The CDPD Public Domain Collection for CDTV 3/CDPDIII.bin/books/plutarch/fabius

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                                      75 AD
                                     FABIUS
                                  270-203 B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
FABIUS

  HAVING related the memorable actions of Pericles, our history now
proceeds to the life of Fabius. A son of Hercules and a nymph, of some
woman of that country, who brought him forth on the banks of Tiber,
was, it is said, the first Fabius, the founder of the numerous and
distinguished family of the name. Others will have it that they were
first called Fodii, because the first of the race delighted in digging
pitfalls for wild beasts, fodere being still the Latin for to dig, and
fossa for a ditch, and that in process of time, by the change of the
two letters, they grew to be called Fabii. But be these things true or
false, certain it is that this family for a long time yielded a
great number of eminent persons. Our Fabius, who was fourth in descent
from that Fabius Rullus who first brought the honourable surname of
Maximus into his family, was also, by way of personal nickname, called
Verrucosus, from a wart on his upper lip; and in his childhood they in
like manner named him Ovicula, or The Lamb, on account of his
extreme mildness of temper. His slowness in speaking, his long
labour and pains in learning, his deliberation in entering into the
sports of other children, his easy submission to everybody, as if he
had no will of his own, made those who judge superficially of him, the
greater number, esteem him insensible and stupid; and few only saw
that this tardiness proceeded from stability, and discerned the
greatness of his mind, and the lionlikeness of his temper. But as soon
as he came into employments, his virtues exerted and showed
themselves; his reputed want of energy then was recognized by people
in general as a freedom of passion; his slowness in words and actions,
the effect of a true prudence; his want of rapidity and his
sluggishness, as constancy and firmness.
  Living in a great commonwealth, surrounded by many enemies, he saw
the wisdom of inuring his body (nature's own weapon) to warlike
exercises, and disciplining his tongue for public oratory in a style
conformable to his life and character. His eloquence, indeed, had
not much of popular ornament, nor empty artifice, but there was in
it great weight of sense; it was strong and sententious, much after
the way of Thucydides. We have yet extant his funeral oration upon the
death of his son, who died consul, which he recited before the people.
  He was five times consul, and in his first consulship had the honour
of a triumph for the victory he gained over the Ligurians, whom he
defeated in a set battle, and drove them to take shelter in the
Alps, from whence they never after made any inroad or depredation upon
their neighbours. After this, Hannibal came into Italy, who, at his
first entrance, having gained a great battle near the river Trebia,
traversed all Tuscany with his victorious army, and, desolating the
country round about, filled Rome itself with astonishment and
terror. Besides the more common signs of thunder and lightning then
happening, the report of several unheard of and utterly strange
portents much increased the popular consternation. For it was said
that some targets sweated blood; that at Antium, when they reaped
their corn, many of the ears were filled with blood; that it had
rained red-hot stones; that the Falerians had seen the heavens open
and several scrolls falling down, in one of which was plainly written,
"Mars himself stirs his arms." But these prodigies had no effect
upon the impetuous and fiery temper of the consul Flaminius, whose
natural promptness had been much heightened by his late unexpected
victory over the Gauls, when he fought them contrary to the order of
the senate and the advice of his colleague. Fabius, on the other side,
thought it not seasonable to engage with the enemy; not that he much
regarded the prodigies, which he thought too strange to be easily
understood, though many were alarmed by them; but in regard that the
Carthaginians were but few, and in want of money and supplies, he
deemed it best not to meet in the field a general whose army had
been tried in many encounters, and whose object was a battle, but to
send aid to their allies, control the movements of the various subject
cities, and let the force and vigour of Hannibal waste away and
expire, like a flame, for want of the aliment.
  These weighty reasons did not prevail with Flaminius, who
protested he would never suffer the advance of the enemy to the
city, nor be reduced, like Camillus in former time, to fight for
Rome within the walls of Rome. Accordingly he ordered the tribunes
to draw out the army into the field; and though he himself, leaping on
horseback to go out, was no sooner mounted but the beast, without
any apparent cause, fell into so violent a fit of trembling and
bounding that he cast his rider headlong on the ground; he was no ways
deterred, but proceeded as he had begun, and marched forward up to
Hannibal, who was posted near the Lake Thrasymene in Tuscany. At the
moment of this engagement, there happened so great an earthquake, that
it destroyed several towns, altered the course of rivers, and
carried off parts of high cliffs, yet such was the eagerness of the
combatants, that they were entirely insensible of it.
  In this battle Flaminius fell, after many proofs of his strength and
courage, and round about him all the bravest of the army; in the
whole, fifteen thousand were killed, and as many made prisoners.
Hannibal, desirous to bestow funeral honours upon the body of
Flaminius, made diligent search after it, but could not find it
among the dead, nor was it ever known what became of it. Upon the
former engagement near Trebia, neither the general who wrote, nor
the express who told the news, used straightforward and direct
terms, nor related it otherwise than as a drawn battle, with equal
loss on either side; but on this occasion as soon as Pomponius the
praetor had the intelligence, he caused the people to assemble, and,
without disguising or dissembling the matter, told them plainly, "We
are beaten, O Romans, in a great battle; the consul Flaminius is
killed; think, therefore, what is to be done for your safety." Letting
loose his news like a gate of wind upon an open sea, he threw the city
into utter confusion: in such consternation, their thoughts found no
support or stay. The danger at hand at last awakened their judgments
into a resolution to choose a dictator, who by the sovereign authority
of his office, and by his personal wisdom and courage, might be able
to manage the public affairs. Their choice unanimously fell upon
Fabius, whose character seemed equal to the greatness of the office;
whose age was so far advanced as to give him experience, without
taking from him the vigour of action; his body could execute what
his soul designed; and his temper was a happy compound of confidence
and cautiousness.
  Fabius, being thus installed in the office of dictator, in the first
place gave the command of the horse to Lucius Minucius; and next asked
leave of the senate for himself, that in time of battle he might serve
on horseback, which by an ancient law amongst the Romans was forbid to
their generals; whether it were, that, placing their greatest strength
in their foot, they would have their commanders-in-chief posted
amongst them, or else to let them know, that, how great and absolute
soever their authority were, the people and senate were still their
masters, of whom they must ask leave. Fabius, however, to make the
authority of his charge more observable, and to render the people more
submissive and obedient to him, caused himself to be accompanied
with the full body of four-and-twenty lictors; and, when the surviving
consul came to visit him, sent him word to dismiss his lictors with
their fasces, the ensigns of authority, and appear before him as a
private person.
