Battle of cannae

Executive Summery
500 words

Question 1: Introduction

This report we are going to study and analyze the Cannas's Battle (or Cannæ) that took place on August 2nd of 216 B.C., between the Punic army commanded by Hannibal, and the Roman troops directed by the consuls Terencio Varrón and Paullus Emilio, in the frame of the Second Punic War.

The report is going to be divided on several pointsin which we analyze the battlefield organization, the current status, the strategic message of the battle, a historical overview of the situation and a different approach for the analysis.

The battle was developed in Cannas's city, in Apulia, in southeast of Italy near the River Aufidus. The Carthaginians ended with the victory of his army, in spite of the marked numerical inferiority of theseones.

This battle is remembered as one of the biggest events of military tactics in history and represents the strategy that has rarely been successfully implemented in modern history. Also is the biggest defeat of Roman history.

The Romans decided to face Hannibal in Cannae approximately with 87.000 Romans and allied soldiers. With his right wing opened near the river Aufidus, the Romansplaced to his cavalry in the flanks and grouped his infantry weighed in the center, in a formation with major depth of the normal thing.

To offset this plan, Hannibal used a tactics of pliers: after placing to the infantry, in which he trusted less, in the center, with the flanks consisted of cavalry Carthaginean, his lines were adopting a form of waxing moon, making advance to his veterantroops of the wings.

Finally, in the culminating moment of the battle was when the Carthaginean troops from the center of the formation moved back before the advance of the Romans troops. And when these advanced, were without realizing inside an enemies' long arch that they they were surrounding. So they were attacked from all the flanks and without route of leak, the Roman army was destroyed.Between 60.000 and 70.000 Romans they died or were captured in Cannae, including the consul Lucio Emilio Paulo and eighty Roman senators.

Question 2: History

In this section we are going to give a historical overview of the situation. Let introduce the current situation between the Romans and the Carthaginians.

Before the Second Punic War, the Romans and the Carthagianians were two bigempires, that many times their aims were common, one example is Sicily. There was a big importance of this allocation for both empires on their future plans. Ambitions go now beyond the geographical limits of both empires. During 24 years they fought on a cruel war for the control of Sicily. Finally the Romans won the war and took the control of Sicily.

The general commander of the Carthaginianstroops on Sicily was Amilcar. When he lost the battle, he went to visit a Carthaginian temple with his 9-years-old son, and it made him swear that always would hate the Romans, this son was Hannibal, and he never forgot his promise. Later on, when his father died he became the genaral commander of a great Carthaginian army, which our work is focus on.

The origin of the Second Punic War was thedestruction of the city of Sagunto by Hannibal troops, and the alliance between Saguntum and Rome force the intervention of the Romans. And it was the perfect excuse for the Romans to begin another war between them, because they were worried about a creation of a Carthaginean empire in the Iberian Peninsula

Once the war was declared, Hannibal decided to bring the battle to the enemy territory, andon the spring of 218 B.C., Hannibal troops went from Cadiz to Rom, with arround 90.000 infantry, 12.000 cavalry, and 40 elephants. They crossed the Pireneos and went to the Alps, but during this trip they had to fight with a big number of Gallic tribes, which decrease his military power.

At the end of 218 B.C., Hannibals army crossed the Alps, but with a lot of losses in his lines. The...