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Olive trees,
olive trees, olive trees and, again, olive trees. And silence. And a
cobalt-blue sky, the colour it probably was on that August 2,
216 B.C. when was fought one of the greatest
and most famous battles of the
antiquity, which was to determine supremacy on the Mediterranean
between the two greatest
powers of the time: Rome and Carthage.
Here, Annibale annihilated the Roman legions of Lucio Emilio Paolo and Gaio
Terenzio Varrone,
involved in the second Punic war. Here, from what has been written, an
impetuous wind helped the Carthaginian condottiere by blowing in the eyes
of his enemies gusts of very light dust which blinded them. Here met,
according to estimates, 140 thousand men and around 60 thousands died (of
which 40 thousands were Roman), including Consul Lucio Emilio Paolo. Here shined the tactical and
strategic genius of Annibale, one of the most
famous condottieri of all times.
But here where? In a place that is for
many only a toponym in history books, but which, on the contrary, still
creates intense emotions and evocative fantasies, keeping unaltered, in
its essential elements, the scenario of a most renowned battle: the river,
lower Ofanto, the battle plain stretching out of
sight,
the windy Volturno, the blinding reflection of the sun during
warm summers, the stronghold of the citadel where in vain two thousand
fleeing Roman soldiers looked for escape, and the surrounding hills and
the treacherous valleys, which facilitated the tactic of encirclement
carried out by Annibale, and the routes that led
both armies to the theatre of this unprecedented massacre.
Yet, this
piece of land in Puglia between Canosa and
Barletta, though it can be defined as historical, has been for centuries
enveloped by a veil of forgetfulness, and its historical and
archaeological value has slowly been brought to light only
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Photo -
Ruins of Canne della Battaglia
in
the nineteenth century, thanks to the interest
of European travellers: English, French and German and, in the
twentieth-century, to archaeological excavations, still taking
place.
This is how re-emerged the very long historical adventure
of a land of which the first forms of establishment are referenced around
the 5th millennium B.C. Of
the epic battle, little
remains from an archaeological point of view. On the West side of the
hill, at the end of the route among the very interesting rubbles of the
Roman and medieval citadel, it is remembered by a column of granite, three
meters high, found during the first excavations, on which base there are
two inscriptions. One by Tito Livio:
No
other people would have resisted such ruin
and
the other by
Polibio:
They were men of courage and worthy of Rome.
Now, this whole area is an archaeological park of great
interest, with testimonies
of the Neolithic and medieval periods, as well as the Byzantine
and Swabian periods. The excavations have
brought to light the remains of Roman walls and houses. On the hill of San
Mercurio, are the rubbles of the basilica, the
castle and the medieval walls. An
"Antiquarium" holds many artefacts
that allow visitors to relive
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Photo - Plains
of Canne della Battaglia
the life of the centro daunio from
prehistory to medieval times: from the six sections where is organized the
expository route, the first five are in chronological order,
and
the last one is dedicated to the
presence of Annibale in Italy during the second
Punic war, with models that reconstruct the Canne area at
the time of the battle. There are vases and
personal ornaments of the iron
age; a Corinthian helmet of
the VI century A.C.; numerous archaeological finds originating from the
cave tombs of Canne Antenisi and Canne Fontanella; very rich testimonies of
late antiquity to the medieval age; fragments of sarcophagi and worked
marble, women's jewellery in silver and bronze, very bright ceramics of
the XIII century and, a true rarity, a love cup, or courting dish, with an
erotic scene. It is really
the
Roman period that is less
represented, till now, in the fascinating "Antiquarium":
but it is sufficient to reach the famous column
of granite which
dominates the ancient, unaltered plains and look at the
boundless horizon reminiscing
of the exploits of the victorious and the defeated on that August 2, 216
A.C.
This is a meeting with history that cannot be
missed. |