  The first solemn action of his dictatorship was very fitly a
religious one: an admonition to the people, that their late
overthrow had not befallen them through want of courage in their
soldiers, but through the neglect of divine ceremonies in the general.
He therefore exhorted them not to fear the enemy, but by extraordinary
honour to propitiate the gods. This he did, not to fill their minds
with superstition, but by religious feeling to raise their courage,
and lessen their fear of the enemy by inspiring the belief that Heaven
was on their side. With this view, the secret prophecies called the
Sibylline Books were consulted; sundry predictions found in them
were said to refer to the fortunes and events of the time; but none
except the consulter was informed. Presenting himself to the people,
the dictator made a vow before them to offer in sacrifice the whole
product of the next season, all Italy over, of the cows, goats, swine,
sheep, both in the mountains and the plains; and to celebrate
musical festivities with an expenditure of the precise sum of 333
sestertia and 333 denarii, with one-third of a denarius over. The
sum total of which is, in our money, 83,583 drachmas and 2 obols. What
the mystery might be in that exact number is not easy to determine,
unless it were in honour of the perfection of the number three, as
being the first of odd numbers, the first that contains in itself
multiplication, with all other properties whatsoever belonging to
numbers in general.
  In this manner Fabius, having given the people better heart for
the future, by making them believe that the gods took their side,
for his own part placed his whole confidence in himself, believing
that the gods bestowed victory and good fortune by the instrumentality
of valour and of prudence; and thus prepared he set forth to oppose
Hannibal, not with intention to fight him, but with the purpose of
wearing out and wasting the vigour of his arms by lapse of time, of
meeting his want of resources by superior means, by large numbers
the smallness of his forces. With this design, he always encamped on
the highest grounds, where the enemy's horse could have no access to
him. Still he kept pace with them; when they marched he followed them;
when they encamped he did the same, but at such a distance as not to
be compelled to an engagement and always keeping upon the hills,
free from the insults of their horse; by which means he gave them no
rest, but kept them in a continual alarm.
  But this his dilatory way gave occasion in his own camp for
suspicion of want of courage; and this opinion prevailed yet more in
Hannibal's army. Hannibal was himself the only man who was not
deceived, who discerned his skill and detected his tactics, and saw,
unless he could by art or force bring him to battle, that the
Carthaginians, unable to use the arms in which they were superior, and
suffering the continual drain of lives and treasure in which they were
inferior, would in the end come to nothing. He resolved, therefore,
with all the arts and subtleties of war to break his measures and to
bring Fabius to an engagement, like a cunning wrestler, watching every
opportunity to get good hold and close with his adversary. He at one
time attacked, and sought to distract his attention, tried to draw him
off in various directions, and endeavoured in all ways to tempt him
from his safe policy. All this artifice, though it had no effect
upon the firm judgment and conviction of the dictator, yet upon the
common soldier, and even upon the general of the horse himself, it had
too great an operation: Minucius, unseasonably eager for action,
bold and confident, humoured the soldiery, and himself contributed
to fill them with wild eagerness and empty hopes, which they vented in
reproaches upon Fabius, calling him Hannibal's pedagogue, since he did
nothing else but follow him up and down and wait upon him. At the same
time, they cried up Minucius for the only captain worthy to command
the Romans; whose vanity and presumption rose so high in
consequence, that he insolently jested at Fabius's encampment upon the
mountains, saying that he seated them there as on a theatre, to behold
the flames and desolation of their country. And he would sometimes ask
the friends of the general, whether it were not his meaning, by thus
leading them from mountain to mountain, to carry them at last
(having no hopes on earth) up into heaven, or to hide them in the
clouds from Hannibal's army? When his friends reported these things to
the dictator, persuading him that, to avoid the general obloquy, he
should engage the enemy, his answer was, "I should be more
faint-hearted than they make me, if, through fear of idle
reproaches, I should abandon my own convictions. It is no inglorious
thing to have fear for the safety of our country, but to be turned
from one's course by men's opinions, by blame, and by
misrepresentation, shows a man unfit to hold an office such as this,
which, by such conduct, he makes the slaves of those whose errors it
is his business to control."
  An oversight of Hannibal occurred soon after. Desirous to refresh
his horse in some good pasture-grounds, and to draw off his army, he
ordered his guides to conduct him to the district of Casinum. They,
mistaking his bad pronunciation, led him and his army to the town of
Casilinum, on the frontier of Campania which the river Lothronus,
called by the Romans Vulturnus, divides in two parts. The country
around is enclosed by mountains, with a valley opening towards the
sea, in which the river overflowing forms a quantity of marsh land
with deep banks of sand, and discharges itself into the sea on a
very unsafe and rough shore. While Hannibal was proceeding hither,
Fabius, by his knowledge of the roads, succeeded in making his way
around before him, and despatched four thousand choice men to seize
the exit from it and stop him up, and lodged the rest of his army upon
the neighbouring hills, in the most advantageous places; at the same
time detaching a party of his lightest armed men to fall upon
Hannibal's rear; which they did with such success, that they cut off
eight hundred of them, and put the whole army in disorder. Hannibal,
finding the error and the danger he was fallen into, immediately
crucified the guides; but considered the enemy to be so advantageously
posted, that there was no hope of breaking through them; while his
soldiers began to be despondent and terrified, and to think themselves
surrounded with embarrassments too difficult to be surmounted.
  Thus reduced, Hannibal had recourse to stratagem; he caused two
thousand head of oxen which he had in his camp to have torches or
dry fagots well fastened to their horns, and lighting them in the
beginning of the night, ordered the beasts to be driven on towards the
heights commanding the passages out of the valley and the enemy's
posts; when this was done, he made his army in the dark leisurely
march after them. The oxen at first kept a slow orderly pace, and with
their lighted heads resembled an army marching by night, astonishing
the shepherds and herdsmen of the hills about. But when the fire burnt
down the horns of the beasts to the quick, they no longer observed
their sober pace, but unruly and wild with their pain, ran dispersed
about, tossing their heads and scattering the fire round about them
upon each other and setting light as they passed to the trees. This
was a surprising spectacle to the Romans on guard upon the heights.
