PROLOGUE

At the end of a single, fateful day in the middle of the summer of 216 BC – 2 August according to one Roman tradition, but perhaps sometime in early July if the Roman calendar was running ahead of the solar months – near the small Apulian town of Cannae, Hannibal stood seemingly on the brink of victory over the Roman Republic. He had just exacted a crushing defeat upon the largest Roman field army mustered to that day. At least fifty thousand Roman and allied soldiers lay dead on the field of battle; thousands more were captured. One consul perished, while the second managed to gather survivors and seek refuge in the neighbouring city of Canusium. Perhaps most importantly, within a few days a significant number of communities in southern Italy, hitherto allied with and loyal to Rome, began to defect. The battle of Cannae was indeed a major turning point in the Second Punic War, marking the end of its first stage, typified by large-scale clashes between Hannibalic and Roman armies in Italy, and the beginning of its second stage, a war of attrition whose outcome hung in the balance at least until 211, when the tide of war turned decidedly against Hannibal.

Viewed in a broader context, the battle of Cannae and the subsequent defection and reconquest of Rome's Italian allies can also be understood as a significant point of transition in a much longer development.