Vergellus
Vergellus a rivulet or torrent, which crossed the field of battle of Cannae. It is not indeed mentioned by either Livy or Polybius in their circumstantial accounts of the battle, but it is noticed by both Florus and Valerius Maximus in connection with a story that seems to have been current among the Romans, that its course was choked up by the dead bodies of the slain, to such an extent that the Carthaginian troops crossed over them as a bridge. (Flor. 2.6.18;> V. Max. 9.2, Ext. § 2.) The same incident is alluded to by other writers, but without mentioning the name of the stream. (Sil. Ital. 8.668; Lucian, Dial. Mort. 12.2.) The stream meant is probably a rivulet which falls into the Aufidus on its right bank between Cannae and Canusium, and is wholly dry in summer.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.