- [Narrator] This video was made possible by Incogni.
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Don't make me mention it a third time,
or I'll you know what.
(ominous music)
(dramatic music)
Hannibal's army
had survived its famous crossing of the Alps,
and he was now in Italy.
With Hannibal's arrival, the Roman Consul Scipio
hit the ground running.
In typical Roman fashion he marched his army
straight at the enemy, and Hannibal began preparing
for his first combat with Rome on Italian soil.
Before the battle, Hannibal wanted to inspire his men,
so he staged a gladiatorial death match
between captured Celt prisoners
with the winner getting prizes and freedom.
He then explained that the whole thing was a metaphor.
"A metaphor, for what?"
"You, these warriors are you.
You're trapped in Italy with no escape.
Your only choice now is to fight and win."
"What about the dead guy?"
"That's you if you don't win."
"And the prizes?"
"That's what you stand to gain by winning."
"And the fact that I've soiled myself
in all this excitement?"
"That, no, that's not part of the metaphor."
"Okay."
Hannibal also smashed in the head of a goat,
again for inspiration.
Scipio, on the other hand, now arriving in the area,
opted for the more classic route
of a rousing pre-battle speech.
"Look at the men.
Weak, starved by the Alps,
while we are the strongest military in the world.
This will be easy.
Like 10,000 horse-sized ducks fighting a baby sized baby.
It'll be like Mike Tyson in his prime, kicking a baby.
A tug of war between 10 sumo wrestlers and, uh,
help me out here, Ralph."
"A baby, sir."
"Yes, yes, that's it, a baby.
The point is, there is absolutely no possible way
we could lose a battle this easy.
So if everybody's ready on my mark, charge."
(Roman soldiers yelling)
(Roman soldiers screaming)
The Battle of Ticinus was over
almost as soon as it had begun,
as the Romans found themselves completely outmatched
by Hannibal's famed lightning fast Numidian cavalry,
a key element in Hannibal's devastating
double envelopment tactics.
In the chaos, Scipio was wounded.
Thankfully, according to some ancient writers,
his handsome 17-year-old son, Scipio the Younger,
saw his father fall.
Scipio the Younger, supposedly saved his father,
and in the process earned himself a lot of daddy's kisses.
The Romans ended up fleeing the area,
destroying the bridge behind them as they went.
For a nation so overtly confident in victory,
believing Hannibal to be an easy kill,
the Romans found themselves running away
with their tail between their legs.
It was humiliating.
And do you know who thought so as well?
The Celts.
They began flocking to Hannibal's side just as he had hoped.
Even Celtic troops fighting for Rome in the Roman camp
began to reconsider.
"Man, I'm thinking we should try to join Hannibal."
"I hear you, maybe we should bring him a gift.
What do you think he'd like?"
"Hmm,
oh, I know."
"Hey, Hannibal, we wanna join your side
and we brought you a present."
"A gift for me?
I hope it's Roman heads."
Oh, please, oh, please be Roman heads.
How did you know?"
Running away from Hannibal was humiliating enough,
but having dozens of Romans beheaded in the night.
Now that's embarrassing.
Ticinus had been a relatively small battle,
but the psychological impact it had early on was huge.
And it was only just a taste
of what Hannibal was capable of.
Despite the shocking initial loss, however,
Rome still didn't seem to fully understand the danger
posed by the monster now loose in their territory.
The Senate was full of excuses.
"It's those traitorous Celts, that's why we lost.
"Yeah, and it was a cavalry battle,
wait until Hannibal faces our almighty legions."
"And our Consul was bald,
once he faces our other fully follicled Consul
then he'll really pee his pants."
That other Consul, Longus
had been in the south all this time,
preparing to invade Africa.
He had seen some success even capturing Malta,
but then he heard the news,
"Hannibal's in Italy, and I'm being ordered home.
But, but I was gonna be the big boy.
I was gonna invade Carthage and win the war."
"Well, you can be a big boy at home."
"No."
"Does somebody need a nap, sir?"
"No, no, no!"
And so Longus brought his army on the long journey north,
when he arrived in the area
to decisively neutralize Hannibal.
