for some of the oxen in their flight had fallen into the hands of the
Romans; but, fearing to fall into an ambuscade in the darkness, he kept
his men quiet under arms. When day broke he pursued and attacked the
rearguard, which led to many confused skirmishes in the rough ground,
and produced great confusion, till Hannibal sent back his practised
Spanish mountaineers from the head of his column. These men, being light
and active, attacked the heavily-armed Roman infantry and beat off
Fabius' attack with very considerable loss. Now Fabius's unpopularity
reached its highest pitch, and he was regarded with scorn and contempt.
He had, they said, determined to refrain from a pitched battle, meaning
to overcome Hannibal by superior generalship, and he had been defeated
in that too. And Hannibal himself, wishing to increase the dislike which
the Romans felt for him, though he burned and ravaged every other part
of Italy, forbade his men to touch Fabius's own estates, and even placed
a guard to see that no damage was done to them. This was reported at
Rome, greatly to his discredit; and the tribunes of the people brought
all kinds of false accusations against him in public harangues,
instigated chiefly by Metilius, who was not Fabius's personal enemy, but
being a relative of Minucius, the Master of the Horse, thought that he
was pressing the interests of the latter by giving currency to all these
scandalous reports about Fabius. He was also disliked by the Senate
because of the terms which he had arranged with Hannibal about the
exchange of prisoners. The two commanders agreed that the prisoners
should be exchanged man for man, and that if either party had more than
the other, he should redeem for two hundred and fifty drachmas per man.
When, then, this exchange took place, two hundred and forty Romans were
found remaining in Hannibal's hands. The Senate determined not to send
these men's ransom, and blamed Fabius for having acted improperly and
against the interests of the State in taking back men whose cowardice
had made them fall into the hands of the enemy. Fabius, on hearing this,
was not moved at the discontent of the citizens, but having no money, as
he could not bear to deceive Hannibal and give up his countrymen, sent
his son to Rome with orders to sell part of his estate, and bring him
the money at once to the camp. The young man soon sold the land, and
quickly returned. Fabius now sent the ransom to Hannibal and recovered
the prisoners, many of whom afterwards offered to repay him; but he
would take nothing, and forgave their debt to them all.
VIII. After this the priests recalled him to Rome to perform certain
sacrifices. He now transferred the command to Minucius, and not merely
ordered him as dictator not to fight or entangle himself with the enemy,
but even gave him much advice and besought him not to do so, all of
which Minucius set at nought, and at once attacked the enemy. Once he
observed that Hannibal had sent the greater part of his army out to
forage for provisions, and, attacking the remaining troops, he drove
them into their intrenched camp, slew many, and terrified the rest, who
feared that he might carry the camp by assault. When Hannibal's forces
collected again, Minucius effected his retreat with safety, having
excited both himself and the army with his success, and filled them with
a spirit of reckless daring. Soon an inflated report of the action
reached Rome. Fabius, when he heard of it, said that with Minucius he
feared success more than failure; but the populace were delighted, and
joyfully collected in the Forum, where Metilius the tribune ascended the
rostra, and made a speech glorifying Minucius, and accusing Fabius not
merely of remissness or cowardice, but of actual treachery, accusing
also the other leading men of the city of having brought on the war from
the very beginning in order to destroy the constitution; and he also
charged them with having placed the city in the hands of one man as
dictator, who by his dilatory proceedings would give Hannibal time to
establish himself firmly and to obtain reinforcements from Africa to
enable him to conquer Italy.
