Great Houses

Gregory Treat: Hello, everybody.

Welcome to episode 16 of, uh, the Great Houses Forum.

We are, um, here we're gonna finish our, our discussion of Fabius Maximus, uh, which is the, the, the Fabian gens in the ancient cities, uh, the, the, the, what are they called?

The Gentes Maiores, the great houses of Rome.

So we're, we're talking about great houses and, and, uh, in, in this space, this podcast, and one of the things that I wanted to do was take people through, well, when we talk about great houses, what...

where does that concept come from?

Who, who are the, the, the great houses, and why is there, there such a, a framework attached to that?

And, and it actually goes back in many ways to some of these remarkable folks, uh, these remarkable people that shaped the history of Rome and then some of the other cities and, you know, as, as we kinda go through things I'll, I'll touch on that.

But for today, we're continuing on.

So last week we talked about, um-

Quintus Fabius Vibulanus.

So he was the Fabian that survived.

They're, the, the Fabians were an unusual house.

They were already a major house in Rome, and, uh, around the turn of the 5th century BC, they had a, a, a, an event where almost every member, basically every member except one male, uh, in their lineage was exterminated.

They, they went out and were fighting with a, a city to the north of Rome.

Um, the, and, and they lost a, and they were ambushed, and everybody that went with them, at least every member of the founding family died that day.

So you had one kid who I think was 12 or 13 at the time, and he has to rebuild his family from just one, one single member.

And this is, you know, very interesting, uh, to us because that's the situation that, uh, that we find ourselves in a lot of the time.

We tend to have a lot of material prosperity in our world, or at least access to material prosperity.

There's, there's some really cool stuff that, uh, that is possible in our world.

But we don't tend to have family around.

And so understanding the Fabians is a very interesting thing.

And, you know, it's the, the, the origin of, you know, the, the, the Fabian school, the Fabian understanding of, uh... There's a,
there's a branch of communism that's very intent on studying the Fabians because of the, the thing that they did that made them famous.

Uh, one of the, one of the markers people ask me, like, what, what, um, what makes these houses, uh, the, the great houses of Rome, these specific six?

And, and basically th- these, these are the major contenders.

The, the one, the one other contender, uh, that, that you could make a strong argument for, um, would be the, the, the Julian family, uh, which is to say the, the family of Julius Caesar.

Uh, but, uh, they, they never really had their big day in the sun where they saved the Republic until Julius Caesar did it.

And of course, when he saves Rome, it's not quite the Republic anymore, i- is it?

So, uh, th- this is, this is a list that, that, you know, I was taught in college, and so I've just kind of gone with it.

I haven't... I'm, I'm not breaking any, any new territory here.

But so, so that's what, that's what we're talking about.

And obviously last week we had a fascinating, uh, uh, discussion, um, with Colton Murray, and I encourage all of you, if you haven't, uh, if you weren't there, please go listen to it.

Um, yeah, I think it was a, it was a really interesting framing for, for what we're doing here.

So okay.

So last, last time we talked about the Fabians, which was two weeks ago, we ended with a house that had learned an unusual virtue, which was the, the virtue of patience, the, the, the, the dangers of aggressive courage.

And, and aggressive courage was kind of the, the s- the, the titular Roman virtue, Romanitas, that they, they charged in and they, uh, they thought that they were the toughest, and that, that if they could just show courage, then that would be enough.

Um, and you know, the Fa- the Fabians understood, well, no, there, there are actually times where courage is not enough.

There are times where you get ambushed and everybody dies, and then you have to rebuild very slowly, and you have to endure a lot.

One of the things that we talked about was that, um You know, Quintus, uh, had to, he had to endure a lot of things.

There was a bunch of suspicious restarts of very expensive rituals.

There was a lot of things that, that appear to have been somewhat unfairly placed on him.

And the Fabians, they just kind of took it, right, as they were rebuilding.

They were very patient.

They, they didn't, um, they didn't have a pride that allowed them to be provoked, right?

And so, you know, we're ... I, I think again, for, for us as we're, as we're thinking about this, uh, many of us are people with, with virtues that are counter-cultural in the, in the current moment that we find ourselves.

But I, I believe a day is coming when the virtues that we represent, the, the, the concern for taking care of people, for having deep long-term bonds, for, uh, for really taking responsibility for the, the, the folks that God has placed in our lives.

I think that the, the day where that is not just necessary but, but a, a, an incredible strategy for victory and for success is coming.

And then, then I, I actually think that that's, that's gonna be the, the, the net of what, uh, AI does to us.

Um, that's my, that's my, my white pill take on AI at the moment.

So we wanna think about how, how do we prepare?

How do we, um, be ready for the day that, that, that our counter-cultural virtue is exactly what our city needs?

Okay So again, um, the, the Fabians were defined by the loss at Cremera.

They had learned that aggressive courage can destroy a house in one afternoon.

And then they clawed back to power, and then they had a, a guy, the, the, the, the man of the hour in, in the...

when Hannibal invades, uh, Italy, was named Fabius Maximus, and he applied that lesson to the rep- the republic itself.

