For my chart, I used casualty figures recorded from the Battle Of Cannae.  The battle took place in the year 216 BC, between the Romans and the Carthaginians, during the Second Punic War.  The battle is famous for being the first recorded usage of the pincer maneuver, and also as a crushing defeat for the Roman Army.  Hannibal led his battle-hardened force against a Roman Army nearly twice the size of his own; 50000 Carthaginians and allies versus 86400 Romans and allies.  Meeting at the town of Cannae, Italy, they faced off in what looked to be a Roman victory from the start.

The two sides’ battle lines met, each holding their ground.  The Romans were tightly packed, and their center strong.  Letting that strength become their downfall, Hannibal had his center retreat, causing the Romans to push past his flanks.  This led right into Hannibal’s plan, as now his army formed a crescent around the Romans.  His center stopped their retreat, making the Romans stall, who were now so tightly crowded that many couldn’t draw their swords or swing their spears.  The Carthaginians quickly took the upper hand, slaughtering the Romans as they tightened the semicircle around them.  Hannibal had also wisely used his cavalry, virtually annihilating the Roman horsemen on the other side of the battlefield.

The Romans were crushed, with Hannibal’s forces having strategically bested them.  The massacre took all day, the Carthaginians stopping only when night came.  So many Romans were killed that many died from suffocation under the corpses of their fellow soldiers.  Even looking at the lowest recorded death counts, the Carthaginians had to have killed over 600 Romans a minute, a staggering number.  With Hannibal’s forces only suffering a recorded 8000 casualties, a rout would be more suitable than a victory for the Carthaginians.

Looking at these records, it’s interesting to see the difference each historian had on the battle. Polybius, who would be the first to record the battle, has an incredible death toll, with nearly 70000 Romans having died. The next two, Livy and Eutropius, had more moderate casualties, with the number of dead and escaped being about even. Modern historians tend to agree with Livy’s statistics over others, although Polybius has the most in depth account and information on the battle.