Fabius Maximus Cunctator: The Warty Delayer Who Starved Hannibal

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Quintus Fabius Maximus, born around 280 BC into the Fabian family, was mocked as a child as slow and cautious and nicknamed Verrucosus, warty, for a wart on his lip. He still built a conventional career as an augur and as consul in 233 BC, winning a triumph over the Ligurians. In 218 BC he led the Roman embassy to Carthage demanding Hannibal's surrender; he gathered a fold of his toga, said it held peace and war, and when the Carthaginians told him to choose, let it fall for war. After the disasters at the Trebia and Lake Trasimene, the Senate named him dictator but forced on him a rival, Marcus Minucius, as master of the horse.

Fabius calmed the city with mass sacrifices and festivals, then shadowed Hannibal from high ground where Numidian cavalry could not charge, attacked foragers, and burned crops. Romans called him Cunctator, the Delayer, as an insult. After Minucius was given equal power and walked into Hannibal's trap at Geronium, Fabius rescued him, and Minucius submitted to his command again. Cannae in 216 BC proved Fabius right, and his strategy became Rome's policy in Italy. He later opposed Scipio's invasion of Africa and died in 203 BC, before Zama.

• As dictator he won an exemption to ride a horse and made a sitting consul dismiss his lictors and approach as a private citizen.
• He ordered every citizen to spend exactly 333 sesterces and 333 denarii as part of the religious campaign.
• The consul Paulus told Fabius he feared Roman voters more than Hannibal's army before Cannae.
• After Cannae, Fabius posted guards at the gates to stop flight and limited private mourning to 30 days.
• His strategy later earned George Washington the name American Fabius and Mikhail Kutuzov the name Russian Fabius.