Battle Of Cannae Essay

The Battle of Cannae was among the Romans led by Aemilius and Varro, and the Carthaginians led by Hannibal. The battle took place in the southeast Italy the battle was part of a campaign of battles in an attempt to cut Rome off from their allies. B69-y taking the city of Cannae the Carthaginians chose a strategic battlefield because it is a flat plain, which is ideal for Calvary a military strength of Carthage. Cannae was also a critical supply city to the Roman army, Hannibal’s army had food and other military supplies giving them another advantage. The battle took place during the Second Punic War, after two battles in which resulted in Carthage being victorious. The Roman army outnumbered the Carthaginian army, but Hannibal employed tactical …show more content…
Hannibal’s father Hamilcar a high ranking military leader of Carthage had been gathering resources and conquering territory to gain superiority over Rome with the impending Second Punic War. Hannibal became the commander of the Carthaginian army in Spain, his responsibility was then to reverse the First Punic War and continue the efforts his father had moved his army into Italy. Carthage was aware of the added military strength Rome’s allies allowed them to have therefore the invasion of Italy was to encourage those allies to break ties with the Rome, which would then lessen Roman regional influence and enable Carthage to have a better chance at defeating the Romans. The grand strategy of Carthage in the Battle of Cannae was to defeat the Roman army with strategic battlefield maneuvers. The political objective of Carthage was to encourage Roman city-states to defect from Rome to Carthage. The political objective and the grand strategy were related to the broader theme of Carthage restoring its honor by winning the Second Punic War after their defeat of the First Punic