the convex shape of the frontline was no mistake. with light troops in the center the higher flexibility was given. the flanks with the heavy troops did not have to move much meaning they did not have to "waste" fitness on running or charging but on fighting completly. with the flexible center that could avoid the roman heavy attack, that was like a sword steam roller, from getting their advantage and the surrounding of the horsemen this convex shape was a true masterpiece of tactical schedule. hannibal took the strength of the romans and converted it into a weakness. what a genius !!
A lot of people seem to be focusing on the ingenious tactics that Hannibal implemented, I give him credit for that as well since the three battles that I've seen so far surprised me with how well he led his armies. But the biggest surprise and admiration that I had when watching this goes to the Roman government. That unyielding spirit really resonates with me, they had 3 consecutive VERY heavy losses but did not yield the fight and albeit won the war in the end. That is harder to accomplish than winning a battle or two and shows how not everything can be won by military might, though don't get me wrong Hannibal's feats were truly out of this world as well.
Perhaps it would be good to include that the 70.000 death are according to Polybius, while most historians follow the 42600 stated by Livius. 14.000 Legionairies managed to break through the Carthaginian center and flee to Canusium.
Hannibal also put his heavy pikes on the flanks with them he could force the Romans together. You also completly miss one more fatal mistake by the Romans, they reduced the space in between the soldiers so they could get more men in(sounds good). However this gave little space to swing the sword and to maneuver and the soldiers where not trained to fight that densely packed. And once they where being pushed together even more by the Carthaginians it was impossible for them to fight.
The Carthaginians had the worst politicians of all time, refusing to support Hannibal even after the annihilation of the standing Roman army at Cannae. Rome's culture of never yielding won them the war, while the defeatist Carthage got destroyed. Rome is truly the greatest civilization to exist in human history.
pk1dyer Rome became a superpower because of it's unyielding spirit in front of overwhelming odds, that's why in my opinion, Rome is the greatest civilization on Earth. All great superpowers were minor powers once, the United States, France, United Kingdom, the Mongols, etc. What matters is how they rose to become a superpower. China is awesome, but it is the most old and pacifist civilization on Earth. The Chinese aren't remembered for wars, rather for culture and technology.
+Gamerdude1246 Though I thank you for your kind reading of history, you don't dominate a region that stretched to Iran and beyond by being simply being pacifist. The wars in China are far from forgotten, their stories just aren't well studied and passed down here, just as Rome isn't over there.
+biggieboy2510 like i said if he followed my tactics as well as his he would of won you can't win a war if you have very little to use as in population pluss the towns lost to there destruction would mean less industries and farms to use so rome loses resources and there for flexibility he needed to trap them within them selves first and carthage needed to rebuild its fleet around that time and sink alot of roman vessals trying by seartain hit and run tactics like I said if your gonna face rome wittle them down they believe they will always win so use there tenacity against them and go for there allys the captured little towns and cities not the city of rome itself go for that last deal with its allies kill them off or they will surender either way there broken on to the next and then when rome is alone and traped go in for the kill.
actually the roamns had tactics to defeat them is called defencive testudo you aint beteating that if they create a square formation and bomb you with artilery
OMG, my best friend has been yearning for a military history unit since the 6th grade! This is EXACTLY what he needs (With all the times he is youtubing >.>) can't wait to show him!
The Roman maniple formation was created specifically for fighting on mountainous Italian terrain as a direct result of the failure of the phalanx on said terrain. This was learned early on in the Republic in the Samnite Wars where they replaced the phalanx--borrowed from the Greeks--with the three line maniple, or "phalanx with joints." That is why it seems odd to say that the Romans would have preferred a fair fight on flat land, when their formations were specifically adept at hill fighting from their experience fighting other Italian city-states along the Apennine Mountains.
Impressive that Hannibal. Now I understand: - "Hannibal ad portas" And after all that 30 more years... Oh man! No wonder the Romans had such a spirit of fight and took almost every land they could reach. Great channel! Excellent work.
