30 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



strengthened their army to eight legions of 5000 foot and 300 horse each, 

 which under iEmilius Paulus and Terentius Varro stood at Cannae opposed 

 to Hannibal, who supported his camp, and the left flank of his line of battle 

 on the river Aufidus, and divided their army into two camps. On the day 

 when Varro had the command, he gave the signal for combat, and the 

 Roman army took such an order of battle that on the left wing at A was 

 the allied cavalry k k, and beside them the allied infantry under Varro. 

 The disposition of the right wing, under ^milius, was similar, the cavalry 

 being at i i ; the proconsuls Marcus and Cneius formed the centre. The 

 army was disposed in four lines, the triarii at a d, the principes at h e, and 

 the hastati at cf, while the light armed and slingers formed the advanced 

 line gh. The maniples of the triarii were largely strengthened, and the 

 whole army, with the auxiliaries, numbered 80,000 foot and nearly 6000 

 horse. Hannibal posted his Balearic slingers and other light troops in the 

 line q q before his army ; on the river he posted the Iberian and Gallic 

 cavalry p m and m m, opposite the Romans ; next these the Iberian, Gallic, 

 and other infantry //; then came the Libyan, and finally the Numidian 

 cavalry at nn u. The Gauls and Iberians were intermingled by maniples, 

 first a troop of Gauls, then a troop of Iberians. Hasdrubal led the left 

 wing, Hanno the right, and Hannibal the centre. To the attack Hannibal 

 advanced the eighth central syntagma of Gauls and Iberians, and supported 

 them by twenty-four syntagmata on each side, advanced in echelon by three 

 divisions, so that the whole line of battle was curved forward at the centre. 

 The light troops now made as usual the first attack, in which fortune was 

 doubtful, but then commenced the charge of cavalry, which, as the masses 

 on both sides were hemmed in by the river and by the infantry so that they 

 could not extend, was terrible, and terminated in the total destruction of 

 the Romans at this point. Now the light troops retired and the main 

 battle engaged ; here the Romans were at first victors and drove back the 

 advanced syntagmata of Hannibal, but as these retained their perfect order, 

 the salient curve at o became at last re-entering, forming a concave into 

 which the Romans pressed with a boar's-head (see pL 13, Jig. 4), which 

 Hannibal inclosed with a hollow wedge and oppressed, while Hasdrubal, 

 who had beaten and put to flight the Roman cavalry, charged it in the 

 rear. Meanwhile iEmilius had fallen, the Romans had lost courage, and as 

 now Hanno returned from pursuit, the victory of Hannibal was decided, 

 and the greater part of the Roman army destroyed. 



Under the Emperor Augustus and his successors a standing army was 

 introduced, and the whole system of war changed. 



B. WARFARE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



The continual wars of the Romans with the nations dwelling north from 

 them, and their conquests in all the other parts of Europe, had served to 

 civilize the people with whom they came in contact, and thus, when the 

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