Part 8 (2/2)

The third line thus exposed met a foe which had thought only of pursuit, and which the surprise put to flight. It thus abandoned itself to the action of the elephants, horses and the light infantry who ma.s.sacred the fugitives.

Hamilcar killed six thousand men, captured two thousand and lost practically n.o.body. It was a question as to whether he had lost a single man, since there had been no combat.

In the battle of Lake Trasimenus, the Carthaginians lost fifteen hundred men, nearly all Gauls; the Romans fifteen thousand and fifteen thousand prisoners. The battle raged for three hours.

At Zama, Hannibal had twenty thousand killed, twenty thousand prisoners; the Romans two thousand killed. This was a serious struggle in which Hannibal's third line alone fought. It gave way only under the attack on its rear and flank by the cavalry.

In the battle of Cynoscephalae, between Philip and Flaminius, Philip pressed Flaminius with his phalanx thirty-two deep. Twenty maniples took the phalanx from behind. The battle was lost by Philip. The Romans had seven hundred killed; the Macedonians eighty thousand, and five thousand prisoners.

At Pydna, Aemilius Paulus against Perseus, the phalanx marched without being stopped. But gaps occurred from the resistance that it encountered. Hundreds penetrated into the gaps in the phalanx and killed the men embarra.s.sed with their long pikes. They were effective only when united, abreast, and at shaft's length. There was frightful disorder and butchery; twenty thousand killed, five thousand captured out of forty-four thousand engaged! The historian does not deem it worth while to speak of the Roman losses.

After the battle of Aix against the Teutons, Marius surprised the Teutons from behind. There was frightful carnage; one hundred thousand Teutons and three hundred Romans killed. [18]

In Sulla's battle of Chaeronea against Archelaus, a general of Mithridates, Sulla had about thirty thousand men, Archelaus, one hundred and ten thousand. Archelaus was beaten by being surprised from the rear. The Romans lost fourteen men, and killed their enemies until worn out in pursuit.

The battle of Orchomenus, against Archelaus, was a repet.i.tion of Chaeronea.

Caesar states that his cavalry could not fight the Britons without greatly exposing itself, because they pretended flight in order to get the cavalry away from the infantry and then, das.h.i.+ng from their chariots, they fought on foot with advantage.

A little less than two hundred veterans embarked on a boat which they ran aground at night so as not to be taken by superior naval forces.

They reached an advantageous position and pa.s.sed the night. At the break of day, Otacilius dispatched some four hundred hors.e.m.e.n and some infantry from the Alesio garrison against them. They defended themselves bravely; and having killed some, they rejoined Caesar's troops without having lost a single man.

In Macedonia Caesar's rear-guard was caught by Pompey's cavalry at the pa.s.sage of the Genusus River, the banks of which were quite steep.

Caesar opposed Pompey's cavalry five to seven thousand strong, with his cavalry of six hundred to one thousand men, among which he had taken care to intermingle four hundred picked infantrymen. They did their duty so well that, in the combat that followed, they repulsed the enemy, killed many, and fell back upon their own army without the loss of a single man.

In the battle of Thapsus in Africa, against Scipio, Caesar killed ten thousand, lost fifty, and had some wounded.

In the battle under the walls of Munda in Spain, against one of Pompey's sons, Caesar had eighty cohorts and eight thousand hors.e.m.e.n, about forty-eight thousand men. Pompey with thirteen legions had sixty thousand troops of the line, six thousand cavalry, six thousand light infantry, six thousand auxiliaries; in all, about eighty thousand men.

The struggle, says the narrator, was valiantly kept up, step by step, sword to sword. [19]

In that battle of exceptional fury, which hung for a long time in the balance, Caesar had one thousand dead, five hundred wounded; Pompey thirty-three thousand dead, and if Munda had not been so near, scarcely two miles away, his losses would have been doubled. The defensive works of Munda were constructed from dead bodies and abandoned arms.

In studying ancient combats, it can be seen that it was almost always an attack from the flank or rear, a surprise action, that won battles, especially against the Romans. It was in this way that their excellent tactics might be confused. Roman tactics were so excellent that a Roman general who was only half as good as his adversary was sure to be victorious. By surprise alone they could be conquered. Note Xanthippe,--Hannibal--the unexpected fighting methods of the Gauls, etc.

Indeed Xenophon says somewhere, ”Be it agreeable or terrible, the less anything is foreseen, the more does it cause pleasure or dismay. This is nowhere better ill.u.s.trated than in war where every surprise strikes terror even to those who are much the stronger.”

But very few fighters armed with cuira.s.s and s.h.i.+eld were killed in the front lines.

Hannibal in his victories lost almost n.o.body but Gauls, his cannon-fodder, who fought with poor s.h.i.+elds and without armor.

Nearly always driven in, they fought, nevertheless, with a tenacity that they never showed under any other command.

Thucydides characterizes the combat of the lightly armed, by saying: ”As a rule, the lightly armed of both sides took to flight.” [20]

In combat with closed ranks there was mutual pressure but little loss, the men not being at liberty to strike in their own way and with all their force.

Caesar against the Nervii, saw his men, who in the midst of the action had instinctively closed in ma.s.s in order to resist the ma.s.s of barbarians, giving way under pressure. He therefore ordered his ranks and files to open, so that his legionaries, closed in ma.s.s, paralyzed and forced to give way to a very strong pressure, might be able to kill and consequently demoralize the enemy. And indeed, as soon as a man in the front rank of the Nervii fell under the blows of the legionaries, there was a halt, a falling back. Following an attack from the rear, and a melee, the defeat of the Nervii ensued. [21]

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