The Battle of Cannae took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy, was a major battle of the Second Punic War. The army of Carthage lead by Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro by executing one of the first known pincer-movements. It is regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and, in numbers killed, the second greatest defeat of Rome.

It was the third consecutive victory Hannibal achieved on Italian soil (after the victorious battles of Trebia and Trasmine.

The Romans decided to engage Hannibal at Cannae, with roughly 86,000 Roman and Allied troops, in opposition to Hannibals 50000. The Romans massed their heavy infantry in a deeper formation than usual while Hannibal utilized the double-envelopment tactic. This was so successful that the Roman army was effectively destroyed as a fighting force. It is estimated that 75000 Roman or allied soldiers died that day, compared with 6000 Carthaginians. Following the Battle of Cannae, Capua and several other Italian city-states defected from the Roman Republic to Carthage. In the long term this victory was fruitless, as the Carthaginian Empire lost the war non the less.

This battle on the other hand is still taught at every military academy. As Will Durant wrote, "It was a supreme example of generalship, never bettered in history... and it set the lines of military tactics for 2,000 years"