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The Punic Wars
Results of the Battle of Cannae
Hannibal had given the orders to hamstring the enemy himself. He understood clearly that he had to inflict terrible losses in order to convince the Italian allies that it was safer to follow Carthage than Rome. Cannae certainly had its effect.
Most notably, the city of
Capua defected to Hannibal. Capua,
south of Rome, was the second largest city in Italy. It was an
industrial center and was an invaluable prize to both sides.
Lesser cities joined Capua in deserting Rome.
But not enough. Hannibal won the military side of his gamble--he had defeated Rome repeatedly. He had understood from the beginning, however, that Rome would always return to the field so long as her alliance system held, and here, in 216 and 215, in the wake of Cannae, the alliance system in fact did hold, despite the loss of Capua.
It held in large part due to the conduct of the Romans in this crisis. After Cannae, the Roman Senate went into continuous session, in order to demonstrate to the people that its leaders had not abandoned the city and were tending to the public business. After the initial panic, the Senate and people of Rome settled into a mood of grim defense.
Fabius Maximus was again given command of a Roman army and he again employed his tactics of harassment; this is still known as Fabian tactics. He played an important role in keeping the allies close, for he used his much-reduced army to protect cities from attack by Hannibal. The Carthaginian army was too small to settle in for a long siege because they had always to fear that Fabius Maximus would arrive and disrupt the siege. The allies came to believe that Rome could indeed protect them from the invader.
Because the allies held, Rome was able to build up her strength once again. By the year 212, Rome had twenty-five legions (about eight consular armies) in the field.