Hannibal vs Rome: Hannibal's Greatest Victory
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the most studied military victories in history, and arguably one of the worst Roman defeats - what went wrong for the Romans at Cannae?
In our final episode in the Hannibal mini-series, Dr Louis Rawlings explains just what happened at Cannae in 216BCE, and why that battle is still so important today.
With 50,000 Romans dead, 20,000 captured, and only 10,000 managing to escape - Cannae is truly Hannibal's greatest victory. Using tactics that are still studied and used in modern military academies and in the field, Cannae demonstrates the importance of knowing your terrain, dividing forces - and never underestimating an enemy that's smaller than you.
Previous Episodes
Hannibal vs Rome: Terror at Trasimene (Episode 1)
Hannibal vs Rome: The Road to Cannae (Episode 2)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's |
| 0:12.9 | podcast, well I'm recording this intro from the mainland of Auckland. We're up here |
| 0:17.8 | to finish off a series all about prehistoric Scotland. It's an absolutely |
| 0:22.4 | incredible place for some amazing prehistory from Neolithic all the way down to |
| 0:28.1 | the Iron Age. So we're going from things such as Mace Howl Chamber Tomb all the |
| 0:32.5 | way down to Gernes Brock Village. That's all to come we've recorded so much |
| 0:37.4 | content both for the podcast and for the TV channel and for the YouTube channel. |
| 0:41.8 | So stay tuned for all of that in due course I can't wait to share it with you all. |
| 0:45.4 | But in the meantime for the podcast today you might have guessed it already. We are |
| 0:51.1 | wrapping up our special Hannibal Mini series with Dr. Louis Rawlings. We've talked |
| 0:55.6 | about the Battle of the Blade Trazamy. We talked about the aftermath of that |
| 0:59.1 | battle and now we're focusing in on Hannibal's next great clash against the |
| 1:04.5 | Romans. His most famous or infamous clash against the Romans. What some people |
| 1:09.7 | have called Hannibal's greatest victory. We are of course talking about the |
| 1:15.0 | Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Louis he was absolutely fantastic. He is so |
| 1:22.0 | enthusiastic. I don't have to speak much at all because he tells the story so |
| 1:27.2 | well. I really do hope you enjoy this episode. It's a deep dive into the battle |
| 1:31.7 | and what happened immediately after it. And without further ado to talk all |
| 1:36.5 | about this here's Louis. |
| 1:43.4 | So Louis how does it go from there to the Battle of Cannae itself. So the winter |
| 1:50.0 | drags on and the winter actually lasts until May for Hannibal because he |
| 1:54.9 | can't really move out until the crops are growing again till there are |
... |
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