Fabius Maximus: The Life of the Roman General Who Pioneered Guerrilla Warfare during the Punic Wars

Certain foreign policy decisions led to continuing enmity between Carthage and the burgeoning power of Rome, and what followed was a series of wars which turned from a battle for Mediterranean hegemony into an all-out struggle for survival. Although the Romans gained the upper hand in the wake of the First Punic War, Hannibal brought the Romans to their knees for over a decade during the Second Punic War. While military historians are still amazed that he was able to maintain his army in Italy near Rome for nearly 15 years, scholars are still puzzled over some of his decisions, including why he never attempted to march on Rome in the first place.

The Romans, desperate for something to rid themselves of their Carthaginian nemesis, appointed General Fabius Maximus as Dictator, an extraordinary measure which was only undertaken in times of the greatest crisis. Maximus, who had a healthy respect for Hannibal's generalship and was painfully aware of what had befallen Roman armies in pitched battles against him, developed the "Fabian Strategy," which focused on indirect, attritional warfare. This strategy called for relying on skirmishes, ambushes, and dilatory tactics to harass, undermine and frighten Hannibal's forces, avoiding a pitched battle which would almost certainly have proven ruinous. Though Maximus' tactics were effective, this indirect mode of warfare was considered dishonorable and even cowardly by many Romans, who derisively nicknamed him "Cunctator" ("Delayer").

The Romans seethed with the conviction that their commander was either a coward or a fool, or something worse, but Maximus' decision to not attack Hannibal captured his strategy better than anything else. Ultimately, he saved Rome by refusing to fight it out, wearing down the invaders instead of driving them off, and he bore the contempt of his own people for years while he did the one thing that could keep the Republic alive.