Marcus Atilius Regulus (consul 227 BC) army of 80,000 Romans and allies was amassed together to smash the Carthaginian army under Hannibal. The historian Polybius records that both he and Servilius died fighting bravely at the Battle of Cannae. However, there was a Marcus Atilius Regulus who was Praetor Urbanus (and later also Peregrinus), but it is thought that this person is actually a textual mis-reading of the name Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. It is unlikely that the aged, former consul would become a Praetor again three years after Cannae. His younger brother Gaius was killed fighting the Gauls at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC,
Campaign history of the Roman military was the costliest Rome had suffered since the Battle of Cannae. After the Cimbri inadvertently granted the Romans a reprieve by diverting to plunder Iberia, Rome was given the opportunity to carefully prepare for and successfully meet the Cimbri and Teutons in the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and the Battle of Vercellae (101 BC) where both tribes were virtually annihilated, ending the threat. The extensive campaigning abroad by Rome, and the rewarding of soldiers with plunder from those campaigns, led to the trend of soldiers becoming increasingly loyal to their commanders rather than to the state, and a