Day 1203 The End of The Battle of Cannae, The End
Tuesday May 5, 2020
180 Days until the election on November 3rd
260 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
If you are familiar with Roman history you know of The Battle of Cannae. It is where Hannibal defeated the Romans. Hannibal left Carthage marched across the north of Africa through Spain and Gaul down into Italy. Hannibal had a diverse army. They didn’t speak the same language. I think there were four different language spoken within his army. He also had elephants. This may seem like a great idea until you realize that in battle elephants get scared and run. Usually, they turn and run, stomping whomever is in their way.
The Romans on the other hand had a disciplined well trained fighting force. The Roman army practiced their advancement formations and fighting strategies in huge covered thatched roof spaces. When they fought the Greeks they were ready. The Greeks saw battle as a glorious thing in which each army met on a one another on a huge open field. The Greeks had 21 foot spears. They would join their shields together forming little notches where the shield butted together. They would line up six deep and this massive block of men would march forward. The Romans learned early on that in battle you want a short sword so that you can stand closer together. The Greeks advanced and the Romans crouched down and chopped at their ankles. It is said that Rome “shortened it sword and gained an empire.”
When the Romans went to meet Hannibal they had their army. They had numbers on their side 86,000 to 50,000. They were confident. They were ready. Cannae is a flat plain by the sea. Mountains on one side, ocean on the other. It’s narrower than the usual field of battle that the Romans had fought on before. They lined up deeper than usual. Hannibal, his army arrayed across the plain waited. The Romans advanced. The center gave and the Romans pushed on. Then the center no longer gave it stopped. The sides had held and they swooped in from the back to seal the Romans in a box. There was no escape.
Then the slaughter began.
The Romans were so tightly packed that they could not swing their swords, short as they were.
Bodies were piled high. Blood was ankle deep. Every once in awhile the Carthaginian rank opened up and a few got out. That was only because the Carthaginians couldn’t get in any closer to kill without letting a few out.
Those few and the ones who had stayed guarding the camp survived.
It is one of the most studied battles in history. It was the largest defeat Rome ever faced. It wasn’t until WWI and the Battle of the Somme that numbers like that were seen again.
That’s over two thousand years.
We are getting ready to see it again. In this country.
The modeling on the number of dead from Covid-19 in this country was 60,000 to 78,000 by August 1, 2020. Not any more.
It’s now 148,000.
Why?
The modeling was based on self quarantining. We’ve decided not to do that. We will die. Maybe not you, but your fellow countryman or woman or child.
88,000 more will die.
By August 1.
With no end in sight.
I wish Jim Morrison’s words were true in this case …
“This is the end, My only friend. The End.”
But it’s not. Many more will now die.
Meanwhile the president and his son-in-law play Good Ship Lollipop. Swinging their wooden swords and holding their paper hats on their heads.
It’s out there. It’s waiting and we are marching out to meet it. Totally unprepared and defenseless. We will lose more to Covid than the Romans lost at Cannae, and that’s just in the increase between now and August 1 due to our not staying home.
180 Days until the election on November 3rd
260 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS Me and Covid (or am I at Ben and Jerry’s HQ?)
Each day, a little darker.