Fabian strategy: helpless operations

in the Punic War and the Roman crisis In 217 BC, with the defeat ofthe Battle of Lake Trasimino, the whole of Rome fell into seriouspanic. As Hannibal's Carthage army could not be effectively stopped, theSenate began to change its mind and appointed Fabian, a unique personality, asan authoritarian officer. He also introduced his unique procrastinationstrategy to the Roman Legion, which emphasized confrontation.

Later generations often regard this Fabian strategy as a great wisdom to lookat the overall situation. However, in Rome during the Second Punic War,this was only a helpless and expedient measure. In the end, they wereabandoned by the Romans themselves because of the slow results.

1. Delaying the tactics

Hannibal's several victories surprised Rome.

Despite Hannibal's outstanding success on both the Trebia and Lake Simeno,Carthage's army did not immediately descend to Rome. Since the beginningof the war, they have suffered huge losses due to various harsh naturalconditions. Frequent fighting after entering Italy even exhausted thosesoldiers who lacked rest. Due to lack of nutrition, many people evensuffer from sepsis.

For this reason, Hannibal decided to seize the opportunity to make adjustments,pushing his entire army eastward to the remaining Adriatic coast. They arelooting there in preparation for this year's winter vacation. In starkcontrast, the city of Rome is frustrating. Civilians and aristocrats havea deep understanding of how dangerous the current situation is. At thesame time, the newly formed army was forced to deploy during the winter toprevent cunning opponents from launching another sneak attack.

The Carthages were also exhausted by the long war abroad.

Fabian decided to seize Hannibal's isolated overseas weakness and continue totrack his opponents, making it impossible for him to easily maintain thelogistics system. He urgently convened four legions north and formed aRoman remnant in Narnia, sending commander Servigli Ulysses, who was far away,to his hometown to organize maritime defense. After the arrangement wascompleted, Fabian officially began his strategic practice. The Romansquickly marched to Ayek, not far from the enemy, where they camped andmonitored them. Hannibal quickly discovered the Roman army and withdrewthe army as usual, occupying the front of another camp. However, Fabiandid not respond to any provocations. The Romans didn't want to wage a warat all, but they could not hold on, but they would never linger. TheCarthage army was also not good at solving difficult problems and was unwillingto risk major casualties, so it had to let go.

In the following months, Hannibal led the army to burn, kill andplunder. To stimulate Fabian to fight against himself, they slaughteredall the residents every time they broke into a town, then moved south to reachthe Samoan settlements. There, they continued to attack the Roman colonialcity of Benivington and the local wealthy town of Venus. However, Fabianremained indifferent. He just led the army behind him, keeping a marchingdistance of 1-2 days. When occupying high ground or pass, they will alsosend light infantry to attack the grain collection team of Carthage, causinggreat trouble for the other party. Hannibal stepped up the robbery,deliberately attacked areas that were not Roman immigrants, hoping to crackdown and disrupt the Italian alliance.

Fabian never accepted Hannibal's challenges and temptations.

Fabian's conservative strategy also puts tremendous pressure onhimself. The soldier and centurion in the army looked timid and began toquestion his decision. For Roman politics at the time, their continuedfailure made their morale even lower. However, the frontline troops couldonly watch their allies and compatriots continue to kill, which was very inconsistentwith the direction of public opinion and public expectations. Thesefactors spread to Fabian, forcing him to improve his style.

Hannibal also learned the status of the Roman army through spies and led thearmy to quickly march to Capua in southeast Rome. After looting anddestroying the city, it turned to Campania further south. It is Italy'srichest plain, with important ports along the coast. If the Carthaginiansoccupy the area, they will not only get ample supply, but they will also beable to establish stable relations with their motherland in NorthAfrica. In addition, the local population is mainly composed of Samoansconquered by Rome, so they are not as willing to resist as many colonialcities.

Samoans who became Roman allies

2. Night of Agfalas fighting

The cavalry advantage of the Carthage army made Fabian need to avoid fightingin the plains.

Fabian's strategic thinking is not to avoid all conflicts for self-protection,but to make the necessary trade-offs for the purpose. Therefore, when we understandHannibal's intentions, we will certainly step up and interfere with eachother. However, on the open plain terrain, the cavalry disadvantage of theRoman army was very obvious. In order not to give opponents a chance todestroy their team, this team will still choose to camp in the highlands andelsewhere. It wasn't until the Carthages returned to their winter campbecause of more looting that Rome began to fight back.

With his familiarity with the Italian terrain, Fabian guessed that Hannibal wouldfollow his conservative path. As a result, 4,000 soldiers were sent to thepoint where the enemy must pass to strengthen their defense, while he himselfled the main force to camp on a nearby mountain, waiting for the other to enterthe trap. As a result, even the cunning Hannibal was worried about thesituation. Aware of their plight, they stayed in Agfaras for the timebeing. As night fell, he showed off the tricks he learned from Spain.

Spanish Javelinmen in Hannibal Army

In September 217 BC, Hannibal ordered that a large amount of dry wood be tiedto 2,000 cattle to avoid heavy losses in fierce mountain battles. Thisvery aggressive tactic was once a coup in which the Spanish barbarians killedtheir father. But it is easy to hurt their army in turn. Therefore,the Carthages also need to arrange some standard shooters to follow them toavoid them turning suddenly. As a result, when the herd was driven away byartillery fire and intimidation, Rome with poor vision felt that the enemy wasbreaking through. In order not to lose the victory, the Roman soldiersguarding the prison gave up their positions and rushed in the direction of thefire. There they were attacked by cattle and then followed bysharpshooters. As for the true Carthage main force, they took theopportunity to pass through the mountain pass.