So Hannibal, uh, as we'll, as we'll talk about here, understood Roman courage.

Uh, he was a tactical genius.

He was very good at, at a lot of kind of battlefield deceptions.

He was constantly hiding troops, and when, when the Romans would attack, his numbers, like, they, they...

he'd look like he only had a certain number of troops, and he had them hidden over here, or they were, they were, uh... There was lots of deceptive tactics that he used, and he consistently beat them.

Uh, basically every time, uh, that, that Hannibal fought the Romans in pitched battle, uh, where, where kind of the survival of the armies was at stake, he won and won very decisively.

The only, um... A- and in particular, there was a battle, uh, called Trasimene, at Lake Trasimene, where he, he kills a huge number of Roman soldiers, and Rome basically has to rebuild its army from the, from the ground up.

And so Fabius Maximus saves Rome by refusing to engage in a battle that Rome couldn't win, right?

So, uh, Hannibal enters Italy in, in autumn of 2018 BC, or, j- sorry, 218 BC. He crosses the Alps after the Rhone campaign.

He's lost some men.

He's lost some animals.

But he, he arrives in Gaul, and he recruits a bunch of Gauls into his army, and he's about, you know, at this time, um, 425 miles from Rome.

So a couple months later, December, uh, Tw- 2018, uh, two, th- uh, excuse me, 218, uh, BC, he defeats the Romans at Trebia.

Um, and again, the, the way that he does it is he, he conceals his troops.

He has his troops hidden by the riverbank, and, um, and w- Rome comes up and is, is ready to fight with him and ready to do what, what they expected to do, and he d- decisively defeats them, right?

Uh, then in spring of 217 BC He crosses the Apennines and the Arno marshes, which was a, it was a very, it was a very dangerous, very risky maneuver.

Had Rome been able to catch him in those marches, uh, they, they could have potentially defeated him, but they don't.

And then, um, in June of, of 217 BC, Hannibal turns south towards Etruria.

So as the, as the months go on, he is marching closer and closer to Rome, and they're not really able to stop him.

So he's about 110 miles from Rome, uh, when a, a Roman general named Flaminius decides to pursue him, and, uh, and, and they meet at, at Trasimene.

Okay?

So Flaminius, Gi- his full name was Gaius Flaminius Nepos.

Uh, so he was the, the, the, the, the nephew of somebody important, right?

Uh, he was the consul.

Uh, he was consul twice.

Uh, obviously first in 223 BC, and then the second time was in 217 BC when he has, the, the... which was unfortunately the end of his career.

Um, so he had a reputation for political boldness, military recklessness, and he had ignored, you know, senators would sort of say, "Hey, you're, you're actually being too reckless. You're too willing to charge in," and he doesn't listen to them.

So, um, and, and at, you know, the, the historians report, these old, these old historians, that there were bad omens, um, you know, and he should have turned back.

So his, his... in particular, his horse threw him.

So, you know, you, you imagine the army, and they're assembled, and, uh, the, the, the general starts to climb on his horse.

The horse freaks out and throws him off, and, uh, the... all of the Romans that were there was like, "Oh, this is a bad sign, man." Like, this is... And, and it was.

Um, they, they march out, and that, uh, that army does not, uh, does not have good success.

So, um, he also, uh, in a more kind of practical, tangible way, doesn't wait for the other consul, Servilius Geminus, uh, who had commanded a second army in the
northeast, and he just charges after Hannibal, and he doesn't seem to be aware that, that, um, that he's Fighting somebody who is a much better tactician than he is.

And, uh, the other commander obviously is Hannibal, Hannibal Barca, uh, the greatest general ever produced by Carthage and maybe by Africa.

Uh, he was the supreme commander of the Carthaginian forces in Italy.

He crossed the Alps, uh, with Libyan veterans, Iberian, that's that Spanish infantry, Numidian Calvary from, from Africa itself and, and a bunch of allies that he'd recruited in Gaul.

So, um, and, and Hannibal was one of these guys that he was very driven to do precise troop movements.

Uh, people that are more interested in military history, you can, you can look up, you know, the, the marches that he took.

He was able to, to get through places that people thought, well, man, it would take a long time to get through this particular terrain, and he was able
to consistently punch through with all of these troops and all of these, uh, you know, animals and, uh, and move faster than people expected him to.

So he gets to Etruria ahead of both of the Roman consuls and begins burning territory, right?

And these are... This is not Rome's sovereign territory, but it's allied territory, so they have to stop him, right?

Flamininus feels honor bound to stop Hannibal, uh, from attacking, um, attacking the territory that he's in.

So

So we talk about, uh, Lake Trasimene.

Um, it's bordered on its northern shore by a narrow road running between the water and the hills.

Uh, there was no room to deploy a, a traditional Roman battle order.

So the road was the only passage, and it ran through enclosed grounds for several miles.

So the Roman army is all strung out, right?

There's, there's, there's a, a long bit where they, they can't assemble in that ni- nice tight box that Roman, uh, Roman armies are famous for.