IX. When Fabius addressed the people, he did not deign to make any
defence against the accusations of the tribune, but said that he should
accomplish his sacrifices and sacred duties as quickly as possible, in
order to return to the army and punish Minucius for having fought a
battle against his orders. At this a great clamour was raised by the
people, who feared for their favourite Minucius, for a dictator has
power to imprison any man, and even to put him to death; and they
thought that Fabius, a mild-tempered man now at last stirred up to
wrath, would be harsh and inexorable. All refrained from speaking, but
Metilius, having nothing to fear because of the privileges of his office
of tribune (for that is the only office which does not lose its
prerogatives on the election of a dictator, but remains untouched though
all the rest are annulled), made a violent appeal to the people, begging
them not to give up Minucius, nor allow him to be treated as Manlius
Torquatus treated his son, who had him beheaded, although he had fought
most bravely and gained a crown of laurel for his victory. He asked them
to remove Fabius from his dictatorship, and to bestow it upon one who
was able and willing to save the country. Excited as they were by these
words, they yet did not venture upon removing Fabius from his post, in
spite of their feeling against him, but they decreed that Minucius
should conduct the war, having equal powers with the dictator, a thing
never before done in Rome, but which occurred shortly afterwards, after
the disaster at Cannae, when Marcus Junius was dictator in the camp,
and, as many members of the Senate had perished in the battle, they
chose another dictator, Fabius Buteo. However, he, after enrolling the
new senators, on the same day dismissed his lictors, got rid of the
crowd which escorted him, and mixed with the people in the Forum,
transacting some business of his own as a private man.
X. Now the people, by placing Minucius on the same footing with the
dictator, thought to humble Fabius, but they formed a very false
estimate of his character. He did not reckon their ignorance to be his
misfortune, but as Diogenes the philosopher, when some one said "They
are deriding you," answered "But I am not derided," thinking that those
alone are derided who are affected and disturbed by it, so Fabius
quietly and unconcernedly endured all that was done, hereby affording an
example of the truth of that philosophic maxim that a good and honest
man can suffer no disgrace. Yet he grieved over the folly of the people
on public grounds, because they had given a man of reckless ambition an
opportunity for indulging his desire for battle; and, fearing that
Minucius would be altogether beside himself with pride and vain glory,
and would soon do some irreparable mischief, he left Rome unperceived by
any one. On reaching the camp, he found Minucius no longer endurable,
but insolent and overbearing, and demanding to have the sole command
every other day. To this Fabius would not agree, but divided his forces
with him, thinking it better to command a part than partly to command
the whole of the army. He took the first and fourth legion, and left the
second and third to Minucius, dividing the auxiliary troops equally with
him.
As Minucius gave himself great airs, and was gratified at the thought
that the greatest officer in the State had been humbled and brought low
by his means, Fabius reminded him that if he judged aright, he would
regard Hannibal, not Fabius, as his enemy; but that if he persisted in
his rivalry with his colleagues, he must beware lest he, the honoured
victor, should appear more careless of the safety and success of his
countrymen, than he who had been overcome and ill-treated by them.
XI. Minucius thought all this to be merely the expression of the old
man's jealousy. He took his allotted troops, and encamped apart from
him. Hannibal was not ignorant of what was passing, and watched all
their movements narrowly.
There was a hill between the two armies, which it was not difficult to
take, which when taken would afford an army a safe position, and one
well supplied with necessaries. The plain by which it was surrounded
appeared to be perfectly smooth, but was nevertheless intersected with
ditches and other hollow depressions. On this account Hannibal would not
take the hill, although he could easily have done so, but preferred to
leave it untouched, in order to draw the enemy into fighting for its
possession. But as soon as he saw Fabius separated from Minucius, he
placed during the night some troops in the depressions and hollows which
we have mentioned, and at daybreak sent a few men to take the hill, in
order to draw Minucius into fighting for it, in which he succeeded.
Minucius first sent out his light troops, then his cavalry, and finally,
seeing that Hannibal was reinforcing the troops on the hill, he came
down with his entire force. He fought stoutly, and held his own against
the soldiers on the hill, who shot their missiles at him; when Hannibal,
seeing him thoroughly deceived, and offering an unprotected flank to the
troops in the ambush, gave them the signal to charge. Upon this they
attacked the Romans from all sides, rushing upon them with loud shouts,
cutting off the rearmost men, and throwing the whole army into confusion
and panic. Minucius himself lost heart and kept glancing first at one
and then at another of his officers, none of whom ventured to stand
their ground, but betook themselves in a confused mass to running away,
a proceeding which brought them no safety, for the Numidian horsemen, as
the day was now theirs, scoured the plain, encompassing the fugitives,
and cut off all stragglers.
