This was perhaps the greatest defeat that the Romans ever experienced, not excepting that from the Gauls. Of an army of near 90,000 men, not more than 4000 escaped directly from the battle : some thousands more of those who had guarded or reached the camps, availed themselves of the darkness and confusion of the follow ing night, to reach Canusium, a strong fortress in the neighbourhood. Besides the consul /Emilius, two quxs tors, and one-and-twenty legionary tribunes, there fell, on this fatal day, Servilius, the third in command, Minu emus, consul and general of the horse under Fabius, four score senators, who had volunteered their services, and such a prodigious number of knights, that of the rings which they wore as the badge of their order, three bushels were sent to Carthage. Polybins makes the general loss amount to 70,000, though Livy reduces it to 50,000. The loss of Hannibal was comparatively trifling, con sisting only of 4000 Gauls, 1500 Spaniards and Africans, and 200 horses.
Having allowed his troops the whole of that night for the purpose of repose, he employed the next morning in over the field of battle, and gathering III( spoil,. The scene was horrible. beyond description, evi Ii to the Carthaginians themselves. In the course of the day, he besieged the two camps, which were still defy ndetl by about 10,000 men, chiefly WM11141(11,lo almost imme diately surrendered by capitulation. It i., dillic lilt to assign the true reason, which had deterred this matchless gene ral Front making an attempt on Rome immediate!) after his tremendous victory. But having mistimed sonn•
(lays in the neighbourhood of Canna, the favourable op portunity was lost for (*Ver. Th(, consul Varm was already posted at Canusium, with the wreck of his army, now accumulated to 10,00.7 Dien; the senate and p.m& of Rome, after the first transports a terror were over, now spoke more loftily than ever ; the city was put in a formidable state of defence, and assistance hastening from all (platters ; and with a louse of less than 30,000 infan try, destitute of magazines, machines, and other necessa ries of war, Ilannibal could not pretend to besiege a city in form, which still contained more soldiers than he had under his command. His subsequent feeble attempts on sonic small towns, demonstrate incontrovertibly the in sufficiency of his means for undertaking the siege of Rome at this period. The battle of Cannx, however, though not invol% ing in its consequences the immediate destruction of Rome, was notwithstanding highly beneli ...jai to the Carthaginian cause. Ile, who before that great event was a mere fugitive Man enemy's country, having neither town, post, nor magazine in his possession, saw himself now all at once toaster of the greater part of Italy. 'The most faithful allies of the Romans began now to stagger in their allegiance, considering Rome as at an end ; and a long catalogue of the Italian nations declared for I lannibal. Sec Polyb. 1. iii. Liv. xxii. ; Plut.in Fab.; Rom. Hist. I. xis.; and Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies. (E)