Some suspect the convex formation was to mitigate the effect of any skirmishers and javelins the Romen infantry might have. A bent line looks perfectly flat when neither side has an advantage In height after all.
Have you thought about making a video with the people over at Extra Credit? They are doing a history series about Justinian. You could totally do a battle recreation for one of the battles during Justinian's rule. I would love to see more people get a chance to look at your awesome content.
Congrats, Historia Civilis is undoubtedly the best channel on War! The tactics of Athenians Miltiades and Themistocles against Darius' Persians at Marathon in 490 BC are similar to Cannae, but on a smaller scale. Brilliant Arab general Khalid bin Walid in 633, employed a mix of Cannae(double envelopement) and Trebbia(cavalry force in ambush) to annihilate the Persians at Walaja. Will Durant terms Cannae "the most imitated battle in history.
Should have asked commenters to name battles since then that resemble Cannae. The Battle of the Bulge can be viewed as Cannae on a bigger field over a longer period but with the same outcome.
Great video again, I subscribed four hours before this was released and I have to say that I'm really impressed by your knowledge and your simplistic yet elegant animations. Keep it up man!
Unlike in most roman history, they didn't adapt there military strategy when confronted with Hannibal. They just kept forcing the center, falling for Hannibal trap like an novice.
Watching your video on the three stages of evolution for the Roman military, you stress the Roman cultural disposition for adapting to their weaknesses after defeats. Why then, in your opinion, was Rome so slow to change their tactics when fighting Hannibal?
A wonderful video but if I may ask, where did you get your numbers for the Roman force? The reading I've done on the battle put the total for the Roman force at between 65,0000 to 70,000, though like any ancient battle the sources disagree on the actual numbers.
how could he/they have coordinated this? totally crazy. the only theory i have is such good scouting or spies that he somehow knew exactly what formation the romans would be fighting in, and then ordering the inward charge to start from the back of the carthaginian wings as soon as they were threatened with being flanked by the roman center. thoughts on how this was so well done?
Jonathan Meyer Yeah plus Hannibal was heavily dependent on his cavalery. In all of the three battles they played a major role in defeating the moronic romans.
+Rottayok its always easy to say the other side was stupid, but in fact hannibal is brilliant and this taktik worked because he was brilliant not because the other side was stupid. Hannibal did the best in his Situation, not to mention that he was in enemys land for several years. I don't think his victory was because of the luck that his opponents were a little bit stupid. But i think you don't mean it that drastic
Mr. Gold There's no point in downplaying the Romans' foolishness, though. They could have beat Hannibal years before Zama if they followed the Fabian strategy, but chose against it instead.
and from the little I know it should have been easy to break through...cause Hannibals guys wou be spread super thin if they surrounded an army bigger tha theirs
The infantry charge of Hannibal shouldn't have had such a strong effect I'm quite surprised...cus it looks like the Romans weren't even fighting back.....plus what happened to the 10k raid party
Really awesome videos. A bit of constructive criticism, the piano music is kind of distracting. Something that melts into the background a bit more would be better, just my opinion.
If memory serves, Hannibal was at one point, encamped outside of Rome, which had no real hope of defending itself if he attacked, but he decided not to. Anyone know if I'm remembering correctly or why he didn't attack?
Rome definitely had a hope of defending itself. Hannibal decided that he couldn't win that battle yet, and decided to wait for Carthage to send support that never came.
He didn't have proper siege equipment and was cautious to avoid being encircled or surrounded But then again as you say he had Rome at his mercy and the great city never was built for a siege-had Hannibal attacked Rome and held it to ransom history could be so different
I saw a weak front line, why were the Romans not able to simply push through and encircle the Carthagenians with Romes MASSIVE middle force? Is this because their two leaders were gone, or was there another reason for this seeming incompetence?
