Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Fabius
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Fabius
(legendary, died 203 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
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
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