Editing Battle of Cannae (section)

=== Status in military history ===
Cannae is as famous for Hannibal's [[military tactics|tactics]] as it is for the role it played in [[Military history of ancient Rome|Roman history]]. Not only did Hannibal inflict a defeat on the Roman Republic in a manner unrepeated for over a century until the lesser-known [[Battle of Arausio]], but the battle also has acquired a significant reputation in military history. As military historian [[Theodore Ayrault Dodge]] wrote:

{{blockquote|Few battles of ancient times are more marked by ability... than the battle of Cannae. The position was such as to place every advantage on Hannibal's side. The manner in which the far from perfect Hispanic and Gallic foot was advanced in a wedge in [[echelon formation|echelon]]... was first held there and then withdrawn step by step, until it had reached the converse position... is a simple masterpiece of battle tactics. The advance at the proper moment of the African infantry, and its wheel right and left upon the flanks of the disordered and crowded Roman legionaries, is far beyond praise. The whole battle, from the Carthaginian standpoint, is a consummate piece of art, having no superior, few equal, examples in the history of war.<ref>Theodore Ayrault Dodge, ''Hannibal'' (New York: Perseus Publishing, 2004), pp. 378–379.</ref>}}

[[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".<ref>Will Durant, ''The Story of Civilization'', vol. III (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944), p. 51.</ref>

Hannibal's [[double envelopment]] at Cannae is often viewed as one of the greatest battlefield maneuvers in history, and is cited as the first successful use of the [[pincer movement]] within the [[Western world]] to be recorded in detail.<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Neill |first=Timothy R. |url=http://home.comcast.net/~8cv/references/rotr-handbook.pdf |title=Reconnaissance on the Rappahannock Field Manual |page=65 |access-date=July 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930221705/http://home.comcast.net/~8cv/references/rotr-handbook.pdf |archive-date=September 30, 2015}}</ref>