So Hannibal marches through what's called the defile and, and camps visibly at the far eastern end, so you can see him as the, the, the Flaminius is on the north side of the lake.

You can see, uh, Hannibal's campfires on the east side of the lake.

And so Flaminius is like, "Well, I, I, I gotta get him. Uh, we can see him. We know where he is." But of course, Hannibal being Hannibal, he- most of his infantry is concealed in the wooded hills along both sides of the road.

Um, so he placed, uh, Balearic slingers, right?

So this is, uh, this is people that, that, that would swing a, a sling around, like if anybody's watched David and Goliath.

Um, there's, there's really cool YouTube videos where, uh, you got these, these, uh, slings and sling staffs, and they actually break the sound barrier when they release.

There's this kind of whip crack thing that happens.

It's very cool.

Uh, but he... So Hannibal places Balearic, uh, slingers and light troops at the eastern exit to block any breakout and position the, the, the, the, the Gallic and Spanish cavalry.

And again, these are foreigners that he's, uh, they're, they're, they're not, uh, they're not Hannibal's countrymen.

These are recruits that he has picked up along the way as he moved, uh, moved through Europe, at the western entrance to close the column from behind.

Um, so on the morning of the battle, there was a heavy June mist that settled over the lake and the defile, so the Romans can't see anything.

Um, the Roman army marched in column into the mist before dawn with no scouts ahead.

And once the column was fully inside, Hannibal gives the signal, and the Carthaginians attack simultaneously from the hills along the entire length of the column, several miles of road compressed with roughly 25,000 Roman infantry and cavalry.

The Romans had no room to form a battle line, no access to the high ground, and no clear line of retreat.

Many soldiers were killed before they were even able to draw their weapons.

The engagement lasts roughly three hours, and the Roman dead numbered approximately 15,000 men by Polybius's account.

Flaminius was cut down in the fighting.

Um, he was cut down by a Gaul, uh, who recognized the consul and killed him in revenge for Roman devastation of his people's lands.

Roughly 6,000 Romans break through the eastern end of the trap where there's those, I s- I said, those light troops that, uh, that Hannibal had.

Uh, but they are run down and captured by, uh, the cavalry the following day.

So Hannibal loses in, in accomplishing this f- roughly 1,500 to 2,500 men.

Again, primarily Gauls, who Hannibal is not concerned about losing Gauls.

Uh, he, he recruited them for cheap, and he thinks he can get more.

Um- And this was just kind of how Hannibal seemed to deal with the Romans.

Whenever that they went in to, to attack him directly in that classical Roman way, he hides his troops, and he defeats them, and they, uh, they are not able to effectively deal with, uh, with what he does.

So, so now Rome has a political problem, right?

They have effectively lost their entire army, um, and they need...

And, and, and they don't really have an answer to Hannibal, and they never actually get an answer to Hannibal.

Um, the, the, the way that they ultimately defeat Hannibal, as we'll get into, is they kind of politically force him to retreat, uh, from, from Italy and go back to Africa.

And by the time he gets back to Africa, his troops are so sick, and they, they, they're at the end of their supply chain, that they, they're kind of able to be starved out, right?

But every time that the Romans attacked Hannibal in Italy, they absolutely, uh, were, were defeated.

So, but the Roman public doesn't know that, right?

The Roman public has a very clear... It's like, "Hey, hey, what do we do?

We just lost an army.

We've lost armies before.

So we need to recruit more people.

We need, uh, them to march out, and we need visible contact."

They, they wanted, the people wanted, and they want through the whole of this, uh, for w- their leadership to go out and punch the enemy in the mouth and beat him, okay?

And the longer that the notables of Rome delay, uh, the, the less confidence that the people have in their government.

Uh, it's very fortunate that no modern democracies have this problem.

Um, or... So, uh, the Senate, on the other hand, wants control.

Um, so, you know, one of the, one of the reasons why, uh, Flaminius is defeated is because, again, he doesn't wait for his co-consul.

He, uh, he charges in.

They weren't able to, uh, to coordinate effectively.

And so they, they want one person in charge, okay?

And then the, the third thing is, is that their allies, they've got allies, uh, all throughout Italy.

Rome has not consolidated Italy at this time, so most of the territory of Italy is technically in the hands of Roman allies, not in, not in Rome's direct political control.

And so those people, those cities could, in theory, and they do throughout this, secede and withdraw from their alliance to Rome.

And so the rest of the Italian community is watching.

You know, can, can Rome protect us?

And so as Hannibal's kind of marching around burning fields, he's essentially conducting an attack on, on the economy, the supply chain of, of all of Ital- Italy.

And then the big problem that they had was the smart people in Rome at this point know, "Hey, we're not gonna beat Hannibal in a straight up fight, at...

Certainly not quickly," right?

Maybe if we can raise a very large army and have overwhelming forces, maybe then, but, but for the moment, we gotta, we gotta get somebody out there, and they're basically not gonna be able to attack him in the Roman way that we expect.

So who do they pick?

Well, they pick a Fabian, of course.

