The History of Rome:
Battles and Campaigns of the Empire

Battle of Cannae 216 BC

After Hannibal crossed the Alps the Romans hastily threw armies at the enemy only to see them crushed by the brilliant general Hannibal. The battle of Cannea was a particularly severe defeat for the Romans during this part of the Second Punic war.

The Romans take up battle lines and Hannibal follows suit. Attacking Hannibal's center the Romans are forced to form up extra deep because of the narrowness of the plain. Hannibal pins his hopes on his cavalry, placing his heavy cavalry on the left and Numidians on the right. He bows his centre forward, also making it deeper than the flanks in order to delay the legions' advance. The African infantry is kept in reserve behind each flank of the crescent. Both sides leave troops to guard the camps.

The battle opens with skirmishing. Hannibal's left cavalry are launched and hit the Roman right which gives way under the weight of the Numidians. The heavy infantry clash and the Spaniards and Celts are forced back. The Numicians skirmish with the Allied cavalry, while Hasdrubal swings his heavy cavalry across the back of the Roman infantry towards the Allies. Thus threatened they break and run taking Varro with them. Meanwhile the crescent is holding and the Africans advance in columns on the flanks and then turn inwards. Hasdrubal turns into the Roman rear while the Carthaginian light troops move around into the rear as well as supporting the centre. Paullus strives to keep the Romans fighting, even ordering his escort to dismount but to no avail, 45,500 infantry and 2,700 cavalry are killed; 300-500 infantry and some cavalry are captured. Paullus, Servilius and Minucius are dead. 7,000 escape to the smaller camp, 2,000 to Cannae but they are surrounded and captured. Hannibal takes both camps and more prisoners. He has only lost 6,000 - 8,000 infantry.

The Battle of Zama

202 BC

The decisive and final battle of the Second Punic War took place near Zama Regiia, only 90 miles from Carthage itself. At the head of the Carthaginian forces was Hannibal, one of the best generals in military history. Recalled from the Italian Peninsula where he had been causing havoc for fifteen years Hannibal now faced a powerful army commanded by Publius Cornelius Scipio.

Some of the 80 Carthaginian war elephants which opened the battle with a frontal charge were turned back in panic by the pandemonium of shouts and trumpet blasts which the Romans raised. The rest were allowed to pass through gaps in the Roman ranks. For this purpose, the Roman maniples were ranged directly behind and in front of each other, not in their usual formation. The way was now clear for a cavalry battle. While in Spain, Scipio had captured the young Numidian prince Masinissa and had won him over to the Roman cause. Masinissa was now a Roman ally and as a result Scipio possessed a strong Numidian cavalry contingent which, with the Roman cavalry, routed Hannibal's horsemen, already thrown into confusion by the rioting elephants.

The two front lines of the Carthaginian army were scattered and forced out on to the wings by those behind, who refused to let them retreat any farther. Scipio took advantage of the chaotic situation to give his men a breathing space rather than press his attack. He reformed his army in a single line with principes and triarii on the wings and hastati in the centre, presumably because he feared to be outflanked in an infantry battle. At the same time, he hoped anxiously for the return of his cavalry, which had been drawn away too far in pursuit. The critical moment came as the Romans faced the remaining Carthaginian line, veterans of the Italian wars whom Hannibal had till now held in reserve. But, fortunately for Scipio, his Roman and Numidian cavalry returned to the battlefield just in time to decide the issue in his favour. Outflanked on either side, the Carthaginians were cut to pieces. Hannibal, with a few horsemen, escaped first to Hadrumetum on the coast and the to Carthage, where he advised the government to make peace.

The Battle of Cynoscephalae

197 BC

Rome clashed with Philip V of Macedon when he unwisely allied himself with Carthage. The titanic struggle between Rome and Carthage prevented the Roman military from pursuing an all-out war against Macedonia. The battle of Cynoscephalae was a turning point in military history, the Macedonian phalanx which had been invincible in combat for 200 years was finally defeated. Mobile infantry operating in units had replaced a solid wall of shield and spear forever.

Skirmishing forces from either side meet in the mist of Cynoscephalae ridge. Macedonians have the upper hand until Roman reinforcements push Philip's men back. Philip's cavalry and mercenaries arrive and the Romans make an orderly retreat. Both armies are led out. Philir marches half the phalanx and Thracians up the pass and deploy leftwardson the summit. Flaminiu orders his right to hold its ground and leads the left(l legion+ Allie to relieve his light troops, forcing back the Macedonian light troops who retire through the line as do the Roman light infantry. Both sides reorganise, Philip orders phalanx and peltasts to double depth, thus halving his front and leaving room for his left wing hastening up in column. Philip charges downhill and forces back the Romans. His left wing is still deploying across the ridge. Flaminius orders his right plus elephants to attack. The echeloned Macedonian left is easily pushed back, but the Roman left is still in trouble.

Seeing this, a tribune takes 20 maniples and hits Philip's phalanx in the rear slaughtering the exposed phalangites. The Macedonians, in retreat, raise their pikes in surrender but the uncomprehending Romans cut them down. They lose 700-800 killed and 4,000-5,000 prisoner. The Romans lost about 1000 dead.

The Jewish Wars

During the last years of Nero's reign conditions in Judea deteriorated rapidly mainly due to the actions of incompetent and corrupt Roman officials and the increasing threat posed by the Scare, a band of religious zealots that used murder and violence to terrorize the populace.