Until dawn, Roman talents realized that they had been deceived. Toocautious Fabian was unwilling to take the risk of leading the army out of thebattalion. As a result, only 4,000 regiments pursued the light infantry ofCarthage. The latter all retreated to the top of the mountain, and thecommanding heights blocked several violent attacks. Hannibal also led themain infantry back to the mountain pass from the other side, successfully defeatingthe Roman Legion, adding another 1,000 to his record. What's more,Fabian's prestige in the Roman army has been completely lost, and hisprocrastinating tactics are completely considered cowardly. The cavalryleader Menesia wrote to impeach the dictator and temporarily took over militarypower with the support of the Roman Senate.

Agger Frascati night fighting destroyed the authority of law than the safety of

3, Gloria Battle

fearless continue Hannibal led his army ravaged Campania

Since then, Hannibal led his army to continue the siege Nearby Gloriacity. The local residents were unwilling to form an alliance with him, sothey forced the Carthaginians to launch a large-scale storm. But when theybuilt trenches and fences outside the city, the Roman legions quickly arrivedthere.

Hannibal did not know that Fabien had been covered by snow, and continued tosend large numbers of troops in search of grain and feed. However, underthe leadership of the new commander, Roman soldiers swooped down from the hilland continued to march towards Carthage. After a long time, they came to aplace with only a small hill. Hannibal sent 2,000 Spanish sharpshooters tooccupy it overnight, in order to preemptively attack. But the Romans sentmore troops to attack without rest, and drove them backfaster. Subsequently, an army of nearly 40,000 men established a camp atthe stronghold.

Roman legions lined up against the enemy

. Menesia has been vengeful for Hannibal ever since. He sent a largenumber of cavalry to attack the abandoned Carthage Grain Collection. Hepersonally led the main infantry to the enemy's camp. Lacking thenecessary preparations, Hannibal's soldiers soon failed to guard the outerfence. At this critical moment, nearly 4,000 attacked grain collectionteams returned. Hannibal immediately put them into battle and stopped theRomans. The soldiers scattered in the camp were then regrouped, and theRoman Legion was expelled by the entire team. Later, aware of the changesin the situation, they also took the initiative to dismantle the siegefortifications and evacuated to the mountains.

In this way, the Romans defeated Hannibal for the first time. However, theSenate released news at this time and officially promoted Manuel Manuel asdictator, allowing him to share military power with Fabian. In otherwords, Rome, in order to prevent the individual fr

Hannibal from finding and observing through observation and intelligence, thetwo Roman commanders disagree. He set a trap on the nearby mountain tolure young Minos to hook. He arranged 5,000 light infantry and 500 cavalryto ambush at the foot of the mountain. Other forces were sent to occupythe mountains, hoping that Manuccias could initiate the offensive. Theimpetuous young autocratic officer adopted the same tactics, sending lightinfantry to attack the hills, and then arranged cavalry and legions to supportthem. Although he only had an army of 20,000 men, he could not stop himfrom challenging the 50,000 Carthages on the opposite side.

As a result, the Carthaginians continued to send troops to support the hillpositions and signaled the long-awaited ambush. The Roman cavalrypenetrated into the broken terrain and was completely defeated by thewings. The light infantry fighting them could not stand the oppression ofheavy soldiers. They escaped from the hill behind them, and ran into thefront of the heavy infantry marching towards the summit. Soon the entireRoman army fell into chaos and was slaughtered by the Carthaginians whosurrounded it everywhere. Fortunately, Fabian brought the remaining 20,000Roman soldiers to the rescue, which saved his colleagues from being destroyed.

Carthage ambushes the attackers on the Romans

4. The demise of the master of strategy

The head of Fabian in the classical era

Because Hannibal was very careful about the loss of his troops, he did notchoose to continue after the arrival of Fabian fighting. However, thisfailure was enough to shame Nugias and return his military power to the eldersaround him. Soldiers unwilling to endure humiliation have also become moredifficult to tame than in the past.

Although Fabian has once again restored his autocratic powers, their six-monthterm is about to end. During the period when he led the army, the army didnot stop Hannibal from killing the villages and towns, but let the other partyfind enough winter supplies. So radicals in the Senate quickly prevailed,overthrowing the timid dictator. Perhaps Fabian's strategy will bear fruitin his next term, but history has never given him such a chance. The twogenerals advocating a decisive battle are already on their way to theirposts. The following year, they will introduce the entire army to Carney'sslaughterhouse.

The second Punic war will gradually reach its climax.

But for Hannibal, things have never changed. His troops were able to filltheir stomachs temporarily, but they were still unable to get reinforcementsfrom home. The Spanish advance base will be countered by the Romans, whileSicily, which separates Tunisia from Italy, will continue to be guarded byRoman allies Syracuse.

In other words, in order to get a real improvement, he must also win morevictory over the legion. Fortunately, the Romans will soon see anopportunity to push the Second Punic War to a real climax.

Special statement: The above content (such as pictures or videos) is uploadedand posted by users of the media platform "NetEase". NetEase onlyprovides information storage services.