+partytor11 Because the never actually broke through the middle, the carthagenian center was actually pulling back little by little which made the romans over extend, and when the romans had over extended too far they pushed in
+partytor11 It is hard to push through a line giving way. Msot of the time you push through when the enemy is broken and starting to flee. But since the carthagians were fighting and giving ground they fought on their own terms and thus they wouldn't break. Also, most people are fighjting not to die so even if romans were gaining ground the soldiers would advance slowly as to not die themselves. It is like in football/soccer; when you leave a weak spot and you know it is a weak spot, it stops being weak because you can use it to your advantage.
Put all cav to the left, move closer to the river, and use spear infantry to deal with the right cav with no option to maneuver due to the river main army blocking left and right of that side. Giving the Cav on the left side even numbers, and use javelin troops to harass charging cav left and right. Break through center create a corridor and move in the reserves to swing left and right boxing them in. And yeh politicians just so *sigh*
Amazing....Im angry on this roman strategy, so bad idea...how can 76000 roman soldiers die without killing even half of the others. My god im angry now
Hannibal was not very clever, but he fought incompetent bureaucrats and he seems like a genius by comparison. He lacked a grand vision, he had no broad view of the world, no real plan A or B or C. He could have focused on Rome and starved it to death OR he could have created a mini-Carthage and expanded it right in the middle of Italy since he dominated the country side. He did nothing. Alexander did ten times more with half the men in half the time.
Can someone explain to me what it is specifically about being encircled that gives the encircling force such a great advantage over an encircled force? This is confusing to me especially given the fact that the Romans greatly outnumbered the Carthaginians. Or perhaps if I asked it this way: If the Romans had all turned to face the encircling Carthaginians instead of all facing forward, would that have saved them from disaster? But then again, I have a hard time believing that the Romans on the outside did not turn and face their attackers as they came in.
+meflower Well the thing is that your seeing the battle here with blocks on a video and that doesnt give you the right perspective, when you have a crowd of people surrounded it means the guys in the middle cant actually fight, theyre been squashed from all directions and cant face any because its impossible to escape(specially when they are leaderless like it happen on this battle), the Carthaginians however had all their man fighting on the flanks so all men were engaged while the Romans only had the guys that were nearer to the edge of the block fighting, and in the center of the block thousands were killed by getting stomped or squashed by their own man.
+meflower The Carthaginian infantry on the flanks fought with the sarissa, essentially a long pike. They crushed the romans together in the center. A roman swordsman could not stand against the pike wall. For swordsmen to be successful against them they had to attack the blocks of pikemen in the flanks or in the back. If roman soldiers could retreat or bend off at free will when faced with a phalanx and exploit openings, they won. Tightly packed inside a pincer maneuver was the absolute worst nightmare they could possibly imagine. Roman formations needed space to fight the phalanx, and swordsmen needed space between each individual swordsman to be effective. The Carthaginians massacred them predominantly with the sarissa in this battle.
+meflower The thing is that turning outside and fighting in all directions without sacrificing cohesion requires great skill and discipline. And the Roman army at that time was not the professional army of later years. Infantry squares defending in all directions are pretty much the supreme mastery of infantry organization. Aside from that, troops are organized with purpose - the most experienced are in one position, the least experienced elsewhere. Hitting somewhere other than the frontline means that you're attacking people not meant to bear the brunt of the fighting.
"My boy Caesar would've never done this"
Best line.
Made me laugh.
I actually lol'ed at that.
To paraphrase Christopher Walken; Hannibal's art was war, and Cannae was his masterpiece.
the convex shape of the frontline was no mistake. with light troops in the center the higher flexibility was given. the flanks with the heavy troops did not have to move much meaning they did not have to "waste" fitness on running or charging but on fighting completly. with the flexible center that could avoid the roman heavy attack, that was like a sword steam roller, from getting their advantage and the surrounding of the horsemen this convex shape was a true masterpiece of tactical schedule.
hannibal took the strength of the romans and converted it into a weakness. what a genius !!