In September 66 the Roman garrison in Jerusalem was overpowered and slain. The governor of Syria arrived at the head of an army and marched into Jerusalem but could not capture the Temple, which was fiercely defended by rebel forces. Unable to force a decision and low on supplies Cestius Gallus withdrew his men. But in the northern suburb of Bezetha ( Bezatha ) strong rebel forces attacked his army. After losing 6,000 men, his siege train and baggage Cestius Gallus fell back into Syria.

At this point Nero ordered an obscure senator named Titus Flavius Vespasian to crush the Jewish uprising. With 60,000 troops Vespasian arrived in the troubled province in 67 AD. He quickly went to work against the rebel forces scattered throughout Palestine. What the revolutionaries lacked in arms and training they more than made up for with fanatical resistance making this one of the bloodiest campaigns in the Roman empire.

Advancing on Joapata, a Galilean fortress held by Flavius Josephus ( Joseph ben Matthias ) Vespasian found the defenses too strong for a direct attack to work so he laid siege to the fortress. After 47 days of bitter fighting, early in the year 68, Josephus surrender and Joapata was quickly sacked. Turning south the Romans captured town after town in the face of heavy resistance and by May were pushing past Jericho and onto Jerusalem. With turmoil in Rome Vespasian decided on a slow reduction of the defenses of Jerusalem instead of immediately launching an assault.

Finally in December of 69 AD Vespasian was called back to Italy to take his place as Emperor. He left his son Titus in charge of the siege, which he pursued vigorously. By the following spring in heavy fighting Titus commanding 60,000 troops had penetrated into the northern suburb of Bezetha. The next few months saw street to street and house to house fighting of the greatest intensity which progressively wrecked the city. The heavily fortified and well defended Temple was able to hold out until August 29, 70 AD when it was torched and burned out, nine days later the entire city was taken.

Trajan's Campaigns Against Dacia

101-106 A.D

Beyond the Danube river is a rugged mountainous area in what today would be Romania and eastern Hungary. Barbarian tribes had been fighting for years to achieve dominance in the region. In 61 BC a leader finally rose from the strongest tribe to rule the kingdom of Dacia and all its people. Finally unified these skilled warriors under the king, Burebista, started aggressively expanding their territory. Rome watched with growing alarm as the Dacians advanced to the Black Sea. Their presence was undeniable as well as their military might. Pompey himself sought the king of the Dacians as an ally in 48 BC during his struggle to defeat Julius Caesar.

Interestingly both Caesar and Burebista died in 44 BC at the hands of assassins. During the civil upset that followed Dacia diminished as a threat to the Romans but Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, had to give the Dacians due consideration at least until he totally defeated his rival Marc Antony.

As Augustus he planned a campaign against the Dacian kingdom but never pursued the idea in any meaningful way. In the following decades succeeding emperors worked to maintain the existing frontier but this was becoming harder and harder to do as Dacian troops intensified their raids into Roman lands. Allied tribes had to be relocated under Nero away from the frontier to Moesia but even this was only a temporary solution. When Moesia itself was raided the Roxolani, a tribe allied to Rome, fought sporadically with the Dacians but the Romans did next to nothing in the face of this major provocation.

Decebalus, a new king of the Dacians, proved to be both a mighty warrior and a gifted leader. After restoring Dacia to its past strength and unity he launched a major invasion against Moesia in 85 A.D. The Roman governor was killed along with the majority of the V Alaudae Legion. Now this was war and the Emperor Domitian acted quickly by bringing reinforcements to Moesia and expelling the Dacians from Roman territory. He left the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Cornelius Fuscus, in charge of launching an offensive campaign into Dacia. This he did very poorly as he was soon killed along with most of his men in a defeat that turned into a rout. Domitian took to the field again to restore the situation as the entire Danube was under threat by superior forces. At the Iron Gates, a mountain pass near Tapae, the Dacian king Decebalus was defeated by the Romans, in the aftermath a truce was agreed to by both sides in 89 A.D. But the peace would not last as the ambition of the Dacian king, Decebalus, was hardly diminished and it would be up to the emperor Trajan to deal with this threat from beyond the Danube.

Trajan's first campaign against the Dacians began in 101 A.D. as he crossed the Danube in two great columns comprised of 12 legions ( a full third of the legions of Rome, some 100,000 men. ) After slowly advancing for 20 miles through heavy forest the two columns met at Tibiscum. Near the pass of Typie the Roman cavalry sighted the entire Dacian army and Trajan prepared to do battle.

Javelins were thrown at the Dacians as the two armies charged into each other. The fighting continued until both sides were so exhausted they agreed to a period of rest after which the fighting resumed with just as much fury as before. Finally the Dacians, their numbers dwindling, fled into the forest breaking up the Roman formations and pursuit. With winter setting in Trajan marched his army back below the Danube.

In the spring of 102 Trajan launched a second campaign, this time he sent one column to circle around and attack the Dacians from behind. Once faced with this threat the Dacians retreated to their mountain fortresses. The Romans quickly laid seige to these fortifications one by one and finally the Dacian capitol itself. The Dacian king signed a treaty and just as quickly broke it. For this the Romans punished the Dacians greatly killing many and taking thousands into slavery. Retired legionaires settled in the new province. In time after they left this area came to be known as Romania.

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