The two Consuls joined their forces together,
creating a double consular army.
But the two Consuls weren't exactly on the same page,
"Having a nice rest there, old man?"
"I'm wounded, Longus."
"Pathetic."
"You don't understand.
He's more dangerous than we thought."
"Maybe for you, whoops."
"Listen, we can't just march
straight at him like we normally do.
We need to train our man through the winter
and we'll try again in spring."
"Sorry, I don't take advice from a bowling bowl."
"H-hey, I'll kick your ass, Longus."
"Any day now."
"I'm coming, just you wait."
"Oh, Scipio, you feeble old man."
(Longus screeches)
Scipio was apparently quite cautious
after his recent encounter with Hannibal,
while Longus, typically Roman,
couldn't wait to give Hannibal a swirly.
So who would get their way?
Well, when two Consuls joined their forces,
it turned out the Romans had an interesting system in place.
They would each take turns being the one in charge.
Consul one would lead one day, then Consul two the next,
back and forth, back and forth.
As you can imagine, when the two Consuls didn't agree,
things didn't go so well.
In this case, due to Scipio's injury,
Longus probably assumed even more command than normal.
Hannibal had Celtic spies in the Roman camp.
He fully understood the Roman system
and Longus's hotheaded nature,
and he knew he could exploit it.
"For goodness sake."
"What's wrong, sir?"
"I'm trying to order some pizza,
but I keep getting fed all these personalized ads
about being a hothead.
I'm not a hothead, am I?"
"No, sir."
"Look at this, butt insurance?
Who would buy butt insurance?"
"Yeah, that sounds really stupid."
"Sir, it seems like a lot of data brokers
have collected data on you.
They could sell that data to Hannibal."
"What?"
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So thank you.
Now, where were we?
Oh yeah, Roman heads, a double consular army and a hothead.
Hannibal needed to keep smashing the Romans in battle
in order to maintain the loyalty of the Celts.
And so he was eager to fight another battle.
The combined Roman force possibly outnumbered him.
So he carefully crafted a clever trap,
and he made sure to spring it,
while Longus was still in charge.
The plan began with his army getting an early night's sleep.
"All right, boys, time for lights out."
(Carthaginian soldiers whine)
"Sorry, but we got a big day ahead of us.
Tomorrow we're gonna massacre the Romans."
(Carthaginian soldiers cheer)
"Goodnight boys, dream of revenge."
(door clicks)
"Gorzog, send out the cavalry."
(dramatic music)
That night, Hannibal's Numidian cavalry
made their way over to the Roman camp
arriving just before dawn.
"Hey, Romans, wakey, wakey."
"What, what the, what's going on?"
"Hey, Longus, your butt smells like a butt."
"It does not.
Scipio, awaken the troops."
"Longus, these playground insults
are clearly meant to lure you out."
"Well, it's working, send out the troops."
"Longus, it's clearly a trap."
"And I'm falling for it, send out the troops."
"Hey guys, wake up, you're heading out for battle."
"What?
But we haven't had breakfast."
"We're skipping breakfast."
"I don't think you can do that."
As the Romans hurried out of camp,
the Numidians began luring them back
to the Carthaginian camp, where these gentle angels
were just awakening from their slumber.
"Eat up boys we're having pancakes."
(Carthaginian soldiers cheer)
While the Carthaginians
were enjoying their hearty breakfast.
The starving Romans were still on their way.
"Hurry up, we have to catch those Numidians.
Hey, why have you stopped marching?"
"Longus, there's a freezing river in front of us."
"Well get your gluteus maximus in the water."
(Roman soldiers yelling)
"All right, boys, time to lather up.
This oil will insulate you from the cold.
It also smells like lavender."
(Carthaginian soldiers hum)
"There's the Carthaginian camp, get ready to fight men."
"Sir, I take the water from the river
is beginning to ice over.
I can't move."
"Oh, oh, I'm sorry, you thought war would be fun.
Sitting around a nice hot campfire
playing truth or dare with your friends?
Welcome to the real world."
"Truth."
"Who do you like?"
"Sharon."
"Ew."
"Hey, look, guys, the Romans are here."
