Need some information about Mantinea 207 BCE

[kistlerj]

Do you see parallels between Bagradas and Cannae? (as an aside, did elephants play a role at Cannae? I have seen arguement on this topic.)

It is unlikely that there was more than one elephant at Cannae, that would be Surus, and Hannibal was riding him. I am familiar with one Roman source that says the Romans drove a bunch of elephants into the river at Cannae, but no other sources mention this. It seems that all but Surus died within a week or two of the Battle of the Trebbia. Hannibal did get a shipment of elephant reinforcements via ship from Carthage a few years after Cannae. I suspect that if Hannibal had possessed several elephants at Cannae he certainly would have deployed them against the key Roman cavalry which had to flee before the envelopment could begin.

Although Xanthippus strategy and Hannibal's you mention do both involve encompassing the enemy, Bagradas and Cannae are rather different. I see Cannae as an improvement on Hannibal's father's battle against the Mercenaries in the Truceless War. Hamilcar set ambushes or strong units on the sides of the battlefield, left a weak center, and feigned a center retreat. The mercenaries pursued, and were soon encompassed and destroyed. Hannibal's strategem at Cannae seems almost identical, just executed perfectly against an even better enemy.