Battle of Cannae Hannibal at Cannae, with approximately 86,000 Roman and allied troops. They massed their heavy infantry in a deeper formation than usual, while Hannibal used the double-envelopment tactic and surrounded his enemy, trapping the majority of the Roman army, who were then slaughtered. The loss of life on the Roman side was one of the most lethal single day's fighting in history; Adrian Goldsworthy equates the death toll at Cannae to "the massed slaughter of the British Army on the first day of the Somme offensive in 1916." Only about 15,000 Romans, most of whom were from the garrisons of the
Carthago delenda est seafaring Phoenician city-state of Carthage in North Africa (modern day Tunisia), they suffered a number of humiliations and damaging reverses in the course of these engagements, especially at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC). This grew into an attitude of seeking vengeance and total victory, which was expressed by these phrases. The city of Carthage was indeed finally razed by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus after the Third Battle of Carthage in 146 BC, and its entire remaining population was sold into slavery. It thus never again posed a threat to Rome—at least until taken over by the Vandals, who