Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War Read Free Page B

the open field for two days.  The Romans rested from their march; Hannibal prepared.
    As the armies maneuvered into their final battle positions, the Romans could barely see the Carthaginians for the great swirls of dust intentionally kicked up by thousands of Carthaginian feet and horses hooves.  Hannibal also deployed his skirmishers early on to mask the shifting and deceptive disposition of his troops.
    Because of the flat terrain, the Roman Consuls could not see that the Carthaginian center, comprised of Gauls, was actually bowed out towards the Romans in a crescent shape rather than the usual straight line.
    Manius dismounted and positioned himself with the Principes of one of the center most Legions.  He wanted to be where he could do some good.  The armies were arrayed in the customary manner with the width of the Roman front equaling that of the Carthaginians.  Then at the last minute, the Consuls decided to narrow the Roman front by stacking the Legions one behind the other and compressing the Hastati and Principes .
    This type formation would provide maximum crushing power to the center of the Carthaginian line, but severely reduce Roman flexibility to deal with any changes in the tactical situation on the right or left wings as the battle developed.
    Manius was told later that as the Legions advanced and made contact, the Carthaginian center slowly retreated while their reinforced flanks held firm.  Unbeknown to the Romans, the Carthaginian center was intentionally giving ground and drawing the Romans into a “U” shaped trap.

Figure 1 Roman Advance
     
    The Legionaries doing the fighting sensed an easy victory and pushed forward all the harder.  At this point, Manius knew something was wrong, but was powerless to do anything about it.  He kept moving forward with the unstoppable and “successful” Legions.
    He could see that they were advancing into the “mouth of a cave” with Carthaginians now on both sides.  He could also see that the Romans were being slowly compressed the deeper into the “cave” they went.  Suddenly, the Carthaginian center stopped giving ground and began to fight in earnest.  At the same time, the Libyan spearmen on the flanks began to push inward hard.  The Legions were now in the middle of a vast hostile army and being squeezed tighter and tighter.  At this critical point, the 10,000 strong Carthaginian cavalry commanded by Hasdrubal and Hanno returned to the battle after soundly defeating the 6,000 Roman horsemen and completely blocked the rear and any avenue of escape.
    The heat, dust, noise, shouting, and screaming was overwhelming.  Roman soldiers were being slaughtered not through any fault of theirs, but because they could not use their shield and sword.  Only the soldiers on the extreme outer edge of this deadly circle had any chance of fighting and they lacked enough room to maneuver.  They bulk of the Roman army was now simply a mob packed so tightly together by the pressure on all sides that all they could do was stand and await a killing blow as the circle tightened.  They could not run away or fight.  They were trapped and powerless to alter the outcome.  They were going to die and accepted their fate feyly.  The killing lasted for eight long hours.
    Throughout the battle, Carthaginian spearmen rained javelins down in an endless stream upon the cowering remnant of an army.  In their desperate struggle to protect themselves, some managed to raise their shields and deflected the razor sharp pieces of metal to the left and right ~ and down into their comrades.
    Manius was now on the outer edge of the deadly circle.  He could see the Carthaginians chopping down Romans with all manner of weapons.  Manius felt the Roman pilum hit his thigh and screamed in pain.  He looked down and saw that its conical head was completed imbedded in the muscle.  As he bent down to inspect the wound, he felt a massive blow to his helmet.  He was unconscious before he