The Spartans went on to play a crucial part in the war against the Persians. Leonidas and his small guard had established an extraordinary reputation, and larger forces of Spartans struck terror into the Persians at later battles. They had seen what only 300 could do and no one wanted to face 10,000 or 20,000. The Greeks won classic sea battles at Salamis and Eurymedon, destroying the Persian fleet. Over the next eight years, they beat the Persian host on land with battles at Plataea and Mycale. They lost Athens twice to the enemy and saw it completely destroyed. Much of the war has been forgotten, but the battle at Thermopylae still inspires writers and readers today. When peace returned, the Spartans placed a stone lion at the Hot Gates to mark where Leonidas created a legend. The epitaph reads: ‘Go tell the Spartans, Stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie’.
When the Latini tribe consolidated their hold on southern Italy, they joined two settlements into a city named Rome on seven hills. In the centuries that followed, they continued to explore their lands and boundaries, north and south, eventually crossing into Sicily. There, they came face to face with an outpost of the ancient and sophisticated Carthaginian empire. It was a clash of force and culture that launched generations of bitter conflict in what have come to be known as the Punic Wars and the first real test of Rome.
The Battle of Cannae is famous in part because the Roman legions were utterly annihilated. This is a surprisingly uncommon event. History has many more examples of battles where the defeated enemy were allowed to leave the field, sometimes almost intact. Cannae was a complete destruction of an army in just one day. It was very nearly the death knell for Rome herself.
The Romans had actually won the First Punic War, which lasted for seventeen years (264–241 BC), but it had not been a crushing defeat for the Carthaginians. They had had a gifted general in Hamilcar Barca, who had brought southern Spain under the rule of Carthage. Yet it was his son Hannibal who would invade Italy from Spain, cross the Alps with elephants and threaten the very gates of Rome. He commanded Carthaginian forces for the Second Punic War (218–201 BC).
Cannae is in southern Italy, near the heel of the ‘boot’. Hannibal had come south the previous year, after destroying Roman armies of 40,000 and 25,000. Rome was in real danger.
The senate appointed a Dictator, Fabius, who tried to wear Hannibal’s forces down by cutting lines of supply. It was a successful policy, but unpopular in a vengeful city that wanted to see the enemy destroyed rather than starved to death. New consuls were elected: Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus. The senate mustered an army of 80,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry over which the consuls assumed joint leadership.
Hannibal’s army had very few actual Carthaginians. When he entered what is today northern Italy, his forces consisted of 20,000 infantry (from Africa and Spain) and 6,000 cavalry. He recruited more from Gallic tribes in the north, but he was always outnumbered. In fact, the Romans had every possible advantage.
The two armies met on 2 August 216 BC. Hannibal and his army approached along the bank of a river, so he could not easily be flanked. He left 8,000 men to protect his camp. His cavalry was placed on both flanks and his infantry took position in the centre.
Varro was in command on the Roman side that day. He was not an imaginative leader and marched the Roman hammer straight at Hannibal’s forces, attempting to smash them. Varro thought he had protected his wings from flanking manoeuvres with his own cavalry. In fact, Hannibal’s horsemen were far superior. They crushed one Roman flank almost immediately, circling behind them to destroy the other wing as well. They then wreaked havoc on Roman lines from behind.
Varro pressed on, however, his front line pushing the forces of Carthage further and further back, like a bow bending. Hannibal’s front line had become completely concave and Varro had no idea that it was part of the plan. The Roman force marched further and further into the cup Hannibal had created for them. They believed they were winning.
Hannibal signalled for the wings to move and the cup began to close. Hannibal’s cavalry completed the boxing-in of the Roman legions behind. They were so compressed they could hardly move and their numerical advantage had been completely cancelled out. More than 60,000 died over the next few hours as they were butchered, unable to escape. Hannibal lost 6,000 men.
One result of this battle was that the Romans learned from it. Three years later they had more than 200,000 men under arms and had renewed the struggle. There were successes and disasters on both sides, and Rome teetered on the brink of destruction until they appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio – known as Scipio Africanus. He had the vision and tactical skill to counter Hannibal. Though Rome was near bankruptcy and Italy was starving, the fortunes of Rome began to turn.
3. Julius Caesar’s Invasions of Britain – 55 and 54 BC
Though neither invasion really came to anything, this has traditionally been the official starting point of recorded British history. In fact, Julius Caesar’s own commentary is the only written source for some of the information that has survived today, such as the names of tribes around the south coast.
The Romans’ first landing was on the beaches near Deal in Kent, having sailed from Gaul (France). The Britons (meaning ‘painted ones’, as they painted themselves blue) fought in the sea to prevent the landing, accompanied by huge dogs. Caesar’s reference to the dogs makes the English mastiff the oldest recorded breed. The Roman force fought their way onto dry land and made a truce with the local inhabitants. It is important to remember that Britain was practically off the edge of maps at this time. The existence of ‘foggy islands’ or ‘tin islands’ somewhere past Gaul was considered a myth in some places. Caesar was overstretched and spent only three weeks in Britain before heading back across the Channel to Gaul.
The second landing in 54 BC was much better organised. Caesar returned with a fleet of 800 ships, five legions and 2,000 cavalry. As the Spanish Armada would discover fifteen hundred years later, the coast can be violent and a storm smashed a large number of his ships, scattering many more.
Caesar marched north, destroying the tribes who had gathered under their war chief, Cassivellaunus of the Catuvellauni. Cassivellanus was forced to sue for peace near modern St Albans. Caesar accepted and returned to Gaul. Events such as the great Gaul rebellion under Vercingetorix, a civil war in Rome, falling in love with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra and, finally, assassination would prevent him ever returning. The Romans did not come back to Britain untilAD 43, under Emperor Claudius.
This is one of the most famous dates in English history – the last successful invasion up to modern times. At first, after the Romans left, Britain was almost constantly invaded. First the Saxons proved bothersome, then just as everyone was settling down to being Anglo-Saxon, the Vikings arrived. The Danish king, Canute (sometimes written Cnut), created a small, stable empire early in the eleventh century, ruling England, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He had taken the English throne from Ethelred the Unready and after Canute’s death, his feckless sons lost it back to Ethelred’s son Edward, known as the Confessor for his piety. He named Harold Godwinson as his heir, crowned King Harold in January 1066 – the last Anglo-Saxon king before the Normans arrived and spoiled it for everyone.
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