Plutarch’s Moralia
(195)ἐπιβουλήν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅπως μὴ δοκῶσι Ῥωμαῖοι δόλῳ κτείνειν, ὡς φανερῶς νικᾶν οὐ δυνάμενοι.
CΦΑΒΙΟΥ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ
1. Φάβιος Μάξιμος Ἀννίβᾳ μάχεσθαι μὴ βουλόμενος ἀλλὰ τρίβειν χρόνῳ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ χρημάτων ἐνδεᾶ καὶ σιτίων οὖσαν, ἐπηκολούθει διὰ τῶν τραχέων καὶ ὀρεινῶν ἀντιπαρεξιών· καταγελώντων δὲ τῶν πολλῶν καὶ παιδαγωγὸν Ἀννίβα καλούντων, μικρὰ φροντίζων ἐχρῆτο τοῖς αὑτοῦ λογισμοῖς· καὶ πρὸς τοὺς φίλους ἔλεγεν ὅτι τὸν σκώμματα φοβούμενον καὶ λοιδορίας δειλότερον ἡγεῖται τοῦ φεύγοντος τοὺς πολεμίους.
2. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦ συνάρχοντος Μινουκίου καταβαλόντος τινὰς τῶν πολεμίων πολὺς ἦν λόγος ὡς Dἀνδρὸς ἀξίου τῆς Ῥώμης, μᾶλλον ἔφη τὴν εὐτυχίαν ἢ τὴν ἀτυχίαν τοῦ Μινουκίου φοβεῖσθαι. καὶ μετὰ μικρὸν ἐνέδρᾳ περιπεσόντος καὶ κινδυνεύοντος ἀπολέσθαι μετὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεως, ἐπιβοηθήσας τῶν τε πολεμίων πολλοὺς διέφθειρε κἀκεῖνον ἔσῳσεν. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀννίβας εἶπε πρὸς τοὺς φίλους, “οὐ πολλάκις ὑμῖν προύλεγον ἐγὼ τὴν ἀπὸ1 τῶν ὀρῶν νεφέλην ὅτι χειμάσει ποτὲ ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς;”
3. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐν Κάνναις ἀτυχίαν τῆς πόλεως ἄρχων κατασταθεὶς μετὰ Κλαυδίου Μαρκέλλου,
Sayings of Romans
Pyrrhus that he had disclosed the plot, but that the Romans might not have the repute of killing through treachery, as if they could not win an open victory.”a
Fabius Maximusb
1. Fabius Maximus wished to avoid a battle with Hannibal, but, in time, to wear out his force, which was in need of both money and food; and so he followed close after him, taking a parallel route, through rough and mountainous places. When most people laughed at him, and called him a slave in attendance on Hannibal, he paid little attention, and continued to follow his own counsels. To his friends he said that he thought the man who feared gibes and jeers was more of a coward than the one who ran away from the enemy.c
2. When his colleague in command, Minucius, laid low some of the enemy, and there was much talk of him as a man worthy of Rome, Fabius said that he felt more afraid over Minucius’s good luck than over any bad luck he might have. And not long after, Minucius fell into an ambush and was in great danger of being destroyed together with his forces, when Fabius came to his aid, slew many of the enemy, and rescued him. Whereupon Hannibal said to his friends, “Did I not often prophesy to you regarding that cloud upon the mountains, that some day it would let loose a storm upon us?”d
3. After the misfortune which befell the State at Cannaee he was chosen consul with Claudius Marcellus,
- aCf. Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus, chap. xxi. (396 d).
- bFive times consul; dictator 217 b.c. to conduct the war against Hannibal. From his cautious tactics in this war he was called “Cunctator.”
- cCf. Plutarch’s Life of Fabius Maximus, chap. v. (177 a); Diodorus, xxvi. 3. 1.
- dCf. Plutarch’s Life of Fabius Maximus, chaps. viii., xi., and xii. (179 a, 180 d, and 181 c); Livy, xxii. 25.
- eIn 216 b.c.