Um, so-

of the interesting things about, uh, about Fabius Maximus's appointment was, uh, that, that normally, uh, dictators were appointed by the consuls or, or nominated by the consuls,
might be a, um, um, a term that's more accurate based on normally the, the, the consuls say, "Okay, this person is, is a candidate for dictator," and then he was affirmed, right?

Whereas this one, um, the, obviously Flamininus was dead, right?

One of the consuls is dead, and Servilius Gem- Geminus was at sea with the Adriatic fleet and couldn't get back to Rome.

So the Senate resolved the problem by directing the Comitia Centuriata, the popular assembly, to elect a dictator, right?

And, and Livy talks about this as, you know, this, this, this is just, it's, it's a little unusual.

It's not exactly the way that things are supposed to go, and this makes the Romans very nervous, right?

Um, so Fabius became one of the very few dictators in Roman history chosen by popular vote rather than consular nomination.

He carried the authority, but the procedural irregularity, uh, was, was not, not a good thing.

But they, they didn't have any choice.

They couldn't get a new consul, um, and they couldn't get the, the r- surviving consul back in time.

So Uh, interestingly, w- the first thing that he does, and, and I, I talked last week about, uh, the... or last time we talked about the Fabians, uh, about how the Fabians had this unique relationship with the priesthood.

Uh, there's some suggestion that, that just as, um, you know, cer- certain families, they... you can sort of say, "Well, this, this might have been the
original kings of Rome." Well, the Fabians might have been the original, like, high priestly family of Rome, and so they have a unique relationship.

There's certain priestly offices that only a Fabian can hold.

And so he's very tied in with the, the, the religious hierarchy in the city.

So the first thing he does is he holds a ritual, right?

He, um, he does the, the, these, these games, right?

He... Now, he had been a consul twice before.

He'd actually had been appointed dictator so that he could declare elections, um, and he'd been a censor.

Um, he was also an augur, which is, again, a, a high priestly role.

It was... The, the augurs were the people that were sort of charged with, um, soothsaying and figuring out what was coming down the pike for Rome.

So, uh, he, he gives this address to the Senate and he says, basically, "We failed, uh, not, not because Rome isn't strong enough,
but because the gods opposed us 'cause we, we weren't religiously, uh, we, we, we didn't, uh, we didn't consult the omens," right?

Uh, Flamininus ignores the omens.

He was brash.

He was reckless.

So, uh, he, they do two things.

They, uh, they persuade the Senate to conduct the Sibylline Books, and then, um, he, he, he, he does a, a, a Ludi Magni, the Great Games, in, in honor of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, which was the, the chief god of Rome.

And as part of that, they, they do what's called the, the ver sacrum, a sacred spring, where every animal that is born in the next spring is gonna be sacrificed to the gods or, or h- or contributed to the various temples of the city.

And what this does is it means, uh, whenever you have a, a, ver sacrum, you basically... it's al- sort of like a tax that the, the, all of the temples kind of collectively share.

And so this gets the priesthood of the city firmly on his side.

He has given them a big, big party to run, and he has made them money.

The money's not immediately here, but it's, it's coming.

He has, he has filled their coffers.

So he kind of solidifies Rome because the priestly class, all of the people in the various temples that are preaching and talking and talking to people about various things, they all support him now, right?

So, um, you know, he's framing what he's doing as a restoration.

He's going to bring things back into order.

Um, and, and, and this is kind of his home territory.

Fabius was not, uh, and he knows he's not a tactical genius.

He knows he can't actually beat Hannibal, but he is a, a master at keeping Rome together.

He was actually better at keeping Rome together than he was at, uh, at keeping the army together.

So, and one of the interesting things, and we, we sort of, uh, I mean, I actually think we, we see this more, uh, more today again as, as we're kind of entering our, our late stage republic.

Um, the, the the people... You, you can have discussions in certain kind of high-level forums where people say, "Well, here is this complex 5D argument for this or that or the other thing," right?

Uh, but the public kind of wants what it wants, and so every s- like I said, every, every basically significant person in Rome understands, hey, whoever we send out is not going to be able to, to match Hannibal in a direct conflict.

Um, they understood this is the, this is the assignment.

You're gonna go out there, you're gonna maintain contact, you're gonna stay engaged, you're gonna constantly be threatening him, but you are not actually gonna be drawn into direct battle.

Um, and he's got six months to do that, and, and basically while he's doing that, the plan is that Rome is going to rebuild the army.

They're gonna use, again, the, all of the, the, the food and the wealth that the, the temples have just received to, to rebuild the army and, and, and recruit some new people.

Um, and also it, it just kind of makes sure...

One of the things that the temples did is as refugees are coming in, the temples are feeding the refugees from their, their, their allies, and so having the temples be flush is a good thing for him, right?

So one of the, one of the interesting things as, as, as we think about this is that Fabians had i- i- th- this was not, this was not him doing something shameful.

And, and the only family in Rome that could say, "What I'm doing is not shameful," was a Fabian.

Because there's, there's the virtues of Romanitas, this aggressive, courageous, direct fighting style.

