Paul Christensen's Blog - Posts Tagged "plutarch"

Plutarch’s Lives: Life of Fabius Maximus by Plutarch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Fabian goal of Fabius (wearing Hannibal out)
Hannibal’s men thought cowardly - but H. himself had doubts.

Fabius had stability, not slowness from docility;
So H. replied with a trick of his own (showing his ability)

In leaving F’s estates untouched as he scorched the earth around,
Making Rome distrust its dictator and try to bring him down

By raising rash Minucius to be his military equal.
But F. proved wiser in the end - M’s rashness had a sequel:

It led to loss, and Fabius had to bail his ‘equal’ out.
Then Cannae, Roma’s heaviest loss, was caused by Varro’s flout

(Plus Hannibal’s excellent strategy of weak centre and strong wings),
And after that, F. was thought to know a few odd things,

His courage no more doubted (the only one not scared);
But Plutarch lists his faults as well, like the totally unfair

Massacre at Bruttian, and his hatred of Scipio.
All in all, a balanced and informative bio.



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