0:41 No ambushes, infantry only, flat field!
Hannibal was in the center, controlling the people there, but he was also there fighting. Perhaps it was a morale booster.
Huh, it kinda looked like Hannibal was painting Rome red at the end, there.
This happened today Aug 2nd exactly 2,200 years ago
I just love this channel.
Me too lol
maxedgardogarcia but he might go crazy
Your channel is a breath of fresh air
the only reason Rome eventually won the war is because they were mainly fighting Hannibal, not another comparable empire.
A lot of people seem to be focusing on the ingenious tactics that Hannibal implemented, I give him credit for that as well since the three battles that I've seen so far surprised me with how well he led his armies. But the biggest surprise and admiration that I had when watching this goes to the Roman government. That unyielding spirit really resonates with me, they had 3 consecutive VERY heavy losses but did not yield the fight and albeit won the war in the end. That is harder to accomplish than winning a battle or two and shows how not everything can be won by military might, though don't get me wrong Hannibal's feats were truly out of this world as well.
Perhaps it would be good to include that the 70.000 death are according to Polybius, while most historians follow the 42600 stated by Livius.
14.000 Legionairies managed to break through the Carthaginian center and flee to Canusium.
Hannibal also put his heavy pikes on the flanks with them he could force the Romans together. You also completly miss one more fatal mistake by the Romans, they reduced the space in between the soldiers so they could get more men in(sounds good). However this gave little space to swing the sword and to maneuver and the soldiers where not trained to fight that densely packed. And once they where being pushed together even more by the Carthaginians it was impossible for them to fight.
The Carthaginians had the worst politicians of all time, refusing to support Hannibal even after the annihilation of the standing Roman army at Cannae. Rome's culture of never yielding won them the war, while the defeatist Carthage got destroyed. Rome is truly the greatest civilization to exist in human history.
+Gamerdude1246 Rome, was not the greatest, the Chinese Dynasties have a more rich culture, and a lot more wars.
pk1dyer Rome became a superpower because of it's unyielding spirit in front of overwhelming odds, that's why in my opinion, Rome is the greatest civilization on Earth. All great superpowers were minor powers once, the United States, France, United Kingdom, the Mongols, etc. What matters is how they rose to become a superpower. China is awesome, but it is the most old and pacifist civilization on Earth. The Chinese aren't remembered for wars, rather for culture and technology.
As much as I hate to admit it, you're probably right. Rome didn't always have the best heroes, but they never stopped playing to win.
+Gamerdude1246 Though I thank you for your kind reading of history, you don't dominate a region that stretched to Iran and beyond by being simply being pacifist. The wars in China are far from forgotten, their stories just aren't well studied and passed down here, just as Rome isn't over there.
And then the forces of House Arryn came and saved the Romans...
oh, wrong battle
i like how the music intensifies when you say "its a disaster" at 7:10
Btw, should cover Fabian strategy, pretty sick stuff but hated by the Romans.
Hannibal is a boss lol
TheDolphins087 Hannibal is the boss of bosses. The Greatest Of All TIme.
He was a great general, but in the end he achieved nothing.
+biggieboy2510 Robb Stark looool
+biggieboy2510 like i said if he followed my tactics as well as his he would of won you can't win a war if you have very little to use as in population pluss the towns lost to there destruction would mean less industries and farms to use so rome loses resources and there for flexibility he needed to trap them within them selves first and carthage needed to rebuild its fleet around that time and sink alot of roman vessals trying by seartain hit and run tactics like I said if your gonna face rome wittle them down they believe they will always win so use there tenacity against them and go for there allys the captured little towns and cities not the city of rome itself go for that last deal with its allies kill them off or they will surender either way there broken on to the next and then when rome is alone and traped go in for the kill.
actually the roamns had tactics to defeat them is called defencive testudo you aint beteating that if they create a square formation and bomb you with artilery
Wonder what would of happened if Hannibal won the war against Rome.
