mountains and the Second Punic War is still underway. But, Hannibal is feeling good about the state of affairs. Rome is not.

With every one of his triumphs, Hannibal’s mythic status has been growing. The Carthaginian leader has become infamous for his almost supernatural ability to both evade and invade, having picked villages off one by one, and even recruited their residents to his cause in the process.

Rome’s leaders are desperate to stop him. So they sent two new commanders to try to halt the Carthaginians’ progress: Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. These two men now share command of the Roman army, taking charge on alternate days.

While Rome hopes this will be a winning tactic, Hannibal sees it as the Romans’ newest mistake. The two commanders are very different leaders. While Paullus tends to be cautious and apprehensive, Varro is impetuous and ambitious. Amid mounting political and public pressure to end the war, he is eager to be the man to defeat Carthage. Because, as much as he's fighting for Rome, Varro is also fighting for himself. He has his own political aspirations, and ridding Italy of Hannibal is a good first step to gaining the glory necessary to see him to the top.

Hannibal is confident this mismatch in leadership spells trouble for the Romans and victory for Carthage. But, at the very least, the commanders have learned from their predecessor’s mistakes. They know better than to just wait Hannibal out. So, the Roman army has marched on Cannae.

From his base there, Hannibal surveys the enemy forces camped out just three miles away. The Romans far outnumber Hannibal’s own men, coming in at a staggering eighty thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry, all equipped with helmets, shields and spears.

In Hannibal’s own encampment, he has about forty thousand infantry, half the amount of the Romans. But his strength lies in the diversity of his ten thousand cavalry. Unlike the almost identical-looking soldiers in the Roman force, Hannibal’s cavalrymen are a wide range of colors and creeds, composed of Libyans, Gauls, Spaniards and Celts, each with their own style of attire and weapons.

Never one to miss an opportunity to frighten and confuse his enemy, Hannibal has made it a habit of amplifying his soldiers’ differences – for instance, placing the Celts, who often fight unclothed, next to the Spaniards in their long linen tunics. The sight of a disparate army, with different fighting styles and weaponry, has terrified the Romans, already nervous from stories of the Carthaginian armies' ferocity.

So though the Romans far exceed the Carthaginians in number and resources, their presence today doesn’t scare Hannibal. In fact, he wants them here – that’s the main reason he led the Carthaginians to Cannae in the first place. The port is too valuable to the Romans, playing an integral part in their supply line. The Romans will have to take it back. And that means a battle on Hannibal’s terms.

On August 1st, after a series of fights on the fringes of the camps, Hannibal leads his full army out and offers the Romans battle. But the commander in charge, the more cautious Paullus, refuses to engage. While the Romans may outnumber the Carthaginians, Paullus doesn’t underestimate Hannibal. He knows that if the Carthaginian general wants to fight here and now, he must have a reason for doing so.

But Paullus’s more headstrong counterpart will not be so restrained. And the very next day, with Varro in command, Hannibal will lay down the same challenge. This time, it will be accepted and Varro and his men will fall into battle formation, ready to vanquish the Carthaginians once and for all. But the Romans’ confidence will be misguided, playing right into Hannibal’s hands and setting the stage for one of the greatest tactical achievements in military history and one of the bloodiest battles the world has ever seen.

Act Two: The Trap

It’s August 2nd, 216 BCE, on an open plain near Cannae.

At first light, Hannibal looks into the sky above, evaluating the day’s conditions. With the Carthaginians facing North and the Romans South, the position of the sun seems preferable to neither side. But one element of the weather does seem to be working on Hannibal’s side: the wind. While the breeze whips dust from a fresh harvest nearby into the backs of the Carthaginian army, it flies into the faces of the Roman soldiers. Hannibal smiles. It is only a bit of wind, but he knows that by such small margins, entire battles can be won or lost.

But of course, Hannibal is not relying on small margins. He can’t afford to, not when his forces are so deeply outnumbered. Instead, he has a cunning plan to beat the odds.

By now, Hannibal senses that the Romans are feeling confident, secure that having nearly double Hannibal’s soldiers will ensure victory. But Hannibal welcomes this confidence. If the Romans feel good about their numbers, it stands to reason that they won’t have any surprises up their sleeves.

The same cannot be said for Hannibal. As it so often does, limitation has bred creativity within the general. When the Romans do accept his invitation to battle – and Hannibal suspects the rash Varro soon will – he expects their forces to form a traditional block formation. Meanwhile, Hannibal plans to create a more unconventional shape with his own men. By forming a crescent, bulging out toward their enemy, he hopes to encircle and trap the Romans.

