B.C. 216.]

OPENING OF THE THIRD CAMPAIGN.

439

the Fabian tactics felt now by the Senate as well as the people. The former decided to raise an army such as the republic had never possessed before; the latter resolved to place a man of their own at its head. Eight legions were levied, each exceeding the usual strength by one-fifth, with a proportionate increase in the auxiliaries, besides another legion, which was sent to operate in Cisalpine Gaul, in the hope of withdrawing the Celts from Hannibal to defend their homes. The Senate would have nominated a dictator; but the unpopularity of Fabius had extended to his office; and all the efforts of the aristocratic party could only carry one of their candidates for the consulship, L. Æmilius Paulus, the conqueror of Demetrius of Pharos, whose military experience, it was vainly hoped, would be a check upon the incapacity of his popular colleague, the coarse and insolent demagogue C. Terentius Varro, the same who had moved the association of Minucius with Fabius in the dictatorship. The disappointment of that hope in the ensuing campaign is one of the most memorable events in the history of the world.

Hannibal opened his third campaign late in the spring of B.C. 216 by marching from Gerunium in search of supplies, across the river Aufidus (Ofanto), into the plain of Canusium (Canosa). Below this city, at a little distance from the right bank of the river, the Romans had established great magazines in the citadel of CANNE, hitherto, as Florus calls it, "an obscure Apulian town;" and the late consuls, who had wintered with the army since Fabius had laid down his office, were unable to save this important post. Hannibal established himself in a camp on the right bank of the Aufidus, resting upon Cannæ, while the new consuls, who had marched into Apulia, with the purpose of satisfying the universal feeling at Rome, and finishing the war by a decisive battle, encamped about five miles above him. Their army amounted to 80,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry, half of the former and twothirds of the latter being Romans. Hannibal's infantry were only 40,000, but he had 10,000 cavalry, whose quality vastly increased their superiority to the Roman horse. For this force nothing could be more favourable than the level plain of Apulia; and a battle alone could extricate Hannibal from the danger of having his supplies cut off by an enemy nearly twice his strength, and possessed of Luceria and other fortresses. The same consideration allowed the consuls to choose their own time and opportunity; and Æmilius took all his measures to check the foraging along both banks of the river, and force Hannibal to come out and attack him

on his own ground. Urged by Varro to approach nearer to the enemy, he constructed two camps, the larger on the right bank, above the Punic position, the smaller nearly opposite it on the left bank, about a mile both from it and the larger Roman camp. By an ancient but pernicious custom, when the consuls were together in the field, they commanded on alternate days; and when the turn came to Varro, he resolved to attack at any hazard.

The difficulties which have been felt respecting the scene of the battle, involving even an uncertainty on which bank of the river it was fought, seem to have been cleared up by the researches of Swinburne upon the spot. The sites of Canusium and Cannæ are close to the right bank, on the spurs of a range of hills which leave a level space of only about half a mile in breadth; but on

A. First Camp of the Romans.

B. The Larger Camp.

c. The Smaller Camp.

D. Camp of Hannibal.

E. Scene of the Battle.

F. Citadel of Cannæ.

G. Canusium.

H. Bridge of Canusium.

K K. The Aufidus.

PLAN OF CANNE

the left bank, a flat peninsula is enclosed by a great bend of the river. This plain seems to have been selected by Varro as a fit spot to receive the attack of Hannibal, or else to cross the river and storm the Punic camp, which lay directly opposite. At the dawn of a summer's day,† the consuls marched out of the greater camp, leaving there 10,000 men to fall upon the rear of the Carthaginians, and secure the victory already deemed certain. They crossed the river, and formed a junction with the division in the lesser camp. The united army was then drawn up on the level peninsula with its right resting on the river, and its left reaching

Swinburne's Travels, vol. i. pp. 167-172.

Nominally, the 2d of August; but, as the Roman calendar was already in confusion, from causes which have been explained, the true date appears to have been in June.

B. C. 216.]

THE BATTLE OF CANNÆ.

441

out into the plain beyond. A better position could hardly have been chosen to suit Hannibal's inferiority in infantry, and to give his cavalry free scope for action; and the error was made worse by crowding together the legions, which were commanded by the proconsul Servilius, in files unusually deep. The cavalry held their accustomed position on the two wings; the right being assigned to Æmilius, with the Roman horse; while Varro, with the stronger cavalry of the allies, took his post upon the left, apparently with the hope of encountering Hannibal in person. The Carthaginian, who had likewise crossed the river, placed his heavy horse under Hasdrubal on the left, with the design of crushing the weaker cavalry of the enemy, and his Numidians on the right. Between them were ranged the infantry, in a convex crescent; the Libyans-who had now for the first time to try the Roman tactics they had learnt-being drawn back on the wings, and the Celtic and Iberian troops pushed forward to bear the brunt of the fight. The battle began almost simultaneously along the whole line. On the Roman left, the allied cavalry beat off the repeated charges of the Numidians; in the centre, the legions routed the Iberians and Gauls; but the Roman cavalry on the right, against whom the chief attack of Hannibal was directed, gave way before the Carthaginian heavy horse, and were cut down, or driven back across the river, or scattered over the plain. With a scanty remnant, himself already wounded, Æmilius flew to the support of the infantry, who were following up their advantage in the centre. But as the dense column penetrated the enemy's line, the Libyan infantry, who had as yet been scarcely engaged, wheeled round, and attacked them on both flanks with their own weapons. Meanwhile Hasdrubal, passing with his victorious squadrons behind the mass of the combatants on foot, broke the horse of Varro, already hard pressed by the Numidian cavalry. Then leaving the latter to pursue the fugitives, he charged upon the rear of the crowded Roman infantry. Flight was impossible and resistance vain. No quarter was given; and the history of war scarcely affords an example of so complete a massacre. Seventy thousand men were left dead upon the field, including two-thirds of the chief officers, eighty Romans of senatorial rank, the proconsul Servilius, and, above all, the consul Emilius Paulus, who had already sacrificed more than life itself to the duty of obeying his headstrong colleague. A few resolute men vindicated the might of the Roman legions, as at the Trebia and the Trasimene lake, by cutting their way through the field,

