Darth Roach

They say Crassus was intentionally betrayed. But how can we know that is true? We can assume, but you cannot be as sure as you are.

Cornelius

The Samnites haven't been mentioned yet. They were a constant threat to Rome during the 4th century BC, and notoriously humiliated the Romans at the Caudine Forks in 321 BC. Even in the 1st century BC the Samnites were a threat, first during the Social War until Sulla invaded and laid waste to Samnium, and later in the Sullan Civil War when they almost defeated Sulla in the battle of the Colline Gate. He did nasty things to them afterwards.

gaius valerius

Uhm... I'm only arguing the improbability of the tale of Dio over that of Plutarch. The question of betrayal or just a deal gone bad wasn't really the point I was making, but a given, who knows? We can't be a 100% sure due to a lack of sources...

Guaporense

Carthage probably killed more Romans, much more in proportion of the total population.

Hannibal's invasion of Italy is even reflected in the archaeological record in the coin hoards: people were hoarding coins due to the devastation of the war! Never before or after such devastation was inflicted to Rome in their Italian homelands.

Lazyman

He means in total numbers of men killed, I doubt any ancient power can match what the Sassanids were able to do , the Roman-Persian wars were among the most destructive in history .

Sumrbrez

The battlefield casualties are always over exaggerated by the winning side to make them look better. This is a tradition that has gone on since the beginning of civilization.
When the Egyptian Pharoeh put together an army to do battle with the Hittites, they were defeated by the Hittites and driven back to Egypt. But the Egyptian historian recorded that their glorious leader and his army had a great victory over the Hittites. It was only after the Hittite language was finally translated that it was discovered that the Hittites actually had won the battle.
This tradition has carried on to the present day when Wiki-leaks reported that the US army "left out" some 110,000 Iraqi casualties in the recent Iraq war.

Darth Roach

Mind you, there were only 3 (albeit devastating - mostly the second, of course) Punic wars, and they were between two much smaller empires. The wars between the Sassanids and Romans were many. I am pretty sure the Pyrrhic victory of 602-627 ranks as one of Rome's hardest won victories, ever. Almost matching the second Punic war, because in the 7th century Anatolia was one of the Roman heartlands as well.

Mandate of Heaven

Hannibal also was in Italy alot longer than the Germans or Gauls.