ITT: Fucked up moments in ancient/medieval wars

basic as fuck, but cannae. Hannibal wins such a big battle, so completely, that he can't possibly take prisoners. So for hours, his army is slaughtering these penned in men, the brave and the veterans crammed in alongside the panicked conscripts, everyone being cut down by javelins, stones, arrows, swords and spears. These Romans are screwing each other over by backing away from the press of their enemies, but no one wants to die for nothing and the ranks are in such pandemonium that organizing an attack is next to impossible, even if such an attack had a chance to succeed at all. Those trapped in the center by the crush of men can't even raise their weapons and shields, and the heat is stifling. The slaughter is gradual at first, and takes the good part of a day. but at a certain point the panic reaches a boiling point: its been hours with no escape and no possibility of surrender, thousands have died ahead of you, nothing you brought with you will help you in this situation, you're dehydrated, and the air reeks of death, blood, shit, piss and fear. The carthaginian army finally presses in like the tide and the carnage reaches its peak, several hundreds of men killed every minute as the entire remaining force of ~60k men is obliterated with barely any resistance.

all because some west pointer with an ego wanted to wave his dick in the other consul's face that day.

man is this is true it would make it understandable why the Romans would want to genocide carthage after winning

>30,000 civilians eaten
Victory at all costs

Hannibal's campaign in Italy had many other cruel highlights. Remember he razed most of Magna Graecia when they locked him there for actual years.

Trasimene, Trebia, the African campaign where Scipio's dad and uncle died, the whole thing was grueling and traumatic.

The santification of god's name :^)

Pretty much any siege in the Ancient and Medieval world
>Reports of red-hot sand being poured on Alexander the Great's troops from above, sneaking into their armor like embers and can't be removed
>Women and children being sent out of Alesia to die of starvation to prevent a waste of valuable food resources
>People eating human flesh and boot leather in the siege of Acre

Sieges suck

>What's Aleppo?

don't forget

>mythriadic wars
>Roman soldiers being literally gassed with chemical agents in tunnels, fighting literal underground battles in them, dying buried alive or crushed or even run down by a bull let loose

>Ghengis Khan's conquests
>throwing bloated corpses, venomous animals like snakes and scorpions, pots of shit and every fetid, disgusting thing imaginable over the walls for months

Was going to post that.

During the Mythridatian wars a general of Marius arrived at Troy and proclaimed:

>Athens invests the last of its power and invades sicily
>the army watches the navy lose in the bay
>have to abandon all the wounded who are begging not to be left behind
>forced marches away so hard they rush for water while getting pelted with javelins
>whatever is left is herded together and exposed to the sun till death