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News of the disaster at Trasimene resulted in rapid political change at Rome. With
one consul dead and the other, Servilius, on his way back to the city but too far away to
preside over the Senate, Fabius Maximus was elected Dictator (Livy, 22.9.6-7; Hist.
3.87; Plutarch, Fab. Max. 4.1). Later in his narrative Livy elaborates on the unusual
circumstances of the election, explaining that, in the absence of Servilius, Fabius could
only be a pro-Dictator (Livy, 22.31.8-11). The extraordinary nature of Fabius‟
appointment noted by Livy is transformed in the Punica to intervention by Jupiter (Pun.
6.609-12).
Fabius Maximus is credited as the person most responsible for changing Roman
tactics in response to Hannibal. He implemented an ultimately successful policy for a
longer drawn-out war of attrition governed by tracking Hannibal, blocking him from the
coast or marching on Rome and engaging in small-scale skirmishes, but avoiding
battlefield confrontation (Livy, 22.8.7; 22.9.7-8; Plutarch, Fab. Max., 5.1-5). The policy
of defeating Hannibal by not fighting earned Fabius a new cognomen, Cunctator, and
people paid him the tribute of calling him the Shield of Rome: Hinc illi cognomen
novum et rei publicae salutare Cunctator; hinc illud ex populo, ut imperii scutum
vocaretur (Florus, 1.22.27). The analogy of Fabius as the Shield of Rome is itself based
on the assumption that Hannibal was marching to Rome; the title dates to the period
very soon after the war, given the references to it by Ennius. 232
In book 22, Livy presents Hannibal apparently deceiving Fabius by making a feigned
march on Rome. After Hannibal extricates himself from the Falernian plain by tricking
his way past Fabius (Livy, 22.16.4) he seems to march toward Rome through Samnite
territory:
Tum per Samnium Romam se petere simulans Hannibal usque in
Paelignos populabundus rediit.
Livy, 22.18.6
Hannibal now feigned a movement upon Rome by way of Samnium,
and marched back right to the land of the Paeligni, pillaging as he
went.
Foster, 1949, 261.
It is, by definition, impossible to judge how serious a feint might be and Livy implies
that it worked because in the next sentence Fabius is recalled to Rome, ostensibly on
religious matters (Livy, 22.18.8).
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