Battle of Dertosa i.e. the ig-Cannae

[Argeus the Paladin]

Just found out about this battle today and noted of the incredible irony: After Hannibal had almost crushed the Romans' backbone with the double envelopment tactic in Cannae, this disgrace happened to the Carthaginians when Hasdrubal tried to imitate him and epically failed, perhaps changed the course of the war forever.

Thoughts? As for me, I was rather intrigued - Hasdrubal had elephants, which are the perfect cavalry mincer, and he could not rout the Roman cavalry wing.

[hellheaven1987]

It seems the experienced Roman cavalries and lack of better control of Carthage center were the two factors that saved Roman. Without routing Roman cavalries Libyan infantries could not outflank Roman infantries, and that process took too long that Carthage center was broken before that. Similarly, Hannibal actually pulled back his center slowly without a panick retreat, while Hasdrubal did not do such thing (perhaps because it was difficult to do so, and Hannibal, during Cannae, was effectively only command central line) but prefer his two Libyan infantries formations on two sides pushed the enemy back then outflank the Roman center. Such action exhausted his Libyan infantries before the final push could not commit.