Historical battles

Hannibal's first major victory in Italy: he lured a Roman army across the icy Trebia at dawn, then crushed it with a concealed force under his brother Mago.

Hannibal's masterpiece: a deliberate withdrawal of his center drew the Romans in while his wings and cavalry closed a perfect double envelopment, annihilating a far larger army.

The battle that ended the Second Punic War: Scipio Africanus countered Hannibal's elephants and turned the Numidian cavalry against him, defeating Carthage on its own soil.

Antiquity's largest ambush: Hannibal hid his army in the lakeside hills and destroyed Flaminius's marching legions in the morning fog.

Leonidas and roughly 300 Spartans with allied Greeks held the narrow pass against Xerxes' vast army for three days before being encircled by a mountain path.

The decisive Greek land victory that ended the Persian invasion, where the Spartan-led hoplite phalanx broke Mardonius's army.

Antigonid Macedon under Doson defeated Cleomenes III, ending Sparta's last bid to dominate the Peloponnese with its reformed army.

Alexander's first great victory in Asia, won by an immediate, aggressive cavalry charge across the river into the Persian satraps' line.

Alexander defeated a far larger army by driving straight at Darius III, whose flight from the field decided the battle.

The decisive battle that ended the Achaemenid Empire: Alexander drew the Persian line apart and charged a gap toward Darius.

Cambyses II of Persia defeated Pharaoh Psamtik III at the eastern gateway of Egypt, beginning Persian rule over the Nile.

Inaros's Libyan-Egyptian revolt, backed by an Athenian fleet, defeated the Persian satrap Achaemenes (killed in the battle) before Persia crushed the rising by 454 BC.

Ptolemy I held the Nile against the regent Perdiccas and Alexander's royal Macedonian army; the failed crossings cost thousands of lives and Perdiccas was murdered by his own officers, securing Ptolemaic Egypt.

While Alexander was in Asia, his regent Antipater crushed the Spartan revolt of Agis III — the last stand of Spartan independence.

Octavian's legions took Alexandria after Actium; Antony and Cleopatra died and Ptolemaic Egypt fell to Rome.

Trajan's two campaigns conquered Dacia through engineering, fortified camps and control of the mountain terrain, commemorated on Trajan's Column.

At the First Battle of Tapae in 88 AD, the Roman general Tettius Iulianus defeated King Decebalus at the mountain gateway into Dacia during Domitian's war.

A renewed battle at Tapae during Trajan's first Dacian war as Rome forced the pass toward the Dacian heartland.

The Dacian capital fell after its water supply was cut; King Decebalus took his own life rather than be captured, ending Dacian independence.