Seeing flames which appeared to come from men advancing with
torches, they were possessed with the alarm that the enemy was
approaching in various quarters, and that they were being
surrounded; and, quitting their post, abandoned the pass, and
precipitately retired to their camp on the hills. They were no
sooner gone, but the light-armed of Hannibal's men, according to his
order, immediately seized the heights, and soon after the whole
army, with all the baggage, came up and safely marched through the
passes.
  Fabius, before the night was over, quickly found out the trick;
for some of the beasts fell into his hands; but for fear of an
ambush in the dark, he kept his men all night to their arms in the
camp. As soon as it was day, he attacked the enemy in the rear, where,
after a good deal of skirmishing in the uneven ground, the disorder
might have become general, but that Hannibal detached from his van a
body of Spaniards, who, of themselves active and nimble, were
accustomed to the climbing of mountains. These briskly attacked the
Roman troops, who were in heavy armour, killed a good many, and left
Fabius no longer in condition to follow the enemy. This action brought
the extreme of obloquy and contempt upon the dictator; they said it
was now manifest that he was not only inferior to his adversary, as
they had always thought, in courage, but even in that conduct,
foresight, and generalship, by which he had proposed to bring the
war to an end.
  And Hannibal, to enhance their anger against him, marched with his
army close to the lands and possessions of Fabius, and, giving
orders to his soldiers to burn and destroy all the country about,
forbade them to do the least damage in the estates of the Roman
general, and placed guards for their security. This, when reported
at Rome, had the effect with the people which Hannibal desired.
Their tribunes raised a thousand stories against him, chiefly at the
instigation of Metilius, who, not so much out of hatred to him as
out of friendship to Minucius, whose kinsman he was, thought by
depressing Fabius to raise his friend. The senate on their part were
also offended with him for the bargain he had made with Hannibal about
the exchange of prisoners, the conditions of which were that, after
exchange made of man for man, if any on either side remained, they
should be redeemed at the price of two hundred and fifty drachmas a
head. Upon the whole account, there remained two hundred and forty
Romans unexchanged, and the senate now not only refused to allow money
for the ransoms, but also reproached Fabius for making a contract,
contrary to the honour and interest of the commonwealth, for redeeming
men whose cowardice had put them in the hands of the enemy. Fabius
heard and endured all this with invincible patience; and, having no
money by him, and on the other side being resolved to keep his word
with Hannibal and not to abandon the captives, he despatched his son
to Rome to sell land, and to bring with him the price, sufficient to
discharge the ransoms; which was punctually performed by his son and
delivery accordingly made to him of the prisoners, amongst whom
many, when they were released, made proposals to repay the money;
which Fabius in all cases declined.
  About this time, he was called to Rome by the priests, to assist,
according to the duty of his office, at certain sacrifices, and was
thus forced to leave the command of the army with Minucius; but before
he parted, not only charged him as his commander-in-chief, but
besought and entreated him not to come, in his absence, to a battle
with Hannibal. His commands, entreaties, and advice were lost upon
Minucius, for his back was no sooner turned but the new general
immediately sought occasions to attack the enemy. And notice being
brought him that Hannibal had sent out a great part of his army to
forage, he fell upon a detachment of the remainder, doing great
execution, and driving them to their very camp, with no little
terror to the rest, who apprehended their breaking in upon them; and
when Hannibal had recalled his scattered forces to the camp, he,
nevertheless, without any loss, made his retreat, a success which
aggravated his boldness and presumption, and filled the soldiers
with rash confidence. The news spread to Rome, where Fabius, on
being told it, said that what he most feared was Minucius's success;
but the people, highly elated, hurried to the forum to listen to an
address from Metilius the tribune, in which he infinitely extolled the
valour of Minucius, and fell bitterly upon Fabius, accusing him for
want not merely of courage, but even of loyalty; and not only him, but
also many other eminent and considerable persons; saying that it was
they that had brought the Carthaginians into Italy, with the design to
destroy the liberty of the people; for which end they had at once
put the supreme authority into the hands of a single person, who by
his slowness and delays might give Hannibal leisure to establish
himself in Italy, and the people of Carthage time and opportunity to
supply him with fresh succours to complete his conquest.
  Fabius came forward with no intention to answer the tribune, but
only said, that they should expedite the sacrifices, that so he
might speedily return to the army to punish Minucius, who had presumed
to fight contrary to his orders; words which immediately possessed the
people with the belief that Minucius stood in danger of his life.
For it was in the power of the dictator to imprison and to put to
death, and they feared that Fabius, of a mild temper in general, would
be as hard to be appeased when once irritated, as he was slow to be
provoked. Nobody dared to raise his voice in opposition; Metilius
alone, whose office of tribune gave him security to say what he
pleased (for in the time of a dictatorship that magistrateal one
preserves his authority), boldly applied himself to the people in
the behalf of Minucius; that they should not suffer him to be made a
sacrifice to the enmity of Fabius, nor permit him to be destroyed,
like the son of Manlius Torquatus, who was beheaded by his father
for a victory fought and triumphantly won against order; he exhorted
them to take away from Fabius that absolute power of a dictator, and
to put it into more worthy hands, better able and more inclined to use
it for the public good. These impressions very much prevailed upon the
people, though not so far as wholly to dispossess Fabius of the
dictatorship. But they decreed that Minucius should have an equal
authority with the dictator in the conduct of the war; which was a
thing then without precedent, though a little later it was again
practised after the disaster at Cannae; when the dictator, Marcus
Junius, being with the army, they chose at Rome Fabius Buteo dictator,
that he might create new senators, to supply the numerous places of
those who were killed. But as soon as, once acting in public, he had
filled those vacant places with a sufficient number, he immediately
dismissed his lictors, and withdrew from all his attendance, and
mingling like a common person with the rest of the people, quietly
went about his own affairs in the forum.
  The enemies of Fabius thought they had sufficiently humiliated and
subdued him by raising Minucius to be his equal in authority; but they
mistook the temper of the man, who looked upon their folly as not
his loss, but like Diogenes, who, being told that some persons derided
him, made answer, "But I am not derided," meaning that only those were
really insulted on whom such insults made an impression, so Fabius,
with great tranquillity and unconcern, submitted to what happened, and
contributed a proof to the argument of the philosophers that a just
and good man is not capable of being dishonoured. His only vexation
arose from his fear lest this ill counsel, by supplying
opportunities to the diseased military ambition of his subordinate,
should damage the public cause. Lest the rashness of Minucius should
now at once run headlong into some disaster, he returned back with all
privacy and speed to the army; where he found Minucius so elevated
with his new dignity, that, a joint-authority not contenting him, he
required by turns to have the command of the army every other day.