(Roman soldiers shivering)
Having perfectly orchestrated events
so that his enemy was cold, tired, and hungry,
while his men were well rested and covered in oil.
When the two sides engaged one another,
the Romans were in no condition to fight.
And the cherry on top?
The previous night, Hannibal had sent out
an elite force of men led by his brother
to go and hide behind a bush.
They suddenly sprung out encircling the exhausted Romans
who were then cut to pieces.
Once again, Hannibal's superior cavalry
and double envelopment tactics had flummoxed the Romans.
But the key word at Trebia was control.
Hannibal used his intel on the enemy
and the environment of the battlefield
to carefully control the conditions of battle,
creating lots of little advantages for himself
that paved the way to success.
And concealing troops for an ambush?
All of these things are what make Hannibal
the genius he's remembered as today.
As for Longus, he managed to escape the battlefield
with a small number of troops.
Disgraced, he didn't want this Senate
to find out what had happened,
and he began obscuring communications back to Rome.
"Longus, where have you been?
We've been looking for you."
"Uh, nowhere in particular."
"Longus, 30,000 men are missing.
Do you know where they are?"
"Uh, they're taking a bath."
"30,000 men, all in a bath."
"Yes."
"Longus, what's under that rug?"
(flies buzzing)
"Aurora Borealis."
"Aurora Borealis?
Oh." (alarm beeps)
"Well, that's my consulship over.
Good luck with Hannibal, bye."
Trebia had been a disaster for the Romans.
And as even more Celts began flocking to Hannibal,
Rome largely lost its control over Cisalpine Gaul.
In Rome, complacency turned to alarm.
Hannibal had outwitted them on their own soil
and inflicted a costly defeat.
But with that,
Scipio and Longus's terms as Consul were over.
They were replaced with two new Consuls,
Servilius and Flaminius.
The Romans may now have begun to realize
the trouble they were in,
and the genius Hannibal had shown in invading Italy.
The Romans had expected to be the ones controlling this war.
Remember, they thought they were going to invade Carthage.
Now their plans lay in ruins,
and they were levying 11 new legions
to deal with the threat,
Hannibal had completely redefined the war.
But Hannibal had a little problem of his own.
Things had gone well so far,
but the Celts were notoriously fickle.
And Hannibal needed to ensure he maintained their alliance
and his base of support in Italy.
Any Celts he captured fighting for Rome
he treated extremely well
and allowed them to return to their homes.
But the longer he hung around in their territory,
eating all their food
and leaving beard trimmings in their sinks,
the more resentful they may become.
They wanted to go south and plunder some Roman booty.
And Hannibal also hoped to sway
Rome's other Italian allies in the south to his side.
So from here, the path was clear.
Hannibal had to move south.
Just one problem.
There were two main routes
Hannibal could take to move south.
And wouldn't you know it?
That's exactly where the two new Roman Consuls
had taken fortified positions.
If Hannibal tried to move on them,
he'd be fighting from a disadvantaged position
and could be bottled in.
"There is a third option."
"Ooh, tell me, tell me."
"We could move through this vast, impassable marshland
flooded with dirty, stinky disease infested water
that at times would come up to our necks."
"But there's no way we would attempt that, right?
That it'd be crazy, right?
(playful music)
Hannibal?"
Hannibal's four day trek across the Arno marshlands
was hell on Earth,
almost as crazy as when he crossed the Alps.
Imagine three full days unable to sit or lie down
because there's nowhere to sit or lie down.
Meaning four full days without sleep
slugging through heavy mud.
You contract cholera.
Your foot falls off
and Jimbob directly in front of you
won't stop pooping in your path.
In fact, everybody's pooping in your path.
Some delirious sleepless men would see clumps of mud
and say, "Man, I could just sink into that."
And then they would.
When Pack animals died,
it gave nearby men a chance to rest,
but only for a few moments
before they were whipped back into line.
Even Hannibal himself couldn't escape the torture of it.
"Hey, Hannibal, if we see a Starbucks, can we stop?
I need to take a leak."
(Carthaginian soldiers screaming)
"What?"
