Dio's Rome, Volume 1: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 1: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
So Hannibal, having failed in this essay also, came by night to Cannae,
and since he knew the place as one fit for ambuscades and for a
pitched battle, he encamped there. And first he ploughed the whole
site over, because it had a sandy subsoil and his object was to have a
cloud of dust raised in the conflict; the wind generally springs up
there in summer toward noon, and he contrived to get it behind his
back. The consuls seeing at dawn that his stockade was empty of men at
first waited, apprehending ambush, but later in the broad daylight
came to Cannae. Each of the Roman leaders bivouacked apart beside the
river, for since they were not congenial they avoided association
together. Paulus remained quiet, but Terentius was anxious to force
the issue; when he saw, however, that the soldiers were rather
listless, he gave up the idea. But Hannibal, who was determined to
goad them into battle even against their will, shut them off from
their sources of water, prevented their scattering into small parties,
and threw the bodies of the slain into the stream above their
intrenchments and in plain sight, in order to disgust them with the
drinking supply. Then the Romans started to array themselves for
battle. Hannibal anticipating this movement had planted ambuscades at
the foot of the hills but held the remainder of his army drawn up. He
also ordered some men at a given signal to simulate desertion; they
were to throw away their shields and spears and larger swords but
secretly to retain their daggers, so that after his antagonists had
received them as unarmed, they might attack them unexpectedly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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