2 August 216 BC, afternoon
The encirclement
The Roman infantry press deeper into the bend of the Carthaginian line, and the ranks behind crowd forward into every gap until the men have little room to use their weapons. The Libyan infantry, still fresh at the ends of the line, now turn inwards and attack both Roman flanks. Hasdrubal’s cavalry return from the pursuit and fall on the Roman rear.
The Death of Paulus Aemilius at the Battle of Cannae, painting by John Trumbull, 1773Wikimedia Commons, John Trumbull, Public domain (The Death of Paulus Aemilius at the Battle of Cannae (Yale University Art Gallery scan).jpg)
The Roman army is enclosed on all sides. Polybius writes that the outer ranks are cut down one after another and the survivors pushed together, until they are killed where they stand. Paullus, the former consul Servilius Geminus and Marcus Minucius Rufus, Fabius’s former master of horse, die in the fighting.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 3, 115 to 116.
- Livy, History of Rome, book 22, 47 to 49.
- Adrian Goldsworthy, Cannae (2001).
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