"Geez, Hannibal looks like you picked up
a nasty eye infection.
Normally for this sort of thing,
we'd just wash it out with some clean water.
But as you can see, water everywhere,
but it's full of Jimbob's poop."
"No worries, doc, I'll just take care of it myself."
(Carthaginian soldiers gasp)
"That'll be $3,000."
When the now possibly one-eyed Hannibal
and his army emerged from the swamp, they were shattered.
But he had just managed to slip 50,000 men
right past the Romans into Rich Etrurian lands
where he could replenish his supplies
and his Celt allies could go crazy
securing Roman loot and booty.
As fields and villages went up in flames,
one Roman Consul couldn't help but notice.
The hotheaded Flaminius,
feeling it was his responsibility to protect these lands.
Rather than waiting for his co-consul to come join him,
immediately left to go chase Hannibal.
Now this Flaminius was an interesting character.
He was what the Romans called a new man.
He came from the lower plebeian classes of Roman society,
and as a result, he reportedly had
kind of a screw you attitude to the establishment
and a big old, arrogant chip on his shoulder.
Picture Sid Vicious wearing a toga, that's Flaminius.
And Hannibal, thanks to his spies, knew everything.
Just as with Longus, Hannibal knew Flaminius
was just the kind of man he could lure into a trap.
Hannibal led Flaminius to the entrance of a narrow pass
along the north shore of Lake Trasimene.
Flaminius watched as Hannibal's army entered the pass.
"I've done it, I've spotted the enemy."
"Uh, sir, that big "Follow us" sign
seems kinda like they're trying to lure you in."
"Yes, Gareth, and I'm taking the bait."
"Sir, this really seems like a trap."
"Yes, Gareth, and I'm falling for it."
Daylight was fading, so for now, the Romans set up camp.
The two armies encamped across the lake from one another
and night fell over the two camps.
In the morning, Flaminius would catch up to Hannibal
and he would be the hero of Rome.
For now, the Romans got nice and comfy in their beds.
Goodnight, Flaminius.
Good night, Rome.
Good evening, Hannibal.
During the night, Hannibal ordered total stealth
(Flaminius snoring)
as tens of thousands of troops
(Roman soldiers snoring)
scaled the wooded hills above the pass,
(Roman soldiers snoring)
completely undetected by Rome's scouts.
(Flaminius snoring)
(upbeat music)
"Let's go girls."
Flaminius took off across the lake shore
to try to catch Hannibal.
As he did, even the weather seemed to be on Hannibal's side.
A thick fog rose from the surface of the lake
obscuring visibility.
"Look at this, this is perfect.
The mist will obscure our approach.
Hannibal will never see me coming."
(battle horns blast)
"Sir, why does it sound like 50,000 Carthaginians
are charging down the hill towards us?
"You mean 50,000 Carthaginians
are charging right into my trap."
(Carthaginian soldiers yelling)
The Romans found themselves
completely hemmed in on all sides.
With zero visibility in the fog,
the fighting was terrifying and chaotic.
Troops were pushed into the lake in their heavy armor
where they were either cut down or drowned.
And Flaminius, who likely stood out like a sore thumb
in his Consul attire caught the attention
of one Celt warrior.
With his head possibly swirling with thoughts
of how the Romans had decimated his homeland.
According to the ancient writers, this Celt took his chance.
(triumphant music)
In the three hour long massacre, 15,000 Romans were killed,
and an equal number captured.
An entire army completely wiped out
along with their Consul.
During the battle, the Roman vanguard
had managed to break through at the front
and climb the hill above the fog.
When the mist cleared, what they saw was a blood red lake
and a sea of Roman bodies.
Worse yet, when the other consuls sent cavalry
to try to aid Flaminius's doomed legions,
they too were caught and defeated.
A double disaster.
(senators screaming)
Rome went into a frenzy.
For the second time, Hannibal had completely decimated
an entire Roman army.
Romans were dying by the tens of thousands.
Common citizens began flocking to the city for safety.
Women waited by the city gates in tears,
hoping to hear news of loved ones.
This one man, having just led
his battered army across the Alps the previous year
now stood less than a hundred miles from Rome.