Wasn't Scipio at the battle and lived to later defeat Hannibal ?
OMG, my best friend has been yearning for a military history unit since the 6th grade! This is EXACTLY what he needs (With all the times he is youtubing >.>) can't wait to show him!
The Roman maniple formation was created specifically for fighting on mountainous Italian terrain as a direct result of the failure of the phalanx on said terrain. This was learned early on in the Republic in the Samnite Wars where they replaced the phalanx--borrowed from the Greeks--with the three line maniple, or "phalanx with joints." That is why it seems odd to say that the Romans would have preferred a fair fight on flat land, when their formations were specifically adept at hill fighting from their experience fighting other Italian city-states along the Apennine Mountains.
I was waiting eagerly for this!
And I wasn't disappointed! If I had money I could throw at you I would most certainly do it! Thank you and please continue! You make these so well.
Impressive that Hannibal. Now I understand: - "Hannibal ad portas"
And after all that 30 more years... Oh man! No wonder the Romans had such a spirit of fight and took almost every land they could reach.
Great channel! Excellent work.
When did Hannibal change his last name from Barca to Lecter?
Some suspect the convex formation was to mitigate the effect of any skirmishers and javelins the Romen infantry might have. A bent line looks perfectly flat when neither side has an advantage In height after all.
Have you thought about making a video with the people over at Extra Credit? They are doing a history series about Justinian. You could totally do a battle recreation for one of the battles during Justinian's rule. I would love to see more people get a chance to look at your awesome content.
This channel is amazing!
Congratulations for your battle videos they are awesome. It would be great to see more of them.
Congrats, Historia Civilis is undoubtedly the best channel on War! The tactics of Athenians Miltiades and Themistocles against Darius' Persians at Marathon in 490 BC are similar to Cannae, but on a smaller scale. Brilliant Arab general Khalid bin Walid in 633, employed a mix of Cannae(double envelopement) and Trebbia(cavalry force in ambush) to annihilate the Persians at Walaja. Will Durant terms Cannae "the most imitated battle in history.
yet another great video!
my boy Caesar! that shit had me laughin
Another awesome video. You are my only subscription and I look forward to every video
Do the battle of Zama next! The Romans finally beating Hannibal.
Awesome vid. Keep up the good work !
Comment section flooded with kids typing "Battle of the bastards".
Should have asked commenters to name battles since then that resemble Cannae. The Battle of the Bulge can be viewed as Cannae on a bigger field over a longer period but with the same outcome.
awesome. Just love your videos. Keep on doing this stuff.
Hannibal knew how to gain victory, but he did not know how to use it
Another HC battle video, it was a good day.
Great video again, I subscribed four hours before this was released and I have to say that I'm really impressed by your knowledge and your simplistic yet elegant animations. Keep it up man!
Some things aren't shown in some videos but over all, i aprecciate this channel. Subscribed
More battle vids please! I love these!
Great series! liked and subbed
brilliant video! but you need a new microphone, sounds terrible currently.
It is a damn shame this channel gets so few views
Unlike in most roman history, they didn't adapt there military strategy when confronted with Hannibal. They just kept forcing the center, falling for Hannibal trap like an novice.
Nice-Beethoven's piano sonata no. 32
The Soviet General Zhukov used Hannibal's tactics at the battle Khalkhin Gol . Zhukov's army destroyed the Japanese Kwantung Army !!!
amazing video.
Such great videos. I have a new thing to watch
If only the senate pf Carthage was as jingoistic as Rome's history would be so different.
Great video.
Watching your video on the three stages of evolution for the Roman military, you stress the Roman cultural disposition for adapting to their weaknesses after defeats. Why then, in your opinion, was Rome so slow to change their tactics when fighting Hannibal?
Please, please, please do a series like this but about Alexander's campaign in Persia
Cannae win this battle?-Roman Consul
Very informative, thanks!