XII. Fabius had carefully watched the Romans, and saw in what danger
they were. Conscious, it would seem, of what was going to happen, he had
kept his troops under arms, and gained his information of what was going
on, not from the reports of scouts, but from his own eyesight, from a
convenient height outside of his camp. As soon as he saw the army
surrounded and panic-stricken, and heard the cries of the Romans, who no
longer fought, but were overcome by terror, and betaking themselves to
flight, he smote his thigh and with a deep sigh, said to his friends,
"By Hercules, now Minucius has ruined himself, quicker than I expected,
and yet slower than his manoeuvres warranted." Having given orders to
carry out the standards as quickly as possible, and for the whole army
to follow, he said aloud, "My men, hurry on your march: think of Marcus
Minucius; he is a brave man and loves his country. If he has made any
mistake in his haste to drive out the enemy, we will blame him for that
at another time." The appearance of Fabius scared and drove back the
Numidians, who were slaughtering the fugitives in the plain; next he
bore against those who were attacking the Roman rear, slaying all he
met, though most of them, before they were cut off and treated as they
had treated the Romans, betook themselves to flight. Hannibal seeing
that the fortune of the battle was changed, and how Fabius himself, with
a strength beyond his years, was forcing his way through the thickest
battle up the hill to reach Minucius, withdrew his troops, and, sounding
a retreat, led them back into his entrenched camp, affording a most
seasonable relief to the Romans. It is said that Hannibal as he retired,
spoke jokingly about Fabius to his friends in the words, "Did I not
often warn you that the dark cloud which has so long brooded on the
mountain tops, would at last break upon us with blasts of hail and
storm?"
XIII. After the battle Fabius collected the spoils of such of the enemy
as were slain, and drew off his forces without letting fall a single
boastful or offensive expression about his colleague. But Minucius
assembled his own troops, and thus addressed them, "My fellow-soldiers,
it is beyond human skill to make no mistakes in matters of importance,
but it is the part of a man of courage and sense to use his mistakes as
warnings for the future. I myself confess that I have little fault to
find with Fortune, and great reason to thank her; for in the space of
one day I have learned what I never knew in all my previous life: that
is, that I am not able to command others, but myself require a
commander, and I have no ambition to conquer a man by whom it is more
glorious to be defeated. The dictator is your leader in everything
except in this, that I will lead you to express your thankfulness to
him, by being the first to offer myself to him as an example of
obedience and willingness to carry out his orders." After these words
he ordered the eagles to be raised aloft and all the soldiers to follow
them to the camp of Fabius. On entering it, he proceeded to the
General's tent, to the surprise and wonderment of all. When Fabius was
come out, he placed his standards in the ground before him, and himself
addressed him as father in a loud voice, while his soldiers greeted
those of Fabius by the name of their Patrons, which is the name by which
freed men address those who have set them free. Silence being enforced,
Minucius said: "Dictator, you have won two victories to-day, for you
have conquered Hannibal by your bravery, and your colleague by your
kindness and your generalship. By the one you have saved our lives, and
by the other you have taught us our duty, for we have been disgracefully
defeated by Hannibal, but beneficially and honourably by you. I call you
my excellent father, having no more honourable appellation to bestow,
since I owe a greater debt of gratitude to you than to him who begot me.
To him I merely owe my single life, but to you I owe not only that but
the lives of all my men." After these words he embraced Fabius, and the
soldiers followed his example, embracing and kissing one another, so
that the camp was full of joy and of most blessed tears.
