After Hannibal destroyed a Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene, the Romans appointed Fabius Maximus as dictator. Fabius became known as Fabius the Delayer because of his tactics. These Fabian tactics involved avoiding battle with Hannibal. Fabius’ army tailed Hannibal’s army and picked off small Carthaginian units that left the main body to forage, but Fabius refused to fight a pitched battle. The idea was to wear Hannibal down. Since the Romans refused to fight, Hannibal inflicted pain on the Romans by looting their territory. His army had to move in order to feed itself off the Roman bounty. In 217 B.C., his army moved into the fertile Falernum valley. Fabius saw an opportunity and blocked all the passes out of the valley with his forces. He figured that to exit the valley, Hannibal would have to attack uphill and the Romans would have an advantage that was worth the risk of a battle. Sure enough, one night the Carthaginian army marched by torchlight toward one of the passes. Fabius, anticipating the battle he was hoping for, shifted forces to reinforce the pass. As the Romans tensed for the contact, they heard weird noises coming from the torch-carrying enemy. It turned out the noises were coming from oxen with torches attached to their horns. It turns out that Hannibal had ordered that all the oxen in the valley be gathered and torches tied to their horns. He then had them herded towards the pass to simulate an army on the march. When Fabius shifted forces from one pass to reinforce the threatened pass, Hannibal’s army escaped through the undefended pass.
0 Comments