and recrossing the river to Canusium. The 10,000 who had been left in the larger camp to reap the expected victory, were carried away captives like the gleanings of the slaughter. Hannibal's loss of 6000 men fell, as, usual, chiefly upon the Gauls.

The consul Varro, escaping to Venusia by the speed of his horse, with only about seventy horsemen, survived to prove how constancy can retrieve disgrace and atone for error.* He repaired to the post of duty at Canusium, where the relics of the army had been rallied by the military tribunes, Appius Claudius Pulcher and P. Cornelius Scipio, and the latter had for the second time given promise of his high destiny to save the state, by preventing the young nobles in the camp from leaving Italy in despair. By great exertions, two legions were gathered at Canusium. As usual with the survivors of a disgraceful rout, they were condemned to serve in disgrace and without pay. The prætor, M. Claudius Marcellus, the slayer of the Gallic king Virdumarus, postponed his brilliant career in Sicily to take command of this ariny and to inflict the first great blow on Hannibal, and Varro was recalled to Rome. His reception there forms one of the most striking examples of the heroic endurance and dignified forbearances of the old Roman character. Its true meaning has been well set forth by Mommsen:-" The headlong fall of the Roman power was owing, not to the fault of Fabius or Varro, but to the distrust between the governors and the governed-to the variance between the Senate and the citizens. If the deliverance and revival of the state were still possible, the work had to begin with the re-establishment of unity and of confidence at home. To have perceived this, and, what is of more importance, to have done it, and done it with an abstinence from all recriminations, however justly provoked, constitutes the glorious and imperishable honour of the Roman Senate. When Varro-alone of all the generals who had commanded in the battle-returned to Rome, and the Roman senators met him at the gate, and thanked him that he had not despaired of the salvation of his country, this was no empty phraseology concealing under sounding words their real vexation, nor was it bitter mockery over a poor wretch; it was the conclusion of peace between the government and the

*It is passing strange to find even Christian writers sneering at defeated generals for consenting to survive their disgrace. Apart from all moral and religious arguments, there is profound wisdom in the saying of the greatest and perhaps the least pitied victim of these cruel taunts, that the man who lays despairing hands upon himself wilfully renounces the chances of the future.

B.C. 217.]

CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN ITALY.

443

governed." The continued employment of Varro in posts of trust during the remainder of the war was a proof of the sincerity of the salutation.

Meanwhile the Senate and people needed all the fortitude that the Romans ever boasted. The disaster of Cannæ proved the signal for that revolt of the allies which Hannibal had so long expected; and nearly all the peoples of Lower Italy rose against Rome. Capua, the greatest city of Southern Italy, opened her gates to Hannibal; but the aristocratic party, true to its old connection with Rome, forced him to measures more befitting a conqueror than a liberator. One of the leading citizens was carried off prisoner to Carthage for his advocacy of the Roman alliance. The Greek cities of the coast, the ancient enemies of Carthage, and now held by Roman garrisons, showed no disposition to revolt; but Croton and Locri were compelled to surrender to the united attacks of the Carthaginians and Bruttians. The fortresses in Apulia, Campania, and Samnium still gave the Romans a hold upon the revolted districts, and the Latinized communities of Central Italy proved how closely they were bound to Rome. This state of things vindicates the political wisdom of what has often been deemed Hannibal's military error in not advancing to Rome immediately after the battle of Cannæ. Besides, he had other combinations to perfect before he was prepared to strike the decisive blow. He had to keep his eye upon the East, the South, the West,-Macedonia, Africa, Sicily, and Spain. The news of the battle of Cannæ decided the youthful Philip V. of Macedon to listen to the proposals of Demetrius of Pharos, and promise the Cathaginians that aid in Italy, which, if rendered a little sooner, must have crushed Rome between her enemies advancing from the East and West. In Sicily, the death of Hiero changed a steadfast ally into a fresh enemy of Rome, and endangered the position of the Roman fleet at Lilybæum. At Carthage, the news of the victory gave a complete triumph to the Barcine party. Some aid had indeed been rendered by naval operations on the coasts of Italy, and by the presence of a squadron at the Ægates, watching the Romans at Lilybæum and guarding against a descent on Africa; but the influence of the peace party had kept back the reinforcements and money of which Hannibal was now in urgent need. The Senate no longer hesitated to replenish his military chest, and to send him new forces, including 4000 Numidian horse and 40 elephants.

Such aid was the more necessary as the operations of the