--- title: Game of Thrones Battle of the Bastards Inspired by History description: The “Battle of the Bastards” fight scene that played out Sunday on 'Game of Thrones' was based off the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. canonical: https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-20T16:17:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:18.593Z article:section: History og:title: Here’s the Real History That Inspired the Game of Thrones ‘Battle of the Bastards’ og:description: The Battle of Cannae was between the Romans and Carthaginians og:url: https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5368a9cd56a2da/6988988c524fc03541df86fb/fa61b4f5e22c1782e222f541b1c7118b96af404f595245cc75fa864768fd5b79312c962d933f62a5c192b94a8afa1bd2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: fa61b4f5e22c1782e222f541b1c7118b96af404f595245cc75fa864768fd5b79312c962d933f62a5c192b94a8afa1bd2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s the Real History That Inspired the Game of Thrones ‘Battle of the Bastards’ twitter:description: The Battle of Cannae was between the Romans and Carthaginians twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5368a9cd56a2da/6988988c524fc03541df86fb/fa61b4f5e22c1782e222f541b1c7118b96af404f595245cc75fa864768fd5b79312c962d933f62a5c192b94a8afa1bd2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s the Real History That Inspired the _Game of Thrones_ ‘Battle of the Bastards’ ## Video: 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Episode 9 Preview (HBO) [Watch (HLS stream): 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Episode 9 Preview (HBO)](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GkxZBHbx.m3u8) (0:53)  _Published 2016-06-13. Watch the preview for season 6, episode 9 of 'Game of Thrones.'_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jun 20, 2016 4:17 PM UTC  Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jun 20, 2016 4:17 PM UTC The bloody “[Battle of the Bastards](http://time.com/4374330/game-of-thrones-battle-of-the-bastards-review/)” fight scene that played out on Sunday night’s action-packed [_Game of Thrones_ episode](http://time.com/4374517/twitter-game-of-thrones-death-ramsay-bolton/) was based off of a real-life Roman war. Miguel Sapochnik, who directed the episode, told [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/19/game-thrones-battle-director) that he looked to history for inspiration on how to best have Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton face off—specifically, the [Battle of Cannae](http://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Cannae) between the Romans and the Hannibal-led Carthaginians in 216 BCE. In that ancient battle, Carthage beat the giant Roman army in a crushing defeat in part by circling their enemies through a double envelopment. Showrunner D.B. Weiss said that aspect was used as a model in the elaborate “Battle of the Bastards” fight sequence, according to [IGN](http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/20/game-of-thrones-the-real-life-battles-that-inspired-battle-of-the-bastards). **Read More:** [_The Astounding Numbers Behind Game of Thrones’ Battle of the Bastards_](http://time.com/4372304/game-of-thrones-battle-of-the-bastards-numbers/) But what were the Romans actually fighting about back then? The significant battle during the Second Punic War was fought near the ancient village of Cannae, which was about 300 miles south of Rome. The village controlled the approaches to southern Italy and had a granary key to supplying food to Romans, according to [Dickinson College Commentaries.](http://dcc.dickinson.edu/nepos-hannibal-essays/4) [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) The Ancient Greek historian Polybius [described](https://books.google.com/books?id=NWdiAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=cannae+battle&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVnba8z7bNAhWLaD4KHTQaAH0Q6AEIOzAG#v=onepage&q=cannae&f=false) what happened: --- > “” --- The battle is still [credited by many](http://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Cannae) as one of military history’s most significant strategic moments. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/"},"headline":"Here’s the Real History That Inspired the Game of Thrones ‘Battle of the Bastards’","datePublished":"2016-06-20T16:17:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:18.593Z","description":"The significant Battle of Cannae was between the Romans and Carthaginians","url":"https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/","keywords":["Television","History"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5368a9cd56a2da/6988988c524fc03541df86fb/fa61b4f5e22c1782e222f541b1c7118b96af404f595245cc75fa864768fd5b79312c962d933f62a5c192b94a8afa1bd2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d5368a9cd56a2da/6988988c524fc03541df86fb/fa61b4f5e22c1782e222f541b1c7118b96af404f595245cc75fa864768fd5b79312c962d933f62a5c192b94a8afa1bd2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"fa61b4f5e22c1782e222f541b1c7118b96af404f595245cc75fa864768fd5b79312c962d933f62a5c192b94a8afa1bd2","caption":"","creditText":"Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/","name":"Here’s the Real History That Inspired the Game of Thrones ‘Battle of the Bastards’"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Episode 9 Preview (HBO)","description":"Watch the preview for season 6, episode 9 of 'Game of Thrones.'","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GkxZBHbx/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-06-13T02:32:47.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GkxZBHbx.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/","duration":"PT53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4374748/battle-of-cannae-game-of-thrones/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```