XIV. After this, Fabius laid down his office, and consuls were again
elected. Those who were first elected followed the defensive policy of
Fabius, avoiding pitched battles with Hannibal, but reinforcing the
allies and preventing defections. But when Terentius Varro was made
consul, a man of low birth, but notorious for his rash temper and his
popularity with the people, he made no secret, in his inexperience and
self-confidence, of his intention of risking everything on one cast. He
was always reiterating in his public speeches that under such generals
as Fabius the war made no progress, whereas he would conquer the enemy
the first day he saw him. By means of these boastful speeches he
enrolled as soldiers such a multitude as the Romans had never before had
at their disposal in any war, for there collected for the battle
eighty-eight thousand men. This caused great disquietude to Fabius and
other sensible Romans, who feared that if so many of the youth of Rome
were cut off, the city would never recover from the blow. They addressed
themselves therefore to the other consul, Paulus Aemilius, a man of
great experience in war, but disagreeable to the people and afraid of
them because he had once been fined by them. Fabius encouraged him to
attempt to hold the other consul's rashness in check, pointing out that
he would have to fight for his country's safety with Terentius Varro no
less than with Hannibal. Varro, he said, will hasten to engage because
he does not know his own strength, and Hannibal will do so because he
knows his own weakness. "I myself, Paulus," said he, "am more to be
believed than Varro as to the condition of Hannibal's affairs, and I am
sure that if no battle takes place with him for a year, he will either
perish in this country or be compelled to quit it; because even now,
when he seems to be victorious and carrying all before him, not one of
his enemies have come over to his side, while scarcely a third of the
force which he brought from home is now surviving." It is said that
Paulus answered as follows: "For my own part, Fabius, it is better for
me to fall by the spears of the enemy than be again condemned by the
votes of my own countrymen; but if public affairs are indeed in this
critical situation, I will endeavour rather to approve myself a good
general to you than to all those who are urging me to the opposite
course." With this determination Paulus began the campaign.
XV. Varro induced his colleague to adopt the system of each consul
holding the chief command on alternate days. He proceeded to encamp near
Hannibal on the banks of the river Aufidus, close to the village of
Cannae. At daybreak he showed the signal of battle (a red tunic
displayed over the General's tent), so that the Carthaginians were at
first disheartened at the daring of the consul and the great number of
his troops, more than twice that of their own army. Hannibal ordered his
soldiers to get under arms, and himself rode with a few others to a
rising ground, from which he viewed the enemy, who were already forming
their ranks. When one Gisco, a man of his own rank, said to him that the
numbers of the enemy were wonderful, Hannibal with a serious air
replied, "Another circumstance much more wonderful than this has escaped
your notice, Gisco." When Gisco asked what it might be, Hannibal
answered, "It is, that among all those men before you there is not one
named Gisco." At this unexpected answer they all began to laugh, and as
they came down the hill they kept telling this joke to all whom they
met, so that the laugh became universal, and Hannibal's staff was quite
overpowered with merriment. The Carthaginian soldiers seeing this took
courage, thinking that their General must be in a position to despise
his enemy if he could thus laugh and jest in the presence of danger.
XVI. In the battle Hannibal employed several stratagems: first, in
securing the advantage of position, by getting the wind at his back, for
it blew a hurricane, raising a harsh dust from the sandy plains, which
rose over the Carthaginians and blew in the faces of the Romans,
throwing them into confusion. Secondly, in his disposition of his forces
he showed great skill. The best troops were placed on the wings, and the
centre, which was composed of the worst, was made to project far beyond
the rest of the line. The troops on each wing were told that when the
Romans had driven in this part of the line and were so become partly
enclosed, that each wing must turn inwards, and attack them in the flank
and rear and endeavour to surround them. This was the cause of the
greatest slaughter; for when the centre gave way, and made room for the
pursuing Romans, Hannibal's line assumed a crescent form, and the
commanders of the select battalions charging from the right and left of
the Romans attacked them in flank, destroying every man except such as
escaped being surrounded. It is related that a similar disaster befel
the Roman cavalry. The horse of Paulus was wounded, and threw its rider,
upon which man after man of his staff dismounted and came to help the
consul on foot. The cavalry, seeing this, took it for a general order to
dismount, and at once attacked the enemy on foot. Hannibal, seeing this,
said, "I am better pleased at this than if he had handed them over to me
bound hand and foot." This anecdote is found in those writers who have
described the incidents of the battle in detail. Of the consuls, Varro
escaped with a few followers to Venusia. Paulus, in the whirling eddies
of the rout, covered with darts which still stuck in his wounds, and
overwhelmed with sorrow at the defeat, sat down on a stone to await his
death at the hands of the enemy. The blood with which his face and head
were covered made it hard for any one to recognise him; but even his own
friends and servants passed him by, taking no heed of him. Only
Cornelius Lentulus, a young patrician, saw and recognised him.