To this point, he had been a problem.
Now Hannibal was a crisis.
And in a crisis, Rome took desperate measures.
They actually had a system in place
when dealing with an emergency of this magnitude.
They would forego their two Consul power sharing system,
and instead, temporarily give one man
near total power and authority
to be as decisive as he needed
and hopefully salvage the situation.
This all powerful position in Rome's government
had a name, dictator.
It's actually where we get the word.
But unlike modern dictators,
Roman ones didn't score perfect rounds of golf
or ride bears through the Siberian Tundra.
They held their power for just six months
before they were required to give it up.
And in Rome's hour of need,
the man chosen to be dictator in 217 BC,
one of the most highly esteemed members of the Roman Senate,
Fabius Maximus.
So how would Fabius as dictator confront Hannibal?
Well, Fabius understood
that marching all of Rome's young men
straight into a one-man meat grinder was bleeding Rome dry.
Hannibal was clearly too dangerous
to face head on in battle.
However, he was also stuck in their territory
with dwindling manpower and forced to live off the land.
It wasn't a sustainable position to be in long term,
and he could only remain there for so long.
So if Rome avoided battle with Hannibal
to prevent any more crippling losses,
and instead simply maneuvered around him, blocking supplies
and taking out smaller contingents where possible
Hannibal would gradually become weaker
while they would gradually become stronger.
And so Fabius presented his new idea to the Roman Senate.
"Okay, guys, I have an idea.
See if you can follow me here, okay?
Instead of fighting Hannibal when he approaches,
we run away."
(senators booing)
Fabius's strategy couldn't have been any less Roman.
Romans were meant to march headfirst into battle,
not run away from it.
It seemed cowardly and Fabius was extremely unpopular.
At this point, Hannibal was continuing south.
He had to stay on the move to keep his army fed,
and he was still aiming
to undermine Rome's alliances in the south.
As he went in a calculated display of aggression,
he devastated the Roman countryside and killed many Romans,
all in plain sight of Fabius and his army.
"We're just gonna stand here?"
"Yes."
"Are you a coward?"
"No."
"But Fabius, that's my farm."
"Well, MacDonald, thank you for your sacrifice.
You're a hero now.
Think of the stories you'll tell."
"Old McDonald had a farm." (cries)
"Shut up."
But you know who else hated Fabius's strategy?
Hannibal.
He understood the danger he was in.
Turning Rome's allies against her,
required Hannibal to keep smashing the Romans in battle.
He couldn't do that if Fabius wouldn't fight him.
Multiple times, Hannibal tried to goad Fabius into a fight,
but Fabius wouldn't bite.
Failing that he tried to turn room against Fabius.
According to the writer, Livy,
he burned down all the farms he could.
But any farm he learned was owned by Fabius himself
he left well alone.
"Hey, Fabius, why isn't he burning down your farm?
You got some sort of a secret deal with him."
"What, of course not."
"Hey, Hannibal!"
"What?"
"Burn my farm too, please."
"What?"
"Burn my farm too, please."
"No, remember our secret deal."
(sighs) Well, you gotta admit he's a genius.
Hannibal's problem, however,
was that he had to stay on the move
to keep supplying his army from the local lands.
At one point, he entered Campania,
one of the richest regions of Italy, great for resupplying
and great for showing up Fabius
in front of Rome's south Italian allies.
But he was caught in a valley,
and Fabius quickly moved to block his escapes.
"Ha ha, we've got him.
After he's used up
all the valley's supplies, he'll starve."
"Uh, sir, what are all those lights leaving the valley?
Is he trying to escape?"
"Lights in plain view?
Well, that's a trap if I've ever seen one."
"And we're falling for it."
Suspecting a trap, Fabius refused to budge.
But other Romans in the valley rushed to confront Hannibal,
only to find the Carthaginian army
was actually just a herd of oxen
with torches tied to their heads.
They then found themselves caught in an ambush.
With the Romans distracted Hannibal's army
was able to slip away into the night unopposed.
Classic Hannibal.
For all his inaction, the dissatisfied Romans
mockingly dubbed him Fabius the Delayer.
