225 BC
The cavalry charge
The Insubres move forward in place of the Gaesatae as the velites withdraw, and the Roman hastati advance in their maniples. The Insubres, Boii and Taurisci hold their ground against the better armed Romans. The hastati are relieved by the more experienced principes, who slowly wear the Gallic infantry down.
Roman legionaries and Gauls at Telamon, illustration by Allan Stewart, about 1915Wikimedia Commons, Allan Stewart, Public domain (Allan Stewart - The Battle of Telamon, 255 BC.png)
The Roman cavalry then ride down from the hill and charge into the flank of the tired Gallic infantry. The Gallic cavalry have already fled, and the infantry are cut down where they stand.
Polybius gives 40,000 Gauls killed and 10,000 captured, among them Concolitanus. Aneroëstes escapes with a few followers and takes his own life with them. Papus leads the combined armies into the land of the Boii, and by 222 BC Rome has defeated the main Gallic tribes of the Po valley.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 2, 30 to 31.
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage (2006).
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