But as a Fabian, he can say, "No, the teachings of my ancestors, who I'm required to honor, is we are very careful to avoid ambushes.

We are very patient.

We, we, we hold back.

We do not advance recklessly." Okay?

Um, and, and so he's, he's the guy that can invoke that, and, and that allo- that allows him a certain level of, um, of political freedom.

'Cause basically anybody else, they could be attacked for betraying their ancestors, right?

Not just they're not courageous, they're not, they don't, they're insufficiently Roman, but that they're actually betraying their ancestors by not being aggressive, by not being courageous.

And you can't say that to a Fabian, 'cause a Fabian knows the teachings of his ancestors is, "No, we gotta follow these rules.

We got, we, we, we cannot afford to be drawn in." Okay?

So, um, that's what he does for, for about six months.

He keeps the army on higher, safer ground.

He observes Hannibal.

Uh, he strikes at foragers, scouts, and detached parties.

He does not engage the main Punic force, and he protects the, the grain, the roads, the allied towns, and the recruitment pools that would allow Rome to rebuild their army.

Okay?

And there's a, there's an interesting word.

There's kind of two words, um, that we'll, we'll do.

One is, uh, con- uh, cunctator, which means to delay.

And then the other word is this, this interesting Greek word, uh, hypomenou, to s- which is to stay engaged.

And, uh, hypomenou is an interesting term.

It's, it's in, in, in, in the Bible it's frequently translated as submit.

But it, it actually means to, to stay at a, at a, at a consistent distance.

Um, and so when you're, when you're thinking about it as, um, as Hannibal advances, then Fabius Maximus retreats.

As Hannibal retreats and tries to go a different way, then Fabius Maximus engages and moves forward.

Uh, but he is, he is delaying.

He is waiting.

He is trying to, to draw this out.

And, and that's what cunctator meant.

It meant you're a delayer.

You're, you're... And it's actually a, a very negative term, right?

Uh, it's, it's, it's very un-Roman.

But he's able to do it because of who his family is.

Okay?

So then we get to, we get into the late summer of, of 217 BC, and Fabius left, leaves the army in the hands of his second-in-command, Minucius, uh, who was the commander of the horse.

He was the cavalry commander.

Um, and he, he basically says, "Hey, don't engage. We don't want to engage." But because he had the, the, the, the, uh, the Ver Sacrum
and the Ludi Magni, the, the great games, then he has to return, F- uh, Fabius Maximus has to return to Rome to conduct the games.

'Cause again, that's his, that's his, that's the, his strongest suit.

That's where he finds, you know, he... That, that's his happy place, right?

Uh, but while he's gone, um, then... then... A- and, and he has... Before he leaves, he gets Hannibal pinned in what's called, uh, the Ager Falernus, right?

Um, so he... There, there's this, there's this plain, there's some mountain passes, but he's not able to advance quickly, and any time he goes anywhere, then, uh, then Fabius Maximus is able to respond.

Um, so Hannibal escapes.

He's able to, to build a base in, in Gerunium in, in what's called Frintani territory, which is a town, and he fortifies it as, as a supply depot.

And so he's sending out two-thirds of his troops out each day on foraging operations across the surrounding countryside, right?

So, uh, Minucius watches this happen.

He's watching Hannibal is dividing his troops.

The bulk of the army is gone.

Um, and he's like, "We, we have to attack again." He's doing this, this, this classic Roman thing.

So he identifies a hill between his camp and Hannibal's that commanded the, the foraging routes through the valley below.

Uh, so he moves quickly to occupy it before Hannibal can garrison, garrison it.

He seizes the hill, giving him a straightforward position from which Roman cavalry and light infantry can strike the Carthaginian foragers as they pass below.

So then from that position, Minucius launches a series of attacks on the dispersed Carthaginian foraging parties.

He drives them backwards towards the main camp with significant losses, and Livy records that several thousand Carthaginians were killed, and that Minucius hel- holds the field at the end of the day.

So this is a good result, right?

Like, he, he wins the battle.

But he doesn't... Th- but the, the key is this is, they had waited.

They had taken, uh, an opportunity to attack foraging parties.

This was not Hannibal's main force.

This was not Hannibal conducting a pitched battle, okay?

And so, um- The problem is, is that back in Rome, they hear this in a very different, in a different way.

So Fabius is back in the city performing sacred rites, and the, uh, a tribune named Gaius Maetelius brings a bill before the popular assembly to grant Minucius imperium equal to the dictator.

So he's gonna be a co-dictator.

And this was, uh, again, sort of a radical departure.

This is not something that, that Rome's, uh, Roman ever done before.

Uh, but the bill passed.

So, uh, Livy says that the measure was understood by friend and enemy alike as a formal repudiation of Fabius.

So the man who would save Rome from a second Trasimene by refusing battle was formally demoted by the, the city that he was protecting,
and basically all of the infantry troops, as I understand it, stayed with Fabius, and the cavalry mainly followed Minucius, right?