But the thing is, Fabius's strategy
was probably the best thing he could have done.
He was right that constant encounters with Hannibal
were bleeding Rome dry.
And the time he took allowed Rome some breathing room
to recover their forces when they desperately needed to
while putting Hannibal
into an increasingly more difficult position.
Modern historians view Fabius's strategy
as generally a good idea.
To this day, the act of not engaging an enemy,
but instead gradually wearing them down
is still referred to as the Fabian strategy.
But when Fabius's term finally came to an end,
the Senate couldn't have been happier.
It was time to start fighting again.
However, they probably had a little chat
about how they were gonna go about it.
See, Hannibal's tactics up until now had been very sneaky.
Or if you're a Roman, you might say dishonorable.
"I'm sick of it.
Every time we try to take this guy down,
we march straight at him.
But then, oh, no, Hannibal's hiding in a bush.
Hannibal's got 30,000 men up a tree.
At this point, I'm not convinced my wife
isn't just Hannibal wearing a disguise."
(senator's wife coos)
(senator shudders)
"Look, this time we obviously have to switch something up.
Now, granted, we're Roman,
so we're gonna march straight at him without thinking.
That can't be helped, it's in our blood.
But I have a proposition.
This time when we march straight at him,
we do it with a massive army.
I'm talking like 80,000 men.
It won't matter what kind of shenanigans he pulls.
He can hide in all the bushes he wants.
There's no way he can possibly beat off 80,000 men."
(senators laughing)
"Grow up, you know what I mean."
And so it was with two new Consuls
Rome put together a massive army.
The biggest Rome had ever fielded
to put Hannibal away once and for all.
To gather them in required, two thirds of them
ended up being completely inexperienced.
But how much experienced does it take
to be expendable war fodder?
As this massive army set out in the summer of 216 BC
the Romans knew they needed to win this battle.
Just one victory over Hannibal
would likely be enough to end his entire campaign.
And this time, their overwhelming manpower
gave them confidence they could do it.
Hannibal had taken position at the town of Cannae
where he had captured an important Roman Supply depot.
With Fabius gone, Hannibal knew
the battle was likely coming,
and he was eager to fight it on his terms.
But when his men looked out at the Roman camp,
they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"That army's huge.
There's no way we can possibly beat off all these men.
How are we gonna beat off all of these men?"
"Heh, heh."
"You know what I mean."
"I think he's right, Hannibal."
Hannibal is then said to have replied,
"Gisco, my friend, don't worry.
There may be a lot of them, but amongst their ranks,
there's not a single man named Gisco."
This joke was apparently so funny
that his officers began to laugh and laugh.
And when his men in the camp heard the laughter,
they were like, "Hey, they're laughing.
I guess that means we're gonna win the battle."
(Carthaginian soldiers cheer)
As for the Romans, the Consuls were another pairing
between an inexperienced hothead and a wise scholar.
Although the main historian from this era
was good friends with Paullus's family,
so take that with a grain of salt.
On his day of command, the rash and hasty Varro,
despite the apparent pleas from Paullus
sent the army out for battle.
And when Hannibal saw this, he did the same.
And here comes the single largest battle
of the Second Punic War
and one of the most renowned battles in history.
The infamous Battle of Cannae.
In all the pre battle maneuvering,
Hannibal was able to ensure his army
was fighting from the south.
This meant the seasonal dust carrying winds were to his back
and blowing directly into the faces of the Romans.
Like I said, control.
After two years in Italy, Hannibal's infantry
had dwindled to about 40,000.
The Romans possibly outnumbered him two to one.
Their army was so big
that their maniple stretched far deeper
than they normally would.
The Romans plan to charge Hannibal's thin weak line
like a battering ram and break it.
They also chose a narrow battlefield
in the hopes it would prevent
Hannibal's far superior cavalry
from being able to outmaneuver them.
They wanted an honorable battle where pure strength,
rather than trickery, would decide the outcome.
If Hannibal had his say, however,
trickery might end up having a lot to do with it.
He ordered his line
to position themselves as an outward bulge
with his weakest troops at the very center.
Just behind them out of sight from the Romans,
stood the elite Libyan infantry
waiting for their moment to strike.