7.16 its a space invaded. Hannibal was a time traveller
really cool video. is there such video about modern war?
A wonderful video but if I may ask, where did you get your numbers for the Roman force? The reading I've done on the battle put the total for the Roman force at between 65,0000 to 70,000, though like any ancient battle the sources disagree on the actual numbers.
Was it the River Aufidius on the Romans right?
Kind of remind me the surrounding techniques of the oblique phalanx.
Zama Regia to top things off? great channel by the way
Could you please do the Battle of Zama ?
The only time when 2 legendary generals fought each other.
Would be a great addition to your series.
how could he/they have coordinated this? totally crazy. the only theory i have is such good scouting or spies that he somehow knew exactly what formation the romans would be fighting in, and then ordering the inward charge to start from the back of the carthaginian wings as soon as they were threatened with being flanked by the roman center. thoughts on how this was so well done?
Thanks for this very informative ancient battles. You've just got one subbed. ;)
Probably because people aren't interested with history these days.
After the last three videos, I'm beginning to think it wasn't a case of Hannibal being brilliant, but more a case of the Romans being complete morons.
Jonathan Meyer Yeah plus Hannibal was heavily dependent on his cavalery. In all of the three battles they played a major role in defeating the moronic romans.
Jonathan Meyer It's both
+Rottayok its always easy to say the other side was stupid, but in fact hannibal is brilliant and this taktik worked because he was brilliant not because the other side was stupid.
Hannibal did the best in his Situation, not to mention that he was in enemys land for several years. I don't think his victory was because of the luck that his opponents were a little bit stupid.
But i think you don't mean it that drastic
Mr. Gold There's no point in downplaying the Romans' foolishness, though. They could have beat Hannibal years before Zama if they followed the Fabian strategy, but chose against it instead.
Not all of them, Fabian had the right idea but was not supported
Also Caesar(later)
Battle of Zama pls
and from the little I know it should have been easy to break through...cause Hannibals guys wou be spread super thin if they surrounded an army bigger tha theirs
BEETHOVEN!
The infantry charge of Hannibal shouldn't have had such a strong effect I'm quite surprised...cus it looks like the Romans weren't even fighting back.....plus what happened to the 10k raid party
Thats pretty much how it happend. Sun Tzu would have been prowd
I looked this up after the Battle of the Bastards in GoT, and have really been enjoying these historical scenario's. Thanks for the great content.
Please do a waterloo video.
Really awesome videos. A bit of constructive criticism, the piano music is kind of distracting. Something that melts into the background a bit more would be better, just my opinion.
can you please finish what happened next? the anti climax in Hannibal's brave battle tactics.And how Rome overcame this?
Are you going to do a video on the fall of Hannibal too?
Are the numbers regarding manpower reliable?
If memory serves, Hannibal was at one point, encamped outside of Rome, which had no real hope of defending itself if he attacked, but he decided not to.
Anyone know if I'm remembering correctly or why he didn't attack?
Rome definitely had a hope of defending itself. Hannibal decided that he couldn't win that battle yet, and decided to wait for Carthage to send support that never came.
He didn't have proper siege equipment and was cautious to avoid being encircled or surrounded
But then again as you say he had Rome at his mercy and the great city never was built for a siege-had Hannibal attacked Rome and held it to ransom history could be so different
Can you please make another video about one of ceacar his victories?
I saw a weak front line, why were the Romans not able to simply push through and encircle the Carthagenians with Romes MASSIVE middle force? Is this because their two leaders were gone, or was there another reason for this seeming incompetence?
+partytor11 Because the never actually broke through the middle, the carthagenian center was actually pulling back little by little which made the romans over extend, and when the romans had over extended too far they pushed in
+partytor11
It is hard to push through a line giving way. Msot of the time you push through when the enemy is broken and starting to flee. But since the carthagians were fighting and giving ground they fought on their own terms and thus they wouldn't break. Also, most people are fighjting not to die so even if romans were gaining ground the soldiers would advance slowly as to not die themselves.