This Fabius rejected, but was contented that the army should be
divided; thinking each general singly would better command his part,
than partially command the whole. The first and fourth legion he
took for his own division, the second and third he delivered to
Minucius; so also of the auxiliary forces each had an equal share.
  Minucius, thus exalted, could not contain himself from boasting of
his success in humiliating the high and powerful office of the
dictatorship. Fabius quietly reminded him that it was, in all
wisdom, Hannibal, and not Fabius, whom he had to combat; but if he
must needs contend with his colleague, it had best be in diligence and
care for the preservation of Rome; that it might not be said, a man so
favoured by the people served them worse than he who had been
ill-treated and disgraced by them.
  The young general, despising these admonitions as the false humility
of age, immediately removed with the body of his army, and encamped by
himself. Hannibal, who was not ignorant of all these passages, lay
watching his advantage from them. It happened that between his army
and that of Minucius there was a certain eminence, which seemed a very
advantageous and not difficult post to encamp upon; the level field
around it appeared, from a distance, to be all smooth and even, though
it had many inconsiderable ditches and dips in it, not discernible
to the eye. Hannibal, had he pleased, could easily have possessed
himself of this ground; but he had reserved it for a bait, or train,
in proper season, to draw the Romans to an engagement. Now that
Minucius and Fabius were divided, he thought the opportunity fair
for his purpose; and, therefore, having in the night-time lodged a
convenient number of his men in these ditches and hollow places, early
in the morning he sent forth a small detachment, who, in the sight
of Minucius, proceeded to possess themselves of the rising ground.
According to his expectation, Minucius swallowed the bait, and first
sends out his light troops, and after them some horse, to dislodge the
enemy; and, at last, when he saw Hannibal in person advancing to the
assistance of his men, marched down with his whole army drawn up. He
engaged with the troops on the eminence, and sustained their missiles;
the combat for some time was equal; but as soon as Hannibal
perceived that the whole army was now sufficiently advanced within the
toils he had set for them, so that their backs were open to his men
whom he had posted in the hollows, he gave the signal; upon which they
rushed forth from various quarters, and with loud cries furiously
attacked Minucius in the rear. The surprise and the slaughter was
great, and struck universal alarm and disorder through the whole army.
Minucius himself lost all his confidence; he looked from officer to
officer, and found all alike unprepared to face the danger, and
yielding to a flight, which, however, could not end in safety. The
Numidian horsemen were already in full victory riding about the plain,
cutting down the fugitives.
  Fabius was not ignorant of this danger of his countrymen; he foresaw
what would happen from the rashness of Minucius, and the cunning of
Hannibal; and, therefore, kept his men to their arms, in readiness
to wait the event; nor would he trust to the reports of others, but he
himself, in front of his camp, viewed all that passed. When,
therefore, he saw the army of Minucius encompassed by the enemy, and
that by their countenance and shifting their ground they appeared more
disposed to flight than to resistance, with a great sigh, striking his
hand upon his thigh, he said to those about him, "O Hercules! how much
sooner than I expected, though later than he seemed to desire, hath
Minucius destroyed himself!" He then commanded the ensigns to be led
forward, and the army to follow, telling them, "We must make haste
to rescue Minucius, who is a valiant man, and a lover of his
country; and if he hath been too forward to engage the enemy, at
another time we will tell him of it." Thus, at the head of his men,
Fabius marched up to the enemy, and first cleared the plain of the
Numidians; and next fell upon those who were charging the Romans in
the rear, cutting down all that made opposition, and obliging the rest
to save themselves by a hasty retreat, lest they should be environed
as the Romans had been. Hannibal, seeing so sudden a change of
affairs, and Fabius, beyond the force of his age, opening his way
through the ranks up the hillside, that he might join Minucius, warily
forbore, sounded a retreat, and drew off his men into their camp;
while the Romans on their part were no less contented to retire in
safety. It is reported that upon this occasion Hannibal said jestingly
to his friends: "Did not I tell you, that this cloud which always
hovered upon the mountains would, at some time or other, come down
with a storm upon us?"
  Fabius, after his men had picked up the spoils of the field, retired
to his own camp, without saying any harsh or reproachful thing to
his colleague; who, also, in his part, gathering his army together,
spoke and said to them: "To conduct great matters and never commit a
fault is above the force of human nature; but to learn and improve
by the faults we have committed, is that which becomes a good and
sensible man. Some reasons I may have to accuse fortune, but I have
many more to thank her; for in a few hours she hath cured a long
mistake, and taught me that I am not the man who should command
others, but have need of another to command me; and that we are not to
contend for victory over those to whom it is our advantage to yield.
Therefore in everything else henceforth the dictator must be your
commander; only in showing gratitude towards him I will still be
your leader, and always be the first to obey his orders." Having
said this, he commanded the Roman eagles to move forward, and all
his men to follow him to the camp of Fabius. The soldiers, then, as he
entered, stood amazed at the novelty of the sight, and were anxious
and doubtful what the meaning might be. When he came near the
dictator's tent, Fabius went forth to meet him, on which he at once
laid his standards at his feet, calling him with a loud voice his
father; while the soldiers with him saluted the soldiers here as their
patrons, the term employed by freedmen to those who gave them their
liberty. After silence was obtained, Minucius said, "You have this
day, O dictator, obtained two victories; one by your valour and
conduct over Hannibal, and another by your wisdom and goodness over
your colleague; by one victory you preserved, and by the other
instructed us; and when we were already suffering one shameful
defeat from Hannibal, by another welcome one from you we were restored
to honour and safety. I can address you by no nobler name than that of
a kind father, though a father's beneficence falls short of that I
have received from you. Front a father I individually received the
gift of life; to you I owe its preservation not for myself only, but
for all these who are under me." After this, he threw himself into the
arms of the dictator; and in the same manner the soldiers of each army
embraced one another with gladness and tears of joy.
