> The Romans, at Cannae, lost 50,000 killed out of 80,000 men in a few hours. That is a much higher death rate than any of our bloody Civil War battles. Such losses were not uncommon in ancient warfare.
There's actually a good reason for that: it was face-to-face. When Side A met Side B in combat, they'd hack away at each other until Side A decided to call it quits. But Side B would be *right* *there*, and would hack 'em to bits when Side A turned to run. You simply couldn't escape the victor.
Then long range weapons became the order of the day. When Side A decided they were losing, they could turn and run and dodge behind trees and such much easier, since the enemy was now at some distance.
Especially when, as at Cannae, the loser managed to get himself surrounded, on an open plain, by an army about half his numbers. Quite a feat, that.
A great many men usually escaped from ancient battles, since the losers would usually divest themselves of their arms and armor, making them much faster than the victors. A guy toting 30 to 50 pounds just can't catch a guy who isn't.
Thus the importance of cavalry in killing as many of the runners as possible.