Comment on Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk strategy
First_Thunder@lemmy.zip 2 weeks agoNot sure where I saw this, but I heard that Hannibal, understanding Fabian’s strategy decided to pillage the countryside everywhere except for Fabian related stuff to try and create divisions
PugJesus@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
That’s correct! In the hopes of making Fabius seem like he was colluding with Hannibal - collusion with enemies not uncommon for elites in the Classical world.
However, the strategy ran into three problems:
Rome was unusually civic minded. Romans might backstab one-another for selfish and domestic political reasons, but to do so in favor of a barbarian? Who ever heard of such a thing!?
Fabius had a reputation for virtue, even by his detractors, unlike many of his fellow high-ranking leaders during the Second Punic War, making such suspicions appear unlikely. Fabius had even previously sold off some of his estates to redistribute funds to the suffering Roman people.
He donated the income from his un-devastated estates that Hannibal left untouched directly to the Republic to fund the war effort, making Hannibal sparing them ultimately counterproductive, lmao.