  Not long after, Fabius laid down the dictatorship, and consuls
were again created. Those who immediately succeeded observed the
same method in managing the war, and avoided all occasions of fighting
Hannibal in a pitched battle; they only succoured their allies, and
preserved the towns from falling off to the enemy. But afterwards,
when Terentius Varro, a man of obscure birth, but very popular and
bold, had obtained the consulship, he soon made it appear that by
his rashness and ignorance he would stake the whole commonwealth on
the hazard. For it was his custom to declaim in all assemblies,
that, as long as Rome employed generals like Fabius, there never would
be an end of the war; vaunting that whenever he should get sight of
the enemy, he would that same day free Italy from the strangers.
With these promises he so prevailed, that he raised a greater army
than had ever yet been sent out of Rome. There were enlisted
eighty-eight thousand fighting men; but what gave confidence to the
populace, only terrified the wise and experienced, and none more
than Fabius; since if so great a body, and the flower of the Roman
youth, should be cut off, they could not see any new resource for
the safety of Rome. They addressed themselves, therefore, to the other
consul, Aemilius Paulus, a man of great experience in war, but
unpopular, and fearful also of the people, who once before upon some
impeachment had condemned him; so that he needed encouragement to
withstand his colleague's temerity. Fabius told him, if he would
profitably serve his country, he must no less oppose Varro's
ignorant eagerness than Hannibal's conscious readiness, since both
alike conspired to decide the fate of Rome by a battle. "It is more
reasonable," he said to him, "that you should believe me than Varro,
in matters relating to Hannibal, when I tell you that if for this year
you abstain from fighting with him, either his army will perish of
itself, or else he will be glad to depart of his own will. This
evidently appears, inasmuch as, notwithstanding his victories, none of
the countries or towns of Italy come in to him, and his army is not
now the third part of what it was at first." To this Paulus is said to
have replied, "Did I only consider myself, I should rather choose to
be exposed to the weapons of Hannibal than once more to the
suffrages of my fellow-citizens, who are urgent for what you
disapprove; yet since the cause of Rome is at stake, I will rather
seek in my conduct to please and obey Fabius than all the world
besides."
  These good measures were defeated by the importunity of Varro; whom,
when they were both come to the army, nothing would content but a
separate command, that each consul should have his day; and when his
turn came, he posted his army close to Hannibal, at a village called
Cannae, by the river Aufidus. It was no sooner day, but he set up
the scarlet coat flying over his tent, which was the signal of battle.
This boldness of the consul, and the numerousness of his army,
double theirs, startled the Carthaginians; but Hannibal commanded them
to their arms, and with a small train rode out to take a full prospect
of the enemy as they were now forming in their ranks, from a rising
ground not far distant. One of his followers, called Gisco, a
Carthaginian of equal rank with himself, told him that the numbers
of the enemy were astonishing; to which Hannibal replied with a
serious countenance, "There is one thing, Gisco, yet more astonishing,
which you take no notice of;" and when Gisco inquired what,
answered, that "in all those great numbers before us, there is not one
man called Gisco." This unexpected jest of their general made all
the company laugh, and as they came down from the hill they told it to
those whom they met, which caused a general laughter amongst them all,
from which they were hardly able to recover themselves. The army,
seeing Hannibal's attendants come back from viewing the enemy in
such a laughing condition, concluded that it must be profound contempt
of the enemy, that made their general at this moment indulge in such
hilarity.
  According to his usual manner, Hannibal employed stratagems to
advantage himself. In the first place, he so drew up his men that
the wind was at their backs, which at that time blew with a perfect
storm of violence, and, sweeping over the great plains of sand,
carried before it a cloud of dust over the Carthaginian army into
the faces of the Romans, which much disturbed them in the fight. In
the next place, all his best men he put into his wings; and in the
body which was somewhat more advanced than the wings, placed the worst
and the weakest of his army. He commanded those in the wings, that,
when the enemy had made a thorough charge upon that middle advance
body, which he knew would recoil, as not being able to withstand their
shock, and when the Romans in their pursuit should be far enough
engaged within the two wings, they should, both on the right and the
left, charge them in the flank, and endeavour to encompass them.
This appears to have been the chief cause of the Roman loss.
Pressing upon Hannibal's front, which gave ground, they reduced the
form of his army into a perfect half-moon, and gave ample
opportunity to the captains of the chosen troops to charge them
right and left on their flanks, and to cut off and destroy all who did
not fall back before the Carthaginian wings united in their rear. To
this general calamity, it is also said, that a strange mistake among
the cavalry much contributed. For the horse of Aemilius receiving a
hurt and throwing his master, those about him immediately alighted
to aid the consul; and the Roman troops, seeing their commanders
thus quitting their horses, took it for a sign that they should all
dismount and charge the enemy on foot. At the sight of this,
Hannibal was heard to say, "This pleases me better than if they had
been delivered to me bound hand and foot." For the particulars of this
engagement, we refer our reader to those authors who have written at
large upon the subject.
  The consul Varro, with a thin company, fled to Venusia; Aemilius
Paulus, unable any longer to oppose the flight of his men, or the
flight of his men, or the pursuit of the enemy, his body all covered
with wounds, and his soul no less wounded with grief, sat himself down
upon a stone, expecting the kindness of a despatching blow. His face
was so disfigured, and all his person so stained with blood, that
his very friends and domestics passing by knew him not. At last
Cornelius Lentulus, a young man of patrician race, perceiving who he
was, alighted from his horse, and, tendering it to him, desired him to
get up and save a life so necessary to the safety of the commonwealth,
which, at this time, would dearly want so great a captain. But nothing
could prevail upon him to accept of the offer; he obliged young
Lentulus, with tears in his eyes, to remount his horse; then
standing up, he gave him his hand, and commanded him to tell Fabius
Maximus that Aemilius Paulus had followed his directions to his very
last, and had not in the least deviated from those measures which were
agreed between them; but that it was his hard fate to be overpowered
by Varro in the first place, and secondly by Hannibal. Having
despatched Lentulus with this commission, he marked where the
slaughter was greatest, and there threw himself upon the swords of the
enemy. In this battle it is reported that fifty thousand Romans were
slain, four thousand prisoners taken in the field, and ten thousand in
the camp of both consuls.
  The friends of Hannibal earnestly persuaded him to follow up his
victory, and pursue the flying Romans into the very gates of Rome,
assuring him that in five days' time he might sup in the Capitol;
nor is it easy to imagine what consideration hindered him from it.