So he d- But, but he, like in, in kind of classic Fabian fashion, he doesn't make any protests, or at least none is recorded, and he takes his half of the army to the high ground and kind of sits there and waits.

So Hannibal immediately recognizes, oh my goodness, the Romans have divided their troops, right?

I just divided my troops, and I got the snot beat out of me, and now we have, we have a division of, uh, of the troops.

So So Hannibal prepares the ground between the, the two Roman camps, a position that appeared to offer Minucius a tactical opportunity.

And again, in classical Hannibal fashion, he has concealed troops in the surrounding terrain.

And, and, and it's just amazing when you read this stuff because it's the same thing.

Hannibal does the same thing every time.

He prepares, he hides troops, the Romans swarm in, and, and his troops pop up from nowhere and defeat the Romans, right?

Um, but it, the pattern was the same as Trasimene.

Visible opportunity, aggressive pursuit, and terrain chosen by the enemy.

So Minucius advances, and Fabius Maximus watches from the high ground, and he moves when the trap closes.

So he intervened before the engagement became a rout, rescued Minucius' force, and, and in many ways preserves Minucius' dignity in the aftermath.

Um, and, and, you know, again, that's, uh, there's this magnanimity of the way that he interacts.

He, he sort of, he's sort of acknowledging that what Minucius is doing is a classic Roman thing to do, and, and, and he's, he's sort of compelled by his nature to do it.

So Fabius wants to save him, but he keeps insisting, "Hey, this, this isn't the way that, that this is gonna work." Um, and again, you know, as we're
listening to this story, and, um, I, I know many of you are not, uh, history buffs, um, and, and, um, so why, why, why are we talking about this?

This is, this is how life is, right?

Some strategies mature under suspicion.

So if you're a founder or a father or a trustee or a commander, sometimes you know that the right answer is delay, it's to wait.

It's to just say, "Okay, we're gonna sit here and do nothing. We're gonna do nothing for a week, and for two weeks, and for six weeks, and for months, and maybe for years." Um, and the people around you are gonna get very upset about that.

Um, they, they're gonna want aggressive action.

They're gonna want you to be able to unwind, you know, years or decades or generations of, of problems, uh, in, very quickly.

And you, if you're gonna be a leader, if you're gonna advance countercultural strategies, 'cause that's really what Fabian leadership is about, uh, you have to have contempt tolerance.

You have to endure the period in which the right strategy looks like lost initiative, and you have to remain, and you have to preserve your dignity.

You have to remain respectable when, uh, events prove the alternative wrong.

Again, Fabius does not leave ha- you know, hang Minucius out to dry.

He doesn't say, he doesn't, like, force him to, uh, publicly apologize.

There, there, there just isn't that sort of response to the man.

He's very different from his Roman countrymen.

He still loves them.

He still helps them.

Um, and you know, he, he does everything he can.

He kind of sounds the alarm almost in a, in a Cassandra type.

So

But even though Minucius had almost lost the army, uh, Rome does not learn.

So, um, in August, uh, so, so F- Fabius' term ends, and Rome raises the largest field army that it had had and sends it against Hannibal.

And again, they're gonna, they're gonna do the, the classic Roman thing and attack him.

So there's the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus, uh, who's the father of the Aemilius Paullus that, uh, that we talked about in the earlier, uh, ancient city episodes, and Gaius Terentius Varro.

They commanded on alternating days.

So their, their plan was, "Okay, so we're still gonna have two commanders, but instead of having the army separated out into different camps, we're just gonna switch which days we command on." You know, the, the, that, that was, uh, that was their
attempt at saying, "Well, we don't wanna get caught short by, uh, by Hannibal again." So the Roman infantry was massed unusually deep, and they... the, the idea was we're gonna, we're gonna break Hannibal's center by weight and direct pressure.

So the... it was just... the, the plan was, "We are going to get the biggest fist that we possibly can, and we are gonna punch right through Hannibal." So what does Hannibal do?

He places the Gauls and the Iberians, the Spaniards, in a forward crescent with veteran African infantry set on both back wings.

Um, and then the Carthaginian cavalry, uh, uh, under Hasdrubal and the Numidians drove off the Roman horse and then return, and they, they surround the Romans and, uh, return against the Roman, the Roman rear.

And so if you're, um, if you're listening live or if you are, uh, if you're paying for the, the paid version, then you are... you can look at slide 23 of the presentation for today, and I have a nice diagram of the, the Battle of Cannae.

Um- So Hannibal gave Roman mass a lane of advance and then closed the flanks.

He surrounds them and, and just collapses them.

So the Roman center presses forward into Hannibal's yielding Gallic and Spanish lines.

Again, the, the, the Gauls and the Spaniards are not Hannibal's countrymen.

Uh, they're, they're, they're somewhat loyal to him, he's somewhat loyal to them, but th- hi- him losing those troops does not matter to him, politically speaking.

So the crescent bent inward and drew the Roman infantry deeper into the pocket.

The African veterans wheeled inward from both flanks as the Romans, Roman mass lost room to maneuver, and then Carthaginian cavalry attacks from the rear after having defeated the Roman cavalry and closes the ring.

