In other words, what we know for sure is entirely limited, and all the rest is basically opinion.

Rome, on the other hand, lost—suffering on that one day more battle deaths than the United States during the entire course of the war in Vietnam, suffering more dead soldiers than any other army on any single day of combat in the entire course of Western military history.

Polybius managed to attach himself to the clan and person of Scipio Aemilianus, grandson of one of the two losing consuls at Cannae,

That’s the way it is with Appian; things that appear ridiculous on average just might have happened, so they cannot be entirely dismissed.