It would seem rather than some supernatural or divine intervention
caused the hesitation and timidity which he now displayed, and which
made Barcas, a Carthaginian, tell him with indignation, "You know,
Hannibal, how to gain a victory, but not how to use it." Yet it
produced a marvellous revolution in his affairs; he, who hitherto
had not one town, market, or seaport in his possession, who had
nothing for the subsistence of his men but what he pillaged from day
to day, who had no place of retreat or basis of operation, but was
roving, as it were, with a huge troop of banditti, now became master
of the best provinces and towns of Italy, and of Capua itself, next to
Rome the most flourishing and opulent city, all which came over to
him, and submitted to his authority.
  It is the saying of Euripides, that "a man is in ill-case when he
must try a friend," and so neither, it would seem, is a state in a
good one, when it needs an able general. And so it was with the
Romans; the counsels and actions of Fabius, which, before the
battle, they had branded as cowardice and fear, now, in the other
extreme, they accounted to have been more than human wisdom; as though
nothing but a divine power of intellect could have seen so far, and
foretold contrary to the judgment of all others, a result which,
even now it had arrived, was hardly credible. In him, therefore,
they placed their whole remaining hopes; his wisdom was the sacred
altar and temple to which they fled for refuge, and his counsels, more
than anything, preserved them from dispersing and deserting their
city, as in the time when the Gauls took possession of Rome. He,
whom they esteemed fearful and pusillanimous when they were, as they
thought, in a prosperous condition was now the only man, in this
general and unbounded dejection and confusion, who showed no fear, but
walked the streets with an assured and serene countenance, addressed
his fellow-citizens, checked the women's lamentations, and the
public gatherings of those who wanted thus to vent their sorrows. He
caused the senate to meet, he heartened up the magistrates, and was
himself as the soul and life of every office.
  He placed guards at the gates of the city to stop the frightened
multitude from flying; he regulated and confined their mournings for
their slain friends, both as to time and place; ordering that each
family should perform such observances within private walls, and
that they should continue only the space of one month, and then the
whole city should be purified. The feast of Ceres happening to fall
within this time, it was decreed that the solemnity should be
intermitted, lest the fewness, and the sorrowful countenance of
those who should celebrate it, might too much expose to the people the
greatness of their loss; besides that, the worship most acceptable
to the gods is that which comes from cheerful hearts. But those
rites which were proper for appeasing their anger, and procuring
auspicious signs and presages, were by the direction of the augurs
carefully performed. Fabius Pictor, a near kinsman to Maximus, was
sent to consult the oracle of Delphi; and about the same time, two
vestals having been detected to have been violated, the one killed
herself, and the other, according to custom, was buried alive.
  Above all, let us admire the high spirit and equanimity of this
Roman commonwealth; that when the consul Varro came beaten and
flying home, full of shame and humiliation, after he had so
disgracefully and calamitously managed their affairs, yet the whole
senate and people went forth to meet him at the gates of the city, and
received him with honour and respect. And, silence being commanded,
the magistrates and chief of the senate, Fabius amongst them,
commended him before the people, because he did not despair of the
safety of the commonwealth, after so great a loss, but was come to
take the government into his hands, to execute the laws, and aid his
fellow-citizens in their prospect of future deliverance.
  When word was brought to Rome that Hannibal, after the fight, had
marched with his army into other parts of Italy, the hearts of the
Romans began to revive, and they proceeded to send out generals and
armies. The most distinguished commands were held by Fabius Maximus
and Claudius Marcellus, both generals of great fame, though upon
opposite grounds. For Marcellus, as we have set forth in his life, was
a man of action and high spirit, ready and bold with his own hand,
and, as Homer describes his warriors, fierce, and delighting in
fights. Boldness, enterprise, and dating to match those of Hannibal,
constituted his tactics, and marked his engagements. But Fabius
adhered to his former principles, still persuaded that, by following
close and not fighting him, Hannibal and his army would at last be
tried out and consumed, like a wrestler in too high condition, whose
very excess of strength makes him the more likely suddenly to give way
and lose it. Posidonius tells us that the Romans called Marcellus
their sword, and Fabius their buckler; and that the vigour of the one,
mixed with the steadiness of the other, made a happy compound that
proved the salvation of Rome. So that Hannibal found by experience
that encountering the one, he met with a rapid, impetuous river, which
drove him back, and still made some breach upon him; and by the other,
though silently and quietly passing by him, he was insensibly washed
away and consumed; and, at last, was brought to this, that he
dreaded Marcellus when he was in motion, and Fabius when he sat still.
During the whole course of this war, he had still to do with one or
both of these generals; for each of them was five times consul, and,
as praetors or proconsuls or consuls, they had always a part in the
government of the army, till, at last, Marcellus fell into the trap
which Hannibal had laid for him, and was killed in his fifth
consulship. But all his craft and subtlety were unsuccessful upon
Fabius, who only once was in some danger of being caught, when
counterfeit letters came to him from the principal inhabitants of
Metapontum, with promises to deliver up their town if he would come
before it with his army, and intimations that they should expect
him. This train had almost drawn him in; he resolved to march to
them with part of his army, and was diverted only by consulting the
omens of the birds, which he found to be inauspicious; and not long
after it was discovered that the letters had been forged by
Hannibal, who, for his reception, had laid an ambush to entertain him.
This, perhaps, we must rather attribute to the favour of the gods than
to the prudence of Fabius.
  In preserving the towns and allies from revolt by fair and gentle
treatment, and in not using rigour, or showing a suspicion upon
every light suggestion, his conduct was remarkable. It is told of him,
that being informed of a certain Marsian, eminent for courage and good
birth, who had been speaking underhand with some of the soldiers about
deserting, Fabius was so far from using severity against him, that
he called for him, and told him he was sensible of the neglect that
had been shown to his merit and good service, which, he said, was a
great fault in the commanders who reward more by favour than by
desert; "but henceforth, whenever you are aggrieved," said Fabius,
"I shall consider it your fault, if you apply yourself to any one
but to me;" and when he had so spoken, he bestowed an excellent horse,
and other presents upon him; and, from that time forwards, there was
not a faithfuller and more trusty man in the whole army. With good
reason he judged, that, if those who have the government of horses and
dogs endeavour by gentle usage to cure their angry and untractable
tempers, rather than by cruelty and beating, much more should those
who haze the command of men try to bring them to order and
discipline by the mildest and fairest means, and not treat them
worse than gardeners do those wild plants, which, with care and
attention, lose gradually the savageness of their nature, and bear
excellent fruit.