In the center of the formation, Hannibal will place his weaker foot soldiers. On the flanks will be the strongest members of Hannibal’s forces. And while those in the center absorb and stall the Roman advance, the rest will begin to surround the Romans, attacking from all sides. As for himself, Hannibal will take up a position at the vanguard, a move that serves two purposes. For one, it will hopefully convey his confidence to his troops, assuring them that they are not just fodder for their general's ego. For another, it will give Hannibal the bonus of being able to command from the center should plans need to change.

Satisfied with his strategy, Hannibal starts to put his ambitious maneuver into action. Once his troops are set up exactly as he wants them, the Carthaginian soldiers invite another attack. This time, the eager Varro is quick to answer.

Hannibal hides his smile as the Romans assume the traditional formation he anticipated, creating one deep and narrow block. Unaware of Hannibal’s unusual strategy, Varro plans to simply eviscerate the middle of the Carthaginians’ line, splitting their forces into two, smaller and more easily conquerable groups. And as Varro and his men eye the Carthaginians, they have little doubt they will come out on top. With Hannibal’s weakest soldiers at the center, their plan to split the enemy forces seems like even more of a winning strategy.

But as the two armies meet on the battlefield, the Romans are caught by surprise. Everything goes according to Hannibal’s plan. Under the general’s strict instruction, his soldiers in the center fight hard, but slow. Gradually, the convex formation of the Carthaginians’ became concave, drawing the Romans into the middle of the battle. As Varro and his men assault the center, they believe they’re winning. It seems like they’re beating back Hannibal’s men and on the verge of breaking the Carthaginians' line.

But what the Romans don’t realize is that while they push forward into the middle, the Carthaginians’ flanks are curling around them. As they envelop their enemy, Hannibal’s men push inward on the Romans, crushing their opponents and leaving them no room to charge or retreat.

With no way to escape, the Romans fight on. The men on the edges deflect as many waves of attack as they can, but soon panic spreads. Roman leaders begin to fall, including Paullus, who argued against meeting Hannibal in open combat. Before long, the vast majority of the eighty thousand Roman infantry are slaughtered where they stand.

An estimated 50-70,000 Romans will be killed at Cannae, along with 6,000 Carthaginians, making it one of the most lethal single days of fighting ever. The victory will be decisive for Hannibal, becoming known as one of the greatest tactical feats in history, studied by historians and military strategists for centuries to come. But even this staggering triumph won’t be enough to decide the war. Initially, the defeat will throw Rome into a panic. But over the next decade, the Romans will demonstrate a remarkable resilience, rebuilding their forces, refusing to surrender, and eventually emerging victorious.

Act Three: Onwards to Rome?

It’s June 23rd, 207 BCE, ten years after the Battle of Cannae.

On the banks of Italy’s Metauro River, Hasdrubal Barca, Hannibal’s younger brother, wakes to the sound of trumpets echoing from an enemy camp.

It’s been an entire decade since the Battle of Cannae, but the Second Punic War is still raging on. But Hasdrubal and Hannibal hope that that won’t be the case much longer. Together, they’ve hatched a plan. Hasdrubal is on his way from Carthage to meet Hannibal with enough supplies and men to take the fight to the gates of Rome where they hope to finally end the war.

But the blare of the Romans’ trumpets worries Hasdrubal. The two trumpets he hears indicate that there are two armies at the enemy camp, meaning that the one that has been fighting his brother elsewhere in Italy has come to confront Hasdrubal’s campaign instead. Hasdrubal fears that his brother has been defeated, and orders his forces to attack.

The battle begins. And despite being outnumbered yet again by Roman forces, the Carthaginians know they have beaten worse odds before. But today, the Roman Cavalry proves more formidable, ironically strengthened by their catastrophic defeat at Cannae which forced them to adapt and evolve their tactics.

With their backs to the river, the Carthaginian army fights a losing battle to the Romans. Some try to escape through the river, but only end up drowning, others are cut down by Roman soldiers on foot. Hasdrubal, staring defeat in the eye, chooses a soldier’s death, taking to his horse and riding into battle where he is struck down, sword in hand.

After their victory, the Romans decapitate Hasdrubal and pack his severed head into a sack. Days later, having no prior knowledge of his brother’s death or battle, Hannibal finally gets an update when the Romans throw his sibling’s head into his camp.

That defeat will be enough to turn the tide of the war, dooming the Carthaginians and confirming Roman supremacy over Italy. Without reinforcements, Hannibal will be unable to conquer Rome and will be forced to retreat to Carthage. In 201 BCE, after 17 years of fighting, the Romans will claim victory in the Second Punic War – completing a stunning reversal of fortune once thought improbable, following the republic’s devastating defeat at Cannae on August 2nd, 216 BCE.

Outro

Next on History Daily. August 5th, 1969. Police in Atlanta, Georgia raid a screening of Andy Warhol’s underground film Lonesome Cowboys, triggering a wave of protests that sparks the gay rights movement in the Deep South.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Katrina Zemrak.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.