Dismounting from his horse and leading it up to him he begged him to
take it and preserve his life, at a time when the State especially
needed a wise ruler. But he refused, and forced the youth, in spite of
his tears, to remount his horse. He then took him by the hand, saying,
"Lentulus, tell Fabius Maximus, and bear witness yourself, that Paulus
Aemilius followed his instructions to the last, and departed from
nothing of what was agreed upon between us; but he was vanquished first
by Varro, and secondly by Hannibal." Having given Lentulus these
instructions he sent him away, and flinging himself on to the enemy's
swords perished. In that battle it is reckoned that fifty thousand
Romans fell, and four thousand were taken prisoners, besides not less
than ten thousand who were taken after the battle in the camps of the
two consuls.
XVII. After this immense success, Hannibal was urged by his friends to
follow up his victory and enter Rome with the fugitives, promising that
five days thereafter he should sup in the Capitol. It is not easy to say
what reasons could have deterred him from doing so, and it seems rather
as if some divinity prevented his march, and inspired him with the
dilatory and timid policy which he followed. It is said that the
Carthaginian, Barca, said to him, "You know how to win a victory, but do
not know how to use one." Yet so great a change was effected by this
victory that he, who before it had not possessed a single city, market,
or harbour in Italy, and had to obtain his provisions with the utmost
difficulty by plunder, having no regular base of operations, but merely
wandering about with his army as though carrying on brigandage on a
large scale, now saw nearly the whole of Italy at his feet. Some of the
largest and most powerful States came over to him of their own accord,
and he attacked and took Capua, the most important city next to Rome
itself.
It would appear that the saying of Euripides, that "adversity tries our
friends," applies also to good generals. That which before this battle
was called Fabius's cowardice and remissness, was now regarded as more
than human sagacity, and a foresight so wonderful as to be beyond
belief. Rome at once centred her last hopes upon Fabius, taking refuge
in his wisdom as men take sanctuary at an altar, believing his
discretion to be the chief cause of her surviving this present crisis,
even as in the old Gaulish troubles. For though he had been so cautious
and backward at a time when there seemed to be no imminent danger, yet
now when every one was giving way to useless grief and lamentation, he
alone walked through the streets at a calm pace, with a composed
countenance and kindly voice, stopped all womanish wailings and
assemblies in public to lament their losses, persuaded the Senate to
meet, and gave fresh courage to the magistrates, being really himself
the moving spirit and strength of the State, which looked to him alone
to command it.
XVIII. He placed guards at the gates to prevent the mob from quitting
the city, and regulated the period of mourning, bidding every man mourn
for thirty days in his own house, after which all signs of mourning were
to be put away. As the feast of Ceres fell during those days, it was
thought better to omit both the sacrifices and the processions than to
have them marred by the consciousness of their misfortune, which would
be painfully evident in the small number of worshippers and their
downcast looks. However, everything that the soothsayers commanded to
appease the anger of the gods and to expiate prodigies was carried out.
Fabius Pictor, a relative of the great Fabius, was sent to Delphi, and
of two of the Vestal virgins who were found to have been seduced, one
was buried alive, as is the usual custom, while the other died by her
own hand. Especially admirable was the spirit and the calm composure of
the city when the consul Varro returned after his flight. He came
humbled to the dust, as a man would who had been the cause of a
terrible disaster, but at the gate the Senate and all the people went
out to greet him. The chief men and the magistrates, amongst whom was
Fabius, having obtained silence, spoke in praise of him "because he had
not despaired of the State after such a calamity, but had come back to
undertake the conduct of affairs and do what he could for his countrymen
as one who thought they might yet be saved."