  At another time, some of his officers informed him that one of their
men was very often absent from his place, and out at nights; he
asked them what kind of man he was; they all answered, that the
whole army had not a better man, that he was a native of Lucania,
and proceeded to speak of several actions which they had seen him
perform. Fabius made strict inquiry, and discovered at last that these
frequent excursions which he ventured upon were to visit a young girl,
with whom he was in love. Upon which he gave private order to some
of his men to find out the woman and secretly convey her into his
own tent; and then sent for the Lucanian, and, calling him aside, told
him, that he very well knew how often he had been out away from the
camp at night, which was a capital transgression against military
discipline and the Roman laws, but he knew also how brave he was,
and the good services he had done; therefore, in consideration of
them, he was willing to forgive him his fault; but to keep him in good
order, he was resolved to place one over him to be his keeper, who
should be accountable for his good behaviour. Having said this, he
produced the woman, and told the soldier, terrified and amazed at
the adventure, "This is the person who must answer for you; and by
your future behaviour we shall see whether your night rambles were
on account of love, or for any other worse design."
  Another passage there was, something of the same kind, which
gained him possession of Tarentum. There was a young Tarentine in
the army that had a sister in Tarentum, then in possession of the
enemy, who entirely loved her brother, and wholly depended upon him.
He, being informed that a certain Bruttian, whom Hannibal had made a
commander of the garrison, was deeply in love with his sister,
conceived hopes that he might possibly turn it to the advantage of the
Romans. And having first communicated his design to Fabius, he left
the army as a deserter in show, and went over to Tarentum. The first
days passed, and the Bruttian abstained from visiting the sister;
for neither of them knew that the brother had notice of the amour
between them. The young Tarentine, however, took an occasion to tell
his sister how he had heard that a man of station and authority had
made his addresses to her, and desired her, therefore, to tell him who
it was; "for," said he, "if he be a man that has bravery and
reputation, it matters not what countryman he is, since at this time
the sword mingles all nations, and makes them equal; compulsion
makes all things honourable; and in a time when right is weak, we
may be thankful if might assumes a form of gentleness." Upon this
the woman sends for her friend, and makes the brother and him
acquainted; and whereas she henceforth showed more countenance to
her lover than formerly, in the same degrees that her kindness
increased, his friendship, also, with the brother advanced. So that at
last our Tarentine thought this Bruttian officer well enough
prepared to receive the offers he had to make him, and that it would
be easy for a mercenary man, who was in love, to accept, upon the
terms proposed, the large rewards promised by Fabius. In conclusion,
the bargain was struck, and the promise made of delivering the town.
This is the common tradition, though some relate the story
otherwise, and say, that this woman, by whom the Bruttian was
inveigled to betray the town, was not a native of Tarentum, but a
Bruttian born, and was kept by Fabius as his concubine; and being a
countrywoman and an acquaintance of the Bruttian governor, he
privately sent her to him to corrupt him.
  Whilst these matters were thus in process, to draw off Hannibal from
scenting the design, Fabius sends orders to the garrison in Rhegium,
that they should waste and spoil the Bruttian country, and should also
lay siege to Caulonia, and storm the place with all their might. These
were a body of eight thousand men, the worst of the Roman army, who
had most of them been runaways, and had been brought home by Marcellus
from Sicily, in dishonour, so that the loss of them would not be any
great grief to the Romans. Fabius, therefore, threw out these men as a
bait for Hannibal, to divert him from Tarentum; who instantly caught
at it, and led his forces to Caulonia; in the meantime, Fabius sat
down before Tarentum. On the sixth day of the siege, the young
Tarentine slips by night out of the town, and, having carefully
observed the place where the Bruttian commander, according to
agreement, was to admit the Romans, gave an account of the whole
matter to Fabius; who thought it not safe to rely wholly upon the
plot, but, while proceeding with secrecy to the post, gave order for a
general assault to be made on the other side of the town, both by land
and sea. This being accordingly executed, while the Tarentines hurried
to defend the town on the side attacked, Fabius received the signal
from the Bruttian, scaled the walls, and entered the town unopposed.
  Here, we must confess, ambition seems to have overcome him. To
make it appear to the world that he had taken Tarentum by force and
his own prowess, and not by treachery, he commanded his men to kill
the Bruttians before all others; yet he did not succeed in
establishing the impression he desired, but merely gained the
character of perfidy and cruelty. Many of the Tarentines were also
killed, and thirty thousand of them were sold for slaves; the army had
the plunder of the town, and there was brought into the treasury three
thousand talents. Whilst they were carrying off everything else as
plunder, the officer who took the inventory asked what should be
done with their gods, meaning the pictures and statues; Fabius
answered, "Let us leave their angry gods to the Tarentines."
Nevertheless, he removed the colossal statue of Hercules, and had it
set up in the Capitol, with one of himself on horseback, in brass,
near it; proceedings very different from those of Marcellus on a
like occasion, and which, indeed, very much set off in the eyes of the
world his clemency and humanity, as appears in the account of his
life.
  Hannibal, it is said, was within five miles of Tarentum, when he was
informed that the town was taken. He said openly, "Rome then has
also got a Hannibal; as we won Tarentum, so have we lost it." And,
in private with some of his confidants, he told them, for the first
time, that he always thought it difficult, but now he held it
impossible, with the forces he then had, to master Italy.
  Upon this success, Fabius had a triumph decreed him at Rome, much
more splendid than his first; they looked upon him now as a champion
who had learned to cope with his antagonist, and could now easily foil
his arts and prove his best skill ineffectual. And, indeed, the army
of Hannibal was at this time partly worn away with continual action,
and partly weakened and become dissolute with overabundance and
luxury. Marcus Livius, who was governor of Tarentum when it was
betrayed to Hannibal, and then retired into the citadel, which he kept
till the town was retaken, was annoyed at these honours and
distinctions, and, on one occasion, openly declared in the senate,
that by his resistance, more than by any action of Fabius, Tarentum
had been recovered; on which Fabius laughingly replied: "You say
very true, for if Marcus Livius had not lost Tarentum, Fabius
Maximus had never recovered it." The people, amongst other marks of
gratitude, gave his son the consulship of the next year; shortly after
whose entrance upon his office, there being some business on foot
about provision for the war, his father, either by reason of age and
infirmity, or perhaps out of design to try his son, came up to him
on horseback. While he was still at a distance, the young consul
observed it, and bade one of his lictors command his father to alight,
and tell him if he had any business with the consul, he should come on
foot. The standers-by seemed offended at the imperiousness of the
son towards a father so venerable for his age and his authority, and
turned their eyes in silence towards Fabius. He, however, instantly
alighted from his horse, and with open arms came up, almost running,
and embraced his son, saying, "Yes, my son, you do well, and
understand well what authority you have received, and over whom you
are to use it. This was the way by which we and our forefathers
advanced the dignity of Rome, preferring ever her honour and service
to our own fathers and children."
