After Hanibal s first devastating victories on the Italian peninsula, Fabius employed a skillful campaign of attrition against the Carthaginians – hence his nickname Cunctator. However, on August 2nd, 216, the new consuls Varrus and Paul agreed to fight Hanibal on a bend in the Aufidus River, terrain previously chosen by the Carthaginian. In this battle of Cannae – the most disastrous in the history of the Roman republic – Rome lost more than 60% of its committed army. The Roman tactics should have sought to guard against the surprises of the Carthaginian device. Initially, leaving aside the pride of the Equites citizens, the cavalry would have been balanced on both flanks, preventing the elite from facing a 1:3 ratio (1, 600 versus 5, 000); and infantry would not have been all concentrated in the center, not only after the initial success, but throughout the battle the penetration ‘shoulders’ – right and left wings – would have been strengthened. In practice it will employ a Cuneus – the staggered over the center or convex but with flanks on Jomini s discontinuous lines.
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