Battle of Geronium
The passive policy which Fabius followed made the Roman senate so mad, so they asked Fabius to go back to Rome to explain and justify his strategy. So, Fabius headed to Rome and left Minicius as a leader of his troops but he ordered him not to engage with Hannibal in battle at any circumstances. Meanwhile, Hannibal marched to the city of Geronium conquering it by force and ordered to transform it into a food depot for him and his army. At the same time, Minicius set his camp near the city and decided to attack the Carthaginian troops despite the Fabius prohibition. Many skirmishes occurred between the Roman and Carthaginian troops ended with relatively small victories to the Roman. Hearing the small victories at Geronium, the Roman rejoiced and declared Minicius as the second dictator beside Fabius. Disputes and disagreements between Fabius and Minicius dominated the Roman camp. Hearing this, Hannibal rejoiced intending to exploit these disputes to his favour. The cautious Fabius wanted not to engage with Hannibal’s troops while the aggressive Minicius, invigorated with previous small victories, wanted to do battle at any cost. So, Minicius taking the half of the army attacking Hannibal, but the cunning Carthaginian commander sprang his trap surrounding the Roman army from sides leading to a massacre at the battle of Geronium. Minicius confessed his fault then he stepped down and informed the army that Fabius is the supreme command of the army.
Road to battle of Cannae
Meanwhile , the brother, Gnaius and Poblius Scipio were blocking the road in northern Spain preventing Hasdrubal from Joining Hannibal in Italy. In the beginning of 216 B.C, the Roman senate decided to reverted to the old way of election, so they elected tow new councils and massed a huge army to destroy Hannibal once and for all. The army was about 90,000 soldiers in total under the command of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Varro. At the same time, Hannibal lacked the support of the Italian allies in southern Italy, so he want to win a great victory over Rome to win the support of the allies, so he prepared his army to the battle, a battle which would prove to be gigantic, it is the battle of Cannea. In the beginning of 216 B.C, Hannibal attacked the city of Cannae. Rome was discontented, because the city of Cannae was the most important city in the south in production of cores. So, the Roman councils heads immediately to Cannae to fight Hannibal.
Battle of Cannae ( Hannibal’s tactical masterpiece )
The Roman plan was as follows : the Roman infantry which was about 70,000 men would attack the Carthaginian centre which was about 40,000 men. The Carthaginian centre Would have no chance in confront the sheer force of Roman centre, making the possible Carthaginian cravenly victory in the wings useless, as if the Carthaginian centre was broken the Carthaginian victory on wings can do nothing to relive them. The Roman plan was simple but efficient. Hannibal which was known for his insight and reading the mentality and expectation of what his opponent think of, understand the plan and decided to array his troops in the centre in a crescent like formation in attempt to absorb the shock of the assault, putting tow Libyan contents behind his centre, so when his centre retreat slowly and steadily the Roman centre would find themselves trapped from three sides. In addition the Carthaginian cavalry in the wings after decimating the Roman wings would attack the Roman centre from behind, surrounding the Romans from all sides and turn the battle into one sided massacre. Indeed, this what happened exactly leading to death nearly 70,000 Roman soldiers, in addition to death of Paullus while Hannibal’s losses were 5700. It was a massacre, 3000 ton of human flesh left to rot on the scorching sun of August. For the Romans, it was a disaster. The Roman people shocked entering in a state of panic. Aftermath of Cannae, the most of the south defected and joined Hannibal. At the same time, Philip the Fifth of Macedonia took Hannibal’s side and declared war against Rome. Hannibal thought that Rome after the disaster defeat at Cannae will accept to negotiate, but he was wrong Rome refused to negotiate. Rome will continue to fight.
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