Cannae was an almost perfectly Executed Battle, but Hannibal Still lost the War because the Romans set aside their arrogance, employed the Fabian Strategy, went after The Carthaginian Cities and Reinforcements in Spain.
They defeated Hannibal over time without directly engaging him until they were outright winning the War.
Yes, Victor Hanson writes about Cannae-—the most interesting thing is that Hannibal did something almost impossible to do: he staged an orderly withdrawal without trained troops.
On a larger geographic scale, it’s what Sam Houston vs Santa Anna and George Washington after Brooklyn Heights did.
The two classic strategies were created. The double em elopment was used by the Russians in WWII against the Germans, but only succeed by the German high command demanding a ‘stand at all costs’ strategy. Shattered the Eastern Front for the Germans.
The second was that an exposed ‘tail’ of an army is highly vulnerable. Hannibal at the head was winning, or at least not losing. But by severing the tail, it cut off the head.
That's how the Coalition wound up beating Napoleon, too.
Good book out that tells “the rest of the story.”
The Ghost’s of Cannae.
It tells what happened to the abandoned soldiers that were lead into that famous loss. Scipio Africanus comes along... and well, that is the rest of the story.