The battle commenced as the massive Roman troops
smashed into the Carthaginian center.
The shape of Hannibal's line
ensured the overwhelming weight of the Romans
hit his weakest troops first,
and they were pushed back.
Hannibal's outward bulge reversed inward
with the Romans being funneled in towards the weak center.
Hannibal had positioned himself at the center
to encourage the troops to hold out
as long as possible against the Roman onslaught,
because while the Romans
were on leashing carnage on the center,
Hannibal's cavalry needed time to do their job.
The heavy cavalry on the left
after a barbaric fight sent the Roman horse packing
with the Consul Paullus
even sustaining a severe head injury.
He managed to move into the center to keep the battle going.
Then the heavy cavalry turned
and approached Varro's cavalry from behind.
At the first sight of the coming Carthaginian envelopment
Varro ordered his horsemen to flee the battlefield,
the Carthaginians had won the cavalry battle.
But back in the center, according to some accounts,
Hannibal's line did eventually end up caving
to the massive weight of the Romans, and they began to flee.
The Romans pushed deeper
and organization within the army likely broke down,
as they became a giant mass
trying to massacre the fleeing Carthaginians.
They didn't realize
that they were playing right into Hannibal's hands.
At that moment, Hannibal's elite units
having done no fighting yet, and therefore fresh as a daisy
turned and smashed into the Roman sides.
Many of these troops were wearing Roman helmets and armor
they had picked up after previous battles,
and the confused Romans may not have even realized
they were the enemy.
As Hannibal managed to regain the composure of his center
and encourage them back into the fight,
the Carthaginian cavalry swooped in from behind.
And look at what lies before you.
A military general's wet dream
the total encirclement of a much larger force
by a much smaller force.
The Romans were trapped.
Hannibal had unbelievably managed to use
their own superiority in numbers against them,
rather than simply encircling them,
he had actually allowed them to use their own immense power
and push themselves into an encircled position.
This was the genius of Cannae
And with that, the annihilation began.
For hours the Carthaginians
slaughtered the helpless Romans from all sides.
The terrified Romans were so tightly packed that at times
they couldn't even lift their arms to defend themselves.
The killing went on so long that the Carthaginians
became exhausted from the nonstop massacre.
And by the time the butchery came to an end,
the grim toll spoke for itself.
To Hannibal several thousand lost.
The Romans suffered 60 to 80,000 dead or captured.
Yet another entire army wiped out by Hannibal.
Many high-ranking Romans met their end at Cannae.
Paullus for one, but also 80 senators and more.
It's been estimated that 20%
of Rome's male population, aged 18 to 50 died at Cannae.
This was it, Hannibal's vengeance.
The stunned Carthaginians
as they searched for their own survivors among the dead,
couldn't believe the sight of it.
An estimated 30,000 gallons of blood
now lay spilled on the battlefield.
Rome's defeat at Cannae sent shockwaves throughout Italy.
Just as Hannibal had hoped,
most of southern Italy now defected to his side,
including the second largest city on the peninsula.
"Wow, Hannibal, this is incredible.
What could possibly come next?"
"Next?
Jimbob, I've killed 150,000 Romans.
I've turned her allies against her.
That's it, that's vengeance.
So let me tell you what comes next.
Rome surrenders.
(dramatic music)
Their territories are reduced.
We recover our lost islands.
And Carthage dominates the Mediterranean once again."
"But sir, what if they don't surrender?"
"Jimbob, did you miss what just happened?
Of course, they're gonna surrender."
Throughout his campaign Hannibal had shown himself
to be very adept at reading the Roman mind.
But if he now thought that Rome might surrender,
it was the first time he severely underestimated them.
And he was about to discover
an extremely inconvenient fact about Rome.
Rome never surrenders.
At a Roman survivor's camp near Cannae.
One young officer overheard some troops
discussing how they would flee Rome.
Drawing his sword he threatened to cut down any man
that would abandon Rome in its hour of need.
That officer was Scipio the Younger,
but soon enough, the Romans would come to call him
Scipio Africanus, the hero of Rome.
(dramatic music)