Short battle of Cannae documentary: Ben Kane

[ParthianBow]

I'm in Italy at the moment, researching for the final part of my second Hannibal novel, Fields of Blood.
I visited the Cannae battlesite today, and filmed this short video. Please excuse the wind noise, my hoarse voice (have laryngitis at the mo') and the slightly grainy quality. Otherwise, enjoy!

View it here

[Nathan Ross]

Please excuse the wind noise, my hoarse voice (have laryngitis at the mo') and the slightly grainy quality.

Actually it gives it a strange sense of immediacy, like a TV news report! Partly because the hoarseness makes you sound like a particular news reporter whose name escapes me... (not Orla Guerin - Cannae was bad, but not that bad...)

[Ovid]

I like it. Good job. I always wondered what the battlefield terrain looked like today. I wonder if anyone does any excavation work there.

[Titus Manlius Verus]

I like it. Good job. I always wondered what the battlefield terrain looked like today. I wonder if anyone does any excavation work there.

Excellent video. I've wondered the same thing too, Jim.

[ParthianBow]

I know what you mean. All I could think when I was there was, how wonderful it would be to get a vast team of archaeologists to scour the whole plain until they found the exact site. Something must remain in the ground, surely! Yet I fear with things as they are in Italy, such things will never happen. The sad little museum there has almost nothing about the battle, and it no longer even charges admission (it did last year). Why this is, I have no idea, but the chap at my B&B told me (in Italian) that it was something to do with the recession. Makes no sense! And it means no money coming in even from the few tourists who come. ad:

[ParthianBow]

Writing the scene now. If you've never heard what a carnyx sounds like, listen to this YouTube video, and imagine what hundreds of them sounded like as the Romans advanced at Cannae. Blood curdling. :twisted: