August 216 BC — the Second Punic War
Chapter II · Italy invaded — Italy invaded — the Po valley rises for Hannibal.
This month
- CANNAE — Eight legions and their allies, the largest army Rome had ever fielded, are drawn into Hannibal’s receding centre and closed on both flanks by the Africans. By evening most of it is dead; a consul, two quaestors and eighty senators with it. (Polybius 3.107–118; Livy 22.44–52)
Where the commanders stand
- Philip V of Macedon: In Pella · king of macedon
- Mago Barca: Encamped at Cannae · since Summer 216 BC
- Q. Fabius Maximus: In Rome · since Winter 217 BC
- Hannibal Barca: Encamped at the morning after Cannae · since Summer 216 BC
- M. Claudius Marcellus: Encamped at Canusium · since Summer 216 BC
- Publius & Gnaeus Scipio: Encamped at the brothers united · since Autumn 217 BC