In 216 BCE, Hannibal Barca of Carthage defeated Rome at the Battle of Cannae. After three devastating defeats to Hannibal, Rome had lost twenty percent of its adult male population, and one-third of its Senate. The Roman Republic chose to continue fighting, and eventually it triumphed in the Second Punic War.
In his lecture to Chinese students Jiang Xueqin explains that it was the three distinguishing characteristics of Roman culture and society — piety, liberty, and “res publica” — that would allow Rome to triumph over the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians.