So then the Rome- Roman army becomes a compressed mass.

They're unable to, uh, to fight and then they're unable to withdraw.

And this is, you know, one of the worst defeats in Roman history.

Um, Polybius says 70,000 dead.

Livy says, uh, you know, somewhere in the, in the high 40s, low 50s.

Um, and the dead include, again, Consul Aemilius Paullus, father of, uh, the Aemilius Paullus that would defeat Perseus of Macedon at Pydna, along with many tribune, senators, equestrians, allied troops and citizen soldiers.

The Republic lost the field army Fabius had spent two years preserving.

So this, again, this, this is the tactical result, and this time Rome finally learns, right?

Avoiding direct c- contact, um, with Hannibal's army was not cowardice, it was Like the Fabians were right.

So, um, and you know, it's, it's interesting, like this disaster is what, what actually swings public opinion.

So Plutarch says that the conduct once called cowardice and sluggishness was then regarded as almost divine foresight.

And so Rome returned to the commander whose caution had refused Hannibal's chosen form of decision.

And there's this great line, "One man by delaying restored the state." Um, and, and then he gets this, the, the name Fabius Maximus Cunctator, which is to say the, uh, the delayer, right?

So after Cannae, um, the Republic survived because it finally accepted the wisdom that Fabius had demonstrated.

He refused negotiations with Hannibal after the loss of the field army.

It rebuilt, uh, manpower while avoiding another decisive battle on Hannibal's terms, and it held its allies through endurance, discipline, and public refusal to concede the war, and it reassigned command into a long war posture.

Instead of trying to raise an army, go punch Hannibal in the mouth and beat him, they, they kind of recognized, "Okay, we, we just need to, to, to, to keep the fight going because he's very, very far from home."

So Fabius Maximus, um, wa- was, uh, elected consul again.

Uh, he was elected consul twice in, uh, first in 215 BC, returned to the consulship, and then in 214 BC, he serves again.

So he's consul two years in a row, continuing the long war posture against Hannibal in India, in Italy.

His commands focused on Campania and Samnium, where Hannibal was trying to detach Rome's allies.

The work was city recovery, position, loyalty, supply, and restraint across multiple campaigns.

Um, and there's an important battle that, uh... There was a harbor called Tarentum, which defects to Hannibal in, uh, 212 BC, and Fabius is the commander who retakes
that in 209 BC. So again, basically, Hannibal is in Italy fighting, moving around, threatening Rome for, you know, the better part of 10 years, more than 10 years, right?

This whole time, just for this whole decade, they're just avoiding direct contact with him, fighting skirmishes here and there, attacking his supply lines.

So Tarentum, uh, had, um, had defected to Hannibal, and it possessed the finest natural harbor in Souther- Southern Italy, the Mare Piccolo, a large landlocked bay accessible through a narrow entrance from the Ionian Sea.

Whoever controlled it could receive naval resupply and reinforcement from across the water.

Now, Rome held the citadel of Tarentum throughout the period of Carthaginian occupation.

The citadel commanded the harbor entrance, which meant that Carthage could never fully use the port for warship movements, but the window remained open as long as Hannibal said, held the city, okay?

So Fabius retook Tarentum three years after it had gone over to Hannibal.

The method, uh, was consistent with everything that he had done since 217 BC. The, the recovery turned on, uh, timing, internal contact, and the vulnerability of the garrison rather than a pitched assault.

So the, the ancient accounts, you know, basically say that, "Well, we sent the Fabian because he was really good at getting, you know, treachery to happen on our behalf.

So we sent him out, and sure enough, you know, he got some people in the city to, to betray the city and, and they were able to, to, to get inside the gate." So a pro-Roman faction within the city opened access to Fabius's force.

Fabius struck when conditions favored Rome.

The garrison was undermanned, the city's loyalties were divided, and Hannibal was occupied elsewhere.

So the operation was a demonstration of the Fabian method applied to siege warfare.

Wait until the target is ready, and then act with precision rather than force.

So once Tarentum is recovered, southern Italy is consolidated and Hannibal's war enters its final closing phase.

With Ha- With Tarentum back in Roman hands, Hannibal had no friendly port on the Italian coast capable of receiving a Carthaginian fleet.

His army was fixed.

No significant reinforcement could reach him by sea.

Um, and then Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal, uh, crossed the Alp... It's really interesting, one of the funny things about this is, you know, we, we... Hannibal is, like, a, a name in the modern English language, so it's easy for us to pronounce.

It's easier for us to hear.

His brother is named Hasdrubal.

Never heard of Hasdrubal.

That, that, that name didn't quite make it into the English lexicon.

But he crosses the Alps in 207 BC with a second army to reinforce him, and he was destroyed at the Metaurus River in Umbria before the two armies could unite.

His severed head was thrown into Hannibal's camp.

And then with, uh, southern Italy consolidated and Hannibal isolated, Scipio Africanus, the great hero, uh, obtained Senate approval to invade Africa directly.

