Roman army of the mid-Republic placed unprecedented strains on Roman manpower, not least on the Order of Knights and the First Class of commoners which provided the cavalry. During Hannibal's apocalyptic march through Italy (218–216 BC), thousands of Roman cavalrymen were killed in the field. The losses were especially serious for the equestrian order, which also provided the army's senior officers. Livy relates how, after Cannae, gold rings (a badge of knightly rank), recovered from the corpses of Roman knights formed a pile one "modius" (about 9 litres) large. In the succeeding years 214–203 BC, the Romans kept at least 21 legions in the field
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (consul 215 BC) Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (consul 215 BC) Tiberius Sempronius Ti. f. Ti. n. Gracchus (died 212 BC) was a Roman Republican consul in the Second Punic War. He was son of Tiberius Sempronius Ti. f. Gracchus, who was apparently the first man from his branch of the family to become a consul. Gracchus is first mentioned in 216 BC as a curule aedile, in which capacity he was inducted as the Master of the Horse to the newly elected Dictator Marcus Junius Pera after the defeat at Cannae. He was elected consul in 216 BC, at the recommendation of the Dictator,