Why Didn't Cannae Win the War for Hannibal?
Tides of History
Wondery / Patrick Wyman
4.8 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cannae was a crushing victory for Hannibal, but it didn't win the war for him. Why? The answer lies in the nature of the Roman political system, which prioritized resilience, manpower, and the diffusion of authority.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Tides of History early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:04.6 | Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:13.7 | The Carthaginian officer held his head in his hands. |
| 0:24.6 | He drank from a cup of fine Campanian wine, then drained it. It was a pity to down such a wonderful vintage so quickly, but necessary. |
| 0:28.6 | He rubbed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to restore some semblance of calm, |
| 0:33.6 | after sitting through hours of endless chatter. |
| 0:36.6 | These Campanians never stopped talking and never stopped arguing. |
| 0:40.8 | They certainly couldn't agree on anything. |
| 0:43.0 | He had hoped that he'd be able to convince them to abandon their alliance with Rome and join Hannibal. |
| 0:47.9 | The officer, his name was Carthalo, had dreamt of returning to his famous general with new allies |
| 0:53.2 | and perhaps even a force of freshly |
| 0:54.9 | mustered soldiers to bolster their ranks. Instead, after three days of ceaseless negotiation, |
| 1:00.9 | he was sitting outside this fine Campan villa, wondering what it would take to get these people |
| 1:05.6 | to see since. Everything seemed so promising after the battle just a few months before. |
| 1:11.7 | Carthalo had been there at Cannae. |
| 1:13.6 | He had seen the vast encirclement and the incomprehensible slaughter that followed. |
| 1:18.5 | It had been Carthalo that Hannibal chose to go to Rome to negotiate the inevitable peace that must follow such a defeat. |
| 1:25.0 | Who could keep fighting after losing so many tens of thousands of men? |
| 1:29.1 | Nobody was the obvious answer, and yet here they were. The Romans hadn't even let him into the |
| 1:34.4 | city, much less heard his proposal. They hadn't even been interested in ransoming thousands |
| 1:38.8 | upon thousands of prisoners who would be executed or sold into slavery. Hannibal was ready to make peace. |
| 1:45.4 | The terms had been perfectly reasonable considering the circumstances. |
... |
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