Spring and the summer sun cover the soil of Canne della Battaglia with yellow flowers and red poppies. They are a mantle of freshness that in combination with the green of the vineyards give those who visit us a profound peace. Looking out from the heights, the green fields unfold which form the backdrop to the remains of what was once an atrocious battle scene. Canne was an ancient city of Puglia: it was born on a hill on the right bank of the Ofanto river, once called Aufidus. Today Canne remains a large archaeological site with Neolithic caves, ceramics, statues, megalithic stones. These remains bring to light the clash of that August 2, 216 BC that we will try to narrate in this article.
Canne della Battaglia and the power of Hannibal
Theodor Mommsen defines it "The greatest general of antiquity", Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca, is the key figure of Canne della Battaglia. Excellent strategist, he did not look favorably on the Romans, who tried to oppose and fight tenaciously until the last moment. Hannibal's anti-Roman hatred stems from an oath addressed by his father at the age of nine. Amilcare in fact, beaten by the Romans in the Egadi islands in 242 BC, was a supporter of maritime trade policies that led him to clash with Rome. In the footsteps of his father, Hannibal, he unleashed the second Punic war, among the most terrible and ferocious of all antiquity.
“The story says that the city was in ruins when Hannibal came with his army to this part of ancient Apulia […]”. “Never had there been to fight such a vast space and never had there been a greater clash between two such great powers”. So he writes JB Claude Richard De Saint - Non in the prized book "Puglia" of Editalia of 1983 in reference to the defeat of Canne della Battaglia.
Canes of the battle and the arrival in Italy of Hannibal
Hannibal, Hamilcaris filius, fuit Carthaginiensis. The great General Barca he left as a child for Spain alongside his father Amilcare. Become Supreme Commander at just 25 years old. His qualities as a leader soon became known, so much so that Philip V of Macedon wished to ally himself with him after the battle of Cannae. Having conquered saguntum - Spanish city of Greek origin, provokes the second Punic war. The great Hannibal conquers Spain, crosses the Pyrenees passing through the pertussis and defeating all the Pyrenean peoples who opposed him. Finally it reaches Italy across the Alps, on which he juggles superhuman efforts. Here too, any resistance on the part of the local populations was completely useless.
Hinc in Apuliam pervènit. After entering Italy through the Alps and having defeated all those who crept in his path, Hannibal headed towards Tuscany through the Ligurian Apennines. His ferocity is merciless: he beats the consuls of the Po Valley, kills the Consuls Gaio Flaminio in Tuscany and Gaius Centenio. Finally from central Italy it arrives in Puglia.
The battle of Canne among the fiercest battles of humanity
Numerous scholars have come on the ground of Canne della Battaglia to rebuild the fierce combat that led to the defeat of the Romans on 2 August 216 BC. In that year the new elections saw consuls elected Lucio Emilio Paolo e Gaius Terentius Varro, who disagreed deeply especially on war matters. The large army of the Romans was led on alternate days by each of the two consuls and this proved to be fatal. Varro was in fact determined to challenge Hannibal on the pitch while Lucio Emilio Paolo proved to be more prudent. Varro, taking advantage of his day at the helm of the army, went into combat ruinously. The remains of Canne, walking in its area archeological, they tell us about this bloody clash that we briefly try to reconstruct.
Hannibal Barca: the greatest strategist of the ancient world
It is August 2, 216 a. C. and to Canne della Battaglia, in Puglia, Hannibal annihilates the Romans for the fourth consecutive time. In any case, the rising super-power will not be Carthage, although the winner, but the defeat: Rome. Hannibal's army is made up of about 50.000 men, while the Romans have between 65.000 and 80.000 men at their disposal. The Battle of Cannae is a battle in which a smaller army but with 20% cavalry dominates a larger army. That of the Romans, greater numerically but with the cavalry at a minimum. The cavalry is deployed in the center and the infantry on the wings. The battlefield is flat and for the local peoples this part of the plain is still called "the Field of Blood".
General Barca on the battlefield
JB Claude Richard De Saint - Not in Editalia's "La Puglia" writes: "It is affirmed that this skilled general was not unaware of how every morning at sunrise on these plains and along theAufidus dominated a strong wind. Known, he says Tito Livio, with the name of Vulturnum, the normal effect of which was to raise whirlwinds of sand and dust ”. Hannibal takes sides in such a way that his army has behind this wind, which he would later blow in the face of the Romans. The clash soon became a brutal melee, the space was bordered by the river on one side and the infantry on the other. In the center, the Romans threw their javelins, while the Iberians and the Gauls set off against their opponents. It had come to the melee.
The Roman infantry converged ruinously in the center; and so it found itself encircled by the African infantry on both sides, which got the better of a clever pincer operation. Over 50.000 Roman soldiers died. Hannibal's strategy had worked. He orders the Spanish battalions and roosters lined up in the center to simulate losing ground, the Romans fall into the trap and enter the Carthaginian lines. At this point the Romans find themselves surrounded and Hannibal orders a mock desertion to five hundred Numidian fighters. Thanks to this move, the Numidians massacred the Romans, who were already surrounded on all sides. Thanks to Pino Marchisella photographer for the photos.