It is like in football/soccer; when you leave a weak spot and you know it is a weak spot, it stops being weak because you can use it to your advantage.
Please do the battles of Scipio Africanus!!
I`m glad I`m a better strategist than the Roman consuls were, when I play Medieval Total war.
Wasn't Scipio the older with his center infantry?
It's funny, the Athenians did the exact same thing at Marathon, albeit without cavalry.
Good videos and all but you should totally use Total War games to visualize the action!
Im waiting for Zama!
Great video.
were they using the maniple system in the roman amrmy
who records the details of these battles?
can you make the Battle of Metaurus and Battle of Zama ? love your channel
hey your patreon link doesn't work! just fyi
Put all cav to the left, move closer to the river, and use spear infantry to deal with the right cav with no option to maneuver due to the river main army blocking left and right of that side.
Giving the Cav on the left side even numbers, and use javelin troops to harass charging cav left and right.
Break through center create a corridor and move in the reserves to swing left and right boxing them in.
And yeh politicians just so *sigh*
around 4:00, is it just me or do the arrayed forces look like a face sticking out its tongue?
no Zama? well i check ur channel.
its not a disaster it's a turtle !!!!!!!!!!!
I love your vids, but by God you have to stop pronouncing cavalry as "calvary".
Amazing....Im angry on this roman strategy, so bad idea...how can 76000 roman soldiers die without killing even half of the others. My god im angry now
please do the battle of Zama!
Hannibal was not very clever, but he fought incompetent bureaucrats and he seems like a genius by comparison. He lacked a grand vision, he had no broad view of the world, no real plan A or B or C. He could have focused on Rome and starved it to death OR he could have created a mini-Carthage and expanded it right in the middle of Italy since he dominated the country side. He did nothing.
Alexander did ten times more with half the men in half the time.
Can someone explain to me what it is specifically about being encircled that gives the encircling force such a great advantage over an encircled force? This is confusing to me especially given the fact that the Romans greatly outnumbered the Carthaginians.
Or perhaps if I asked it this way: If the Romans had all turned to face the encircling Carthaginians instead of all facing forward, would that have saved them from disaster? But then again, I have a hard time believing that the Romans on the outside did not turn and face their attackers as they came in.
+meflower Well the thing is that your seeing the battle here with blocks on a video and that doesnt give you the right perspective, when you have a crowd of people surrounded it means the guys in the middle cant actually fight, theyre been squashed from all directions and cant face any because its impossible to escape(specially when they are leaderless like it happen on this battle), the Carthaginians however had all their man fighting on the flanks so all men were engaged while the Romans only had the guys that were nearer to the edge of the block fighting, and in the center of the block thousands were killed by getting stomped or squashed by their own man.
+meflower The Carthaginian infantry on the flanks fought with the sarissa, essentially a long pike. They crushed the romans together in the center. A roman swordsman could not stand against the pike wall. For swordsmen to be successful against them they had to attack the blocks of pikemen in the flanks or in the back. If roman soldiers could retreat or bend off at free will when faced with a phalanx and exploit openings, they won. Tightly packed inside a pincer maneuver was the absolute worst nightmare they could possibly imagine. Roman formations needed space to fight the phalanx, and swordsmen needed space between each individual swordsman to be effective. The Carthaginians massacred them predominantly with the sarissa in this battle.
+meflower
The thing is that turning outside and fighting in all directions without sacrificing cohesion requires great skill and discipline. And the Roman army at that time was not the professional army of later years. Infantry squares defending in all directions are pretty much the supreme mastery of infantry organization.
Aside from that, troops are organized with purpose - the most experienced are in one position, the least experienced elsewhere. Hitting somewhere other than the frontline means that you're attacking people not meant to bear the brunt of the fighting.