  And, in fact, it is told that the great-grandfather of our Fabius,
who was undoubtedly the greatest man of Rome in his time, both in
reputation and authority, who had been five times consul, and had been
honoured with several triumphs for victories obtained by him, took
pleasure in serving as lieutenant under his own son, when he went as
consul to his command. And when afterwards his son had a triumph
bestowed upon him for his good service, the old man followed, on
horseback, his triumphant chariot, as one of his attendants; and
made it his glory, that while he really was, and was acknowledged to
be, the greatest man in Rome, and held a father's full power over
his son, he yet submitted himself to the laws and the magistrate.
  But the praises of our Fabius are not bounded here. He afterwards
lost his son, and was remarkable for bearing the loss with the
moderation becoming a pious father and a wise man, and as it was the
custom amongst the Romans, upon the death of any illustrious person,
to have a funeral oration recited by some of the nearest relations, he
took upon himself that office, and delivered a speech in the forum,
which he committed afterwards to writing.
  After Cornelius Scipio, who was sent into Spain, had driven the
Carthaginians, defeated by him in many battles, out of the country,
and had gained over to Rome many towns and nations with large
resources, he was received at his coming home with unexampled joy
and acclamation of the people; who, to show their gratitude, elected
him consul for the year ensuing. Knowing what high expectation they
had of him, he thought the occupation of contesting Italy with
Hannibal a mere old man's employment, and proposed no less a task to
himself than to make Carthage the seat of the war, fill Africa with
arms and devastation, and so oblige Hannibal, instead of invading
the countries of others, to draw back and defend his own. And to
this end he proceeded to exert all the influence he had with the
people. Fabius, on the other side, opposed the undertaking with all
his might, alarming the city, and telling them that nothing but the
temerity of a hot young man could inspire them with such dangerous
counsels, and sparing no means, by word or deed, to prevent it. He
prevailed with the senate to espouse his sentiments; but the common
people thought that he envied the fame of Scipio, and that he was
afraid lest this young conqueror should achieve some great and noble
exploit, and have the glory, perhaps, of driving Hannibal out of
Italy, or even of ending the war, which had for so many years
continued and been protracted under his management.
  To say the truth, when Fabius first opposed this project of
Scipio, he probably did it out of caution and prudence, in
consideration only of the public safety, and of the danger which the
commonwealth might incur; but when he found Scipio every day
increasing in the esteem of the people, rivalry and ambition led him
further, and made him violent and personal in his opposition. For he
even applied to Crassus, the colleague of Scipio, and urged him not to
yield the command to Scipio, but that, if his inclinations were for
it, he should himself in person lead the army to Carthage. He also
hindered the giving money to Scipio for the war; so that he was forced
to raise it upon his own credit and interest from the cities of
Etruria, which were extremely attached to him. On the other side,
Crassus would not stir against him, nor remove out of Italy, being, in
his own nature, averse to all contention, and also having, by his
office of high priest, religious duties to retain him. Fabius,
therefore, tried other ways to oppose the design; he impeded the
levies, and he declaimed, both in the senate and to the people, that
Scipio was not only himself flying from Hannibal, but was also
endeavouring to drain Italy of all its forces, and to spirit away
the youth of the country to a foreign war, leaving behind them their
parents, wives, and children, and the city itself, a defenceless
prey to the conquering and undefeated enemy at their doors. With
this he so far alarmed the people, that at last they would only
allow Scipio for the war the legions which were in Sicily, and three
hundred, whom he particularly trusted, of those men who had served
with him in Spain. In these transactions, Fabius seems to have
followed the dictates of his own wary temper.
  But, after that Scipio was gone over into Africa, when news almost
immediately came to Rome of wonderful exploits and victories, of which
the fame was confirmed by the spoils he sent home; of a Numidian
king taken prisoner; of a vast slaughter of their men; of two camps of
the enemy burnt and destroyed, and in them a great quantity of arms
and horses; and when, hereupon, the Carthaginians were compelled to
send envoys to Hannibal to call him home, and leave his idle hopes
in Italy, to defend Carthage; when, for such eminent and
transcending services, the whole people of Rome cried up and
extolled the actions of Scipio; even then, Fabius contended that a
successor should be sent in his place, alleging for it only the old
reason of the mutability of fortune, as if she would be weary of
long favouring the same person. With this language many did begin to
feel offended; it seemed to be morosity and ill-will, the
pusillanimity of old age, or a fear, that had now become
exaggerated, of the skill of Hannibal. Nay, when Hannibal had put
his army on shipboard, and taken his leave of Italy, Fabius still
could not forbear to oppose and disturb the universal joy of Rome,
expressing his fears and apprehensions, telling them that the
commonwealth was never in more danger than now, and that Hannibal
was a more formidable enemy under the walls of Carthage than ever he
had been in Italy; that it would be fatal to Rome whenever Scipio
should encounter his victorious army, still warm with the blood of
so many Roman generals, dictators, and consuls slain. And the people
were, in some degree, startled with these declamations, and were
brought to believe that the further off Hannibal was, the nearer was
their danger. Scipio, however, shortly afterwards fought Hannibal, and
utterly defeated him, humbled the pride of Carthage beneath his feet,
gave his countrymen joy and exultation beyond all their hopes, and-

         "Long shaken on the seas restored the state."

  Fabius Maximus, however, did not live to see the prosperous end of
this war, and the final overthrow of Hannibal, nor to rejoice in the
re-established happiness and security of the commonwealth; for about
the time that Hannibal left Italy, he fell sick and died. At Thebes,
Epaminondas died so poor that he was buried at the public charge;
one small iron coin was all, it is said, that was found in his
house. Fabius did not need this, but the people, as a mark of their
affection, defrayed the expenses of his funeral by a private
contribution from each citizen of the smallest piece of coin; thus
owning him their common father, and making his end no less
honourable than his life.
                             THE END