Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus

See also: Fabius

Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Quintus known as Cunctator ( the Timer ): politician and Roman soldier, born in Rome towards 275 before J. - C. and died in Rome in 203 before J. - C.

Belonging to the very former family Patrician of the Fabii, Fabius Maximus is elected twice Consul, in 233 and 228, and Censeur.

In 218, Fabius belongs to the Roman embassy with Carthage and it is him which, formally, declares the war in the punic city after the catch of Sagonte by Hannibal.

The Senate names it dictator in 217 before J.C after the disaster of the lake Trasimène in June. Concient of its lack of means, the dictator badgers Hannibal without attacking it directly, seeking to exhaust it in a war of attrition, refusing the combat systematically. A statégie which is worth its nickname to him.

But its strategy is obstructed by the lack of unit of command of the Roman army: the Magister equitum , Minucius Rufus is a political adversary of the Cunctator . It is only after being saved in extremis by the dictator that Minucius lines up under its orders.

At the end of its dictatorship, the command is given to the consuls Cneius Seruilius Geminus and Marcus Attilius Regulus. The disaster undergone in 216 before J.C by the Roman army with the Battle of Cannes force consuls to adopt his tactic of refusal of any battle arranged against Hannibal.

Fabius Maximus demolishes part of the Carthaginian army in the single combat which it ever accepted against them, with Capoue.

Fabius Maximus Cunctator is still named three times consul in 215, 214, and 209, year when it takes again Tarente which had joined in Hannibal.

In 206 before J.C, opposed to the offensive adventures, the Fabius old man refuses his confidence with the project of the young person and ambitious Scipion who proposes to carry the war to Africa. It is its last political act, it dies a few years later.

Modern bibliography

Francoise Wycke-Lecocq, “the people Fabia at the time republican: legend with the history. Research on the literary representation of Roman a patrician big family” (thesis of Doctorate of 3° cycle, the Sorbonne - Paris IV, 1986, to dir. Jean Beaujeu).

See too

Its name is re-used by Jules Massenet in Roma , especially like an alibi of color locale.
the part of Kaj Munk, Before Cannes , present in a register squeaking the opposition symbolic system of the democracy (Fabius Maximus) and the authoritarian regime (Hannibal), the day before the great defeat. Fabius Maximus, although soon overcome via its successors Paul Emile and Varron, appears a possible future there.

Random links: