[The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six by Titus Livius]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six BOOK XXII 98/124
Three thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry are said to have been captured in that battle. 50.
Such is the battle of Cannae, equal in celebrity to the defeat at the Allia: but as it was less important in respect to those things which happened after it, because the enemy did not follow up the blow, so was it more important and more horrible with respect to the slaughter of the army; for with respect to the flight at the Allia, as it betrayed the city, so it preserved the army.
At Cannae, scarcely seventy accompanied the flying consul: almost the whole army shared the fate of the other who died.
The troops collected in the two camps being a half-armed multitude without leaders, those in the larger send a message to the others, that they should come over to them at night, when the enemy was oppressed with sleep, and wearied with the battle, and then, out of joy, overpowered with feasting: that they would go in one body to Canusium.
Some entirely disapproved of that advice.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|