The field where Hannibal defeated the Romans
On a low hill above the valley of the Ofanto river, near Barletta, lies Canne della Battaglia, ancient Cannae, the place where on 2 August 216 BC, during the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal inflicted on Rome one of the most disastrous defeats in its history. With a smaller army, Hannibal arranged his troops in a crescent and, by letting the Roman centre advance, enveloped it with his cavalry and infantry on the flanks, achieving a perfect encirclement: according to ancient historians, between 50,000 and 70,000 Romans died in a single afternoon. The battle of Cannae is still studied in military academies all over the world as the model of the encircling manoeuvre.
The archaeological park includes the remains of the citadel on the hill, inhabited from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages, with houses, a medieval castle, churches and a Roman column, and the Antiquarium, a small museum with finds from the site and the necropolises. From the top of the hill there is a wide view over the Ofanto plain, where the battle probably took place, although its exact location is still debated. In the Middle Ages, Cannae was also the scene of another battle, in 1018, between the Byzantines and the Lombard rebel Melus.
Tip: the site is small and rarely crowded; reading about the battle before the visit makes the landscape much more evocative.
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