He landed near Utica in 204 BC, won the Battle of the Great Plains in 203 BC, and was able to threaten Carthage itself, and that's what forces Hannibal to be recalled from Italy.

And, uh, then, you know, we- and we'll get to Scipio, uh, in, in a future, a future An- Ancient Cities episode.

But Scipio defeats Hannibal at Zama in 202 BC, and again, I think the, the right way to frame that is Hannibal had been campaigning for a very, very long time, has to retreat,
uh, through a terrible supply chain, a- and it's not, um, it's... He's not the army that he was in Italy, um, 'cause basically they never beat him in Italy in pitched battle.

So one of the funny things about this is is that, uh, Fabius opposed, uh, Scipio's Africa strategy.

He really wanted to defeat Hannibal in Italy before Rome reached across the sea.

Um, and as it turns out, the best thing that they did was not engage, not engage Hannibal.

Um, so, you know, la- uh, last time we talked about the Fabians, I, I defined constantia as courage disciplined by judgment, and so then we have this second thing, coniunctator, sh- shows the doctrine under battlefield pressure.

So again, the Fabians, and, and, and as Fabius Maximus lives out, right, as the great Fabian, as he lives out the, these principles, he is constantly thinking about crimera.

Um, it... Bravery alone is not enough.

If you get ambushed, if you, uh, have the wrong tactical conditions, you have to withdraw.

And, and, and again, I think it's, it's interesting because in, in, in modern nations, we, we have kind of absorbed this, uh, through, through the centuries and millennia.

Um, but, but this was a new thing.

This was a new thought for many of the, uh, for many of the Romans, and the way that they were able to learn this was they had a family who that family's particular experience was what Rome relied upon to learn this lesson.

So Fabius changed the shape of Roman courage.

The Fabian form denied contact until timing, ground, and supply favored Rome.

Um, and, and that, you know, kind of became, became one of the c- the core doctrines of Rome.

It's like, hey, it's not cowardice to, to not attack when the ground doesn't favor you.

Um, and again, this is important because a city forgets lessons when the generation that learned them dies, but the house can preserve that lesson as an identity in ritual, name, and family expectation.

And the Fabii carried the memory of tactical overcommitment for centuries, and when Rome needed that memory, there was a man, man who had been drilled in understanding that virtue for his whole life.

And, and this is the great descendant of, uh, of the Fabii.

This is, this is, again, why they're listed as one of the Gentis Maioras.

They... This is, this is how they saved Rome, okay?

Um, even though they never beat Hannibal.

They just, they just delayed him.

But they lived out their virtue, their unique kind of special familial essence was, was necessary to saving Rome, and that's, you know, that's why their name is on the list.

So kind of as, as I'm, as I'm closing out, uh, the, the, the Fabian family, I'm gonna talk about two more people.

It was Quintus Fabius Maximus Alaubrogus, Brogicus.

Um, he lived in one twenty one BC, and he defeated, uh, the Allobroges in Auvergne and Gaul.

They... He received a triumph and carried the Fabian name into Rome's expanding imperial frontier.

Um, he was competent.

He, you know, he, he becomes consul in one twenty one, um, but he is not...

Uh, he, he doesn't... The family is sort of in decline by that point.

Um, and then f- the, the, the last, um, the last Fabian that really is significant in Roman history was, uh, Paulus Fabius Maximus, uh, who held the consulship
in 11 BC. He held high office and provincial res- uh, responsibility within the Principate, um, showing Fabian continuity after Republican independence had ended.

He was a friend of Augustus.

He was a patron connected with Ovid's world and, and really a, a great patron of the arts.

It kind of is, is part of the reason the Fabii survive, uh, for centuries after that as significant patrons of the arts.

But they're not really politically relevant because, again, as you, as you enter the imperial age, it's less important to have somebody that can endure public discontent, right?

Uh, because the emperor decides, right?

If you have the confidence of the emperor, then you're good.

If you don't have the confidence of the emperor, you're bad.

Um, and, and so you're, you're... The, the unique thing that they did in being able to say, "Well, we have a different perspective, and we're gonna bring that to, to the people of Rome, to the city of Rome," uh, kind of fades away in the imperial period.

So

So again, I think that the, the Fabian story matters for anyone trying to build a house with a countercultural virtue.

Uh, so the steps that I, that I kinda pulled out of this is train a virtue before the crisis that will require it.

Um, expect the right strategy to look wrong when the crowd still speaks the old moral language.

Build enough institutional memory that one generation can act on lessons learned by another.

And then, and then recognize that, uh, the po- there's a possibility that the virtue can outlive the world that gave it public, uh, public facing.

Um-

So that is the, the Fabians.

They, uh, they saved their, their republic.

They saved their city.

They learned the lesson that, that, you know, if you, if you believe in God, then, then God clearly nurtured this family, brought it through this unique set of experiences so that it was ready to defend its city in her day of distress, and then they win.

And they're, they're, uh, they're republican doers.

So all right.

So that, uh, that pr- ends my, uh, my prepared remarks.

Thank you everybody for listening to this.