Battle of Canusium - Antecedents: Rome On The Offensive

Antecedents: Rome On The Offensive

Since the beginning of the Carthaginian invasion in 218 BC, Rome invested more and more resources first to protect Italy, then to regain territories lost to Hannibal. This is particularly noticeable in terms of manpower. The number of the legions grew steadily, despite the sanguinary routs suffered in the initial stage of the war (see the articles on the battles of the Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae), so that in 210 BC - the year before the clash at Canusium - Rome had 21 legions. Some engaged the Carthaginians and their allies in Sicily, Sardinia, Iberia and Greece, but most were placed in various parts of Italy, still the primary theatre of the Second Punic war.

• See a map of western Mediterranean in 218 BC, from Shepherd's Historical Atlas (1911 edition)

After their defeat at Cannae, the Romans generally followed the policy of their statesman Quintus Fabius Maximus, who taught them to avoid general confrontations with Hannibal, in order to preserve their own strength and gradually diminish his. They sought to wear him out in a series of smaller engagements and sieges (see Fabian strategy). As evidenced by the unceasing sequence of defeats (e. g. the battle of Herdonia in 212 BC), this strategy was not always followed. One of the generals who did not comply completely was Marcus Claudius Marcellus. He had distinguished himself before the Punic invasion as a conqueror of Cisalpine Gaul. He gained even more prominence in the immediate aftermath of the battle of Cannae, when he repeatedly denied Hannibal entrance to Nola, thus reducing Roman losses in Campania, where Capua defected.

Marcellus' military merits (further increased by the capture of Syracuse) earned him a place among the other seasoned commanders, such as Fabius Maximus, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Appius Claudius, whom the Roman people preferred as leaders, expecting that they would make up for the superior quality of the Carthaginian commanding staff. The Carthaginan general found it increasingly difficult to cope with such adversaries. Then in 211 BC, the Romans captured Capua, Cathage's major Italian ally. After the reconquest of Campania, Rome sent its armies to the south and east to attack the other cities that had joined Hannibal. In 210 BC Marcellus, elected consul for the fourth time, subdued several places in Samnium and Apulia, destroying their Carthaginian garrisons, and fought Hannibal in an indecisive battle at Numistro. The Romans advanced against Tarentum, the main Greek city of southern Italy. It had joined Hannibal several years earlier.

Fabius, consul in 209 BC, made the retaking Tarentum his priority. His colleague, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, and Marcellus, now a proconsul, had the task of keeping Hannibal from assisting the city. Each of the three generals had an army of two legions with their allied auxiliaries. While Fabius advanced to Tarentum, Fulvius marched into Lucania. The third army under Marcellus fought in Apulia. A fourth, not insignificant, force was ordered by Fabius to attack Hannibal's Bruttian allies.

• See a map of ancient southern Italy from Shepherd's Historical Atlas (1911 edition)