http://www.historynet.com/the-ghosts-of-cannae-hannibal-and-the-darkest-hour-of-the-roman-republic.htm From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:25:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://www.historynet.com/the-ghosts-of-cannae-hannibal-and-the-darkest-hour-of-the-roman-republic.htm#comment-463435 John Merkatatis Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:09:17 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13682693#comment-463435 I think that the expression "Hannibal's double envelopment" is not accurate; the Athenian general Miltiades used this tactics in the battle of Marathon for the first time in recorded history;it is a classical tactics of absorption where the centre retreats but it doesn't break and the wings defeat the enemy wings and achieve encirclement. Hannibal was a copier here and as a well read man had studied the previous generals who had used the double envelopement,-Miltiades in Marathon(490 BC)Xanthippos the Spartan general who destroyed the Roman legions which had landed in Africa in the battle of Tynis in255 BC(First Punic War), Pyrros who defeated the Romans in Heracleia(280 BC). It appears that "double envelopement" is applied in two ways:absortion(Marathon Cannae) or "pincer movement"-pinning down the enemy centre and the cavalry attacks the enemy wings ,destroys them and converge behind the centre . Scipio Africanus favours double envelopment in combination with oblique attack. Alfred von Schlieffen in his plan for the attack in the West in 1914 favours the principle of the revolving doors(the deeper the French get into the Saar the more successful our attack will be through Belgium and Northern France.) I think that the expression "Hannibal's double envelopment" is not accurate; the Athenian general Miltiades used this tactics in the battle of Marathon for the first time in recorded history;it is a classical tactics of absorption where the centre retreats but it doesn't break and the wings defeat the enemy wings and achieve encirclement.
Hannibal was a copier here and as a well read man had studied the previous generals who had used the double envelopement,-Miltiades in Marathon(490 BC)Xanthippos the Spartan general who destroyed the Roman legions which had landed in Africa in the battle of Tynis in255 BC(First Punic War), Pyrros who defeated the Romans in Heracleia(280 BC).
It appears that "double envelopement" is applied in two ways:absortion(Marathon Cannae) or "pincer movement"-pinning down the enemy centre and the cavalry attacks the enemy wings ,destroys them and converge behind the centre .
Scipio Africanus favours double envelopment in combination with oblique attack.
Alfred von Schlieffen in his plan for the attack in the West in 1914 favours the principle of the revolving doors(the deeper the French get into the Saar the more successful our attack will be through Belgium and Northern France.)

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