Battle of Cannae

War

Hannibal encircles and destroys a much larger Roman army in southern Italy, one of Rome's worst defeats.

Related events

218 BCE – 201 BCE★★★★★

Hannibal crosses the Alps to invade Italy, but Rome ultimately prevails and Carthage loses its status as a great power.

War· Italy, Tunisia, Spain

212 BCE★★★★★

The mathematician and engineer Archimedes is killed by a Roman soldier during the fall of Syracuse.

DeathScience· Italy

202 BCE★★★★★

Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal in North Africa, forcing Carthage to sue for peace and ending the Second Punic War.

War· Tunisia

264 BCE – 241 BCE★★★★★

Rome and Carthage fight for control of Sicily; Rome wins and gains its first overseas province.

War· Italy, Tunisia

323 BCE★★★★★

Alexander the Great dies in Babylon aged 32, leaving an empire stretching from Greece to India.

DeathPolitics· Iraq, Greece

336 BCE★★★★★

After the assassination of Philip II, his son Alexander, then about 20, succeeds to the Macedonian throne.

Politics· Greece