"Cannae" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... reader to judge whether "Te Deum" would be sung on that night. A Gazette Extraordinary was issued; and my brother had really some reason for his assertion, "that in conscience he could not think of comparing Cannae to this smashing defeat;" since at Cannae many brave men had refused to fly—the consul himself, Terentius Varro, amongst them; but, in the present rout, there was no Terentius ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey
... during this period, been engaged in any war of very great consequence; and their military discipline, it is generally said, was a good deal relaxed. The Roman armies which Annibal encountered at Trebi, Thrasymenus, and Cannae, were militia opposed to a standing army. This circumstance, it is probable, contributed more than any other to determine ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith
... the Mausoleum of Augustus with this mediaeval battle of Cannae is easily explained. The mausoleum had been selected by the Colonnas for their stronghold in the Campus Martius, and it was for their interest to keep it in good repair. As happens in cases of crushing defeats, when the succumbing party ...
— Pagan and Christian Rome • Rodolfo Lanciani
... words, they yet did not venture upon removing Fabius from his post, in spite of their feeling against him, but they decreed that Minucius should conduct the war, having equal powers with the dictator, a thing never before done in Rome, but which occurred shortly afterwards, after the disaster at Cannae, when Marcus Junius was dictator in the camp, and, as many members of the Senate had perished in the battle, they chose another dictator, Fabius Buteo. However, he, after enrolling the new senators, on the same day dismissed his lictors, got ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume I (of 4) • Plutarch
... the company knew so well how to feign as he. Some were seated on a wooden bench, leaning their heads on their hands, and others otherwise; and all showed great heaviness at heart. I think that when the news reached Rome of the battle of Cannae, the senators were not ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds
... West Virginia had made him the successor of General Scott, giving him command of all the United States forces, the North, by midsummer, became profoundly discouraged. Many events contributed to it. The defeat at Ball's Bluff on the Potomac, which Roscoe Conkling likened to the battle of Cannae, because "the very pride and flower of our young men were among its victims,"[812] had been followed by conspicuous incompetence at Manassas and humiliating failure on the Peninsula. Moreover, financial difficulties increased the despondency. At the outbreak of hostilities practical repudiation ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander
... moment of action they cast away their tunics and checkered cloaks (similar to the plaids of the Gals or Scottish Highlanders), and fought naked from the belt upwards, according to their custom when they meant to conquer or die. Of five thousand five hundred men that the victory of Cannae cost Hannibal, four thousand were Gauls. All Cisalpine Gaul was moved; enthusiasm was at its height; new bands hurried off to recruit the army of the Carthaginian who, by dint of patience and genius, brought Rome ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume I. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... brigands, besides making a dozen prisoners. When I say "we" I mean my companions, for, having no weapon, I had discreetly remained with the volunteers. The scene of this gallant exploit was on the classic battle-field of Cannae. This captain, who was not the friend I had joined the day after my brigand adventure, was a most plucky and dashing cavalry officer, and was well seconded by his men, who were all Piedmontese and of a very different ...
— Stories By English Authors: Italy • Various
... flowing from his shoulders, had risen in his place, surrounded by all the illustrations of Roman glory, and declared that advancing Hannibal was just, and that Carthage should be dealt with on terms of peace? What would have been thought, if, after the battle of Cannae, a senator had denounced every levy of the Roman people, every expenditure of its treasure, every appeal to the old ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine
... the weaker party, however great the inequality of naval strength. It is not therefore inconsistent with the general control of the sea, or of a decisive part of it, by the Roman fleets, that the Carthaginian admiral Bomilcar in the fourth year of the war, after the stunning defeat of Cannae, landed four thousand men and a body of elephants in south Italy; nor that in the seventh year, flying from the Roman fleet off Syracuse, he again appeared at Tarentum, then in Hannibal's hands; nor that Hannibal sent despatch vessels to Carthage; nor even that, at last, he withdrew in ...
— The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 • A. T. Mahan
... more strongly to go on with his plan of invading Italy, when he learnt the result of the battle of Cannae; he immediately formed an alliance with Hannibal, and engaged to invade Italy with 200 sail of ships, and plunder its eastern coasts: in return for this service he was to retain all the islands in the Adriatic, ...
— Robert Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 • William Stevenson
... massive make, who in spite of failures past, Like a sailor true, has nailed light-blue as his colours to the mast. The Consul bold in days of old was thanked by the Patres hoary, When, in spite of luck, he displayed his pluck on the field of Cannae gory; So whate'er the fate of the Cambridge eight, let Cambridge men agree, Their voice to raise in their Captain's praise with thrice and three times three. Then Number Five is all alive, and for hard work always ready, As to and fro his broad ...
— Sagittulae, Random Verses • E. W. Bowling |
