Well Gregoshi pretty much summed it up but I will shine some light on this

Well first of all

Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]The mini-intro mentions that the show will give us a view of the battle that the generals wish they had had
Just imagine if the peasants (worst of Hannibals troops) would have had this perspective) instant route

The camera angle shows that they were obviously setup for a slaughter but the key factor was that Hannoabal was right in the center cheering his worst troops on and he waited until they were engaged to send out his cavalry to hit the Romans cavalry on the flank

Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]
For example, they talked about the Libyan spearmen being held in reserve on the flanks, yet they never zoomed out enough to show us where they were in relation to the main battle lines. I was left wondering how the Romans didn't see these spearmen in that flat, open battlefield
The show gave me the feeling they never moved until the Roman infantry had used up all there reserves.

It was said that Hannibals troops were taking staggering losses. (basically he was lucky that his worst had held out long enough). But then again he is right there cheering them on wich I'm sure was a big factor (If you looked closely enough he was there waving his sword like a wizard, I guess it was the best way they could implement he was right there cheering his troops on) The Romans seeing that his line was about to break into 2 decided to be aggressive and send in all reserves. If all troops are engaged how are they going to quickly react to a flanking manuever. Plus at the very beginning they mentioned the Roman counsil decided to use a very offensive formation rather than a very maneuverable formation (that is unit wise they set the units very deep but a short frontline)

With all Roman units engaged (apparently from the show the cavarly was still busy) The Libyan spearmen(or whatever that unit is called) started there march forward. The Roman commander that was in charge still saw the fact that he was able to break Hannibals army in 2 probably ignored the flanks hoping that once the center was broken the morale would be broken and the battle would be over shortly.

Well again the key factor was that Hannibal was right there where his troops were getting slaughtered. Hannibal could have been good with words and I'm sure some of yas who has ran into someone good with words (possibly a good conartist) I have a feeling it was hard for them to retreat considering who was right there at there backs.


This is the EDITED part read post below if you would like to see what the army formations looked like before you read on as for some reason dashes work but underscores are'nt accepted




With all roman troops enagaged and there cavarly losing or have already lost and the Romans seeing a break through and with an aggressive commander why bother with the flanks when the battle is already won. This is when the libyan spearmen crunched in on the flanks and the cavalry was returning. The first unit of cavalry returned leaving the Romans with a small pocket in the back that was still untouched but not too long after Hannibals other unit of cavalry came and completed the encirclement. They mentioned that before this entrapment that it looked like Hannibal was losing so badly that it looked liked it was going to be any second that his army would break, but once the cavalry made there return there was no doubt about this battle and it ensured that finally his center would hold for the slaughter. At this time a hail of javelins and appearantly slingers were wasting the center of this pocket(even though I never saw the slinger units). And thus the slaughtering of the Roman troops at Cannae.

They mentioned that in this battle the Romans lost 50,000 out of there 70,000 men and Hannibal lost 10,000 out of his 40,000 men and I'm sure most of those 10,000 men were lost in the initial engagemen(plus they were his worst troops and in a commander point of view who cares, just recruit some more Gauls word of mouth of his victrious campaingns will surely get him some more gauls). I'm just wonedering how many men Hannibal took prisoner as it mentioned that much of the loyalty was taken prisoner but it could have only been loyalty and the rest slaughtered.

They also mentioned that the Roman commander was forgiven for his defeat because he took an aggressive stance on the battlefield and apparently that was what was liked and the other commander who was'nt in charge (because it was'nt his turn to command refused to retreat and got killed)