The Battle of Cannae was fought on 2 August 216 BCE between the Roman Republic and Carthage during the Second Punic War. The Carthaginian army, commanded by Hannibal Barca, achieved one of the most famous victories in ancient military history by surrounding and destroying a much larger Roman army. The battle became famous for Hannibal’s use of double envelopment, in which the Roman army was attacked from the front while its flanks and rear were gradually surrounded. The resulting destruction was one of the worst military disasters in Roman history. ...

The Battle of Gaugamela was fought on 1 October 331 BCE between the army of Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, and the forces of the Persian king Darius III. Alexander’s victory destroyed the main field army of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and opened the way for the Macedonian conquest of the Persian heartland. The battle is considered one of the greatest victories of Alexander’s career and one of the most important battles of the ancient world. ...

The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the English army, commanded by King Harold II, and the Norman army led by William, Duke of Normandy. William’s victory resulted in the Norman conquest of England and fundamentally transformed the country’s political, social, linguistic, and cultural development. Background The Battle of Hastings was the decisive military engagement of the Norman Conquest of England. The conflict began with the death of King Edward the Confessor on 5 January 1066. Edward had no surviving children, creating a succession crisis over the English throne. ...

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 in present-day Belgium between the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte and the allied forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington, supported later in the day by the Prussian army under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Napoleon’s defeat ended his attempt to regain power in Europe and brought the Napoleonic Wars to a final conclusion. Background The Battle of Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Hundred Days, the brief period in 1815 during which Napoleon returned to power after his exile. ...