Hannibal Killed 100 Romans Per Minute at Cannae: Lewis Lapham
"The Ghosts of Cannae"
Random House via Bloomberg
The cover jacket of "The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic." The book is the latest by Robert L. O'Connell.
The cover jacket of "The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic." The book is the latest by Robert L. O'Connell. Source: Random House via Bloomberg
Robert L. O'Connell
Random House via Bloomberg
Author Robert L. O'Connell. "The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic" is the latest book by O'Connell.
Author Robert L. O'Connell. "The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic" is the latest book by O'Connell. Source: Random House via Bloomberg
Lewis Lapham
Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
Lewis Lapham of "Lapham's Quarterly" in New York. Lapham interviews authors for Bloomberg News.
Lewis Lapham of "Lapham's Quarterly" in New York. Lapham interviews authors for Bloomberg News. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
Hannibal came over the Alps during the winter, threatening the Romans on their own turf. In response, the Senate raised an army of nearly 90,000 men, twice that of the Carthaginians, and sent them to Cannae. The two sides met up on August 2, 216 B.C., in what is still history’s most horrific battle.
Hannibal’s army lured the enemy soldiers into a trap and, encircling them, crushed the men ever inward. Exhausted by the heat, slipping in their own blood, vomit and feces, the Roman forces were hacked, slashed, stabbed and battered to death at a rate of more than 100 per minute.
At the end, more than 48,000 men were dead, six million pounds of freshly killed human flesh piled on the battlefield. Any survivors who made it back to Rome were promptly exiled.
Regarded as one of the great tactical feats in military history, Hannibal’s victory is still studied by soldiers and historians. I spoke with Robert L. O’Connell, author of “The Ghosts of Cannae,” on the following topics:
1. Militarized Rome
2. Hannibal in Italy
3. Laying the Trap
4. Roman Reaction
5. Cannae’s Mystique
To listen to the podcast, click here. To buy this book in North America, click here.
(Lewis Lapham is the founder of Lapham’s Quarterly and the former editor of Harper’s magazine. He hosts “The World in Time” interview series for Bloomberg News.)
To contact the writer on the story: Lewis Lapham in New York at lhl@laphamsquarterly.org.
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