216 BCE: BATTLE OF CANNAE

General–in–Chief Hannibal crosses the (after marching through Iberia and Gaul) in the winter with 30,000–40,000 men, 6,000 horses and some surviving elephants. Although he is vastly outnumbered, Carthaginian (now Tunisia) Hannibal annihilates the Romans’ 87,000–man army in southeast Italy, outside of Rome.

The Battle of Cannae is considered by many military historians, along with the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE), to be one of the greatest tactical feats in military history.

Rather than line up his forces head–to–head against the massed Romans, Hannibal instead assembles them in a V formation, with the point of the V pointing straight at the Romans.

When the Romans advance, Hannibal feigns weakness, and then gradually “collapses” the front of the V, steadily encircling the Romans. Hannibal then signals a full–scale attack from all directions. A massacre of the Romans ensues.

The extraordinary count of 50,000+ Romans killed in one day is a uniquely dark historic figure in military annals.

Eighty Roman senators, who came anticipating basking in the glory of a dramatic victory over Hannibal, were either killed or captured at Cannae.

Military historians speculate that if Hannibal had pressed his advantage and marched on nearby Rome