Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).
After the misfortune which befell the State at Cannae [*](In 216 B.C.) he was chosen consul with Claudius Mar
cellus, a man possessed of daring and spoiling for a figbt with Hannibal. Fabius hoped, if nobody fought with Hannibal, that Hannibal’s forces, being under continual strain, would soon give out. Wherefore Hannibal said that he had more to fear from Fabius who would not fight than from Marcellus who would. [*](Plutarch’s Life of Fabius Maximus, chap. xix. (185 A-C).)A certain Lucanian soldier was accused of wandering often from the camp at night for love of a young woman. Fabius, on hearing the accusation, ascertained that in other respects the man was an admirable man-at-arms, and he ordered that they secretly seize the man’s mistress and bring her to him. When she was brought, he sent for the man, and said to him, Your being away at night, contrary to the regulations, has not passed unnoticed, nor, on the other hand, your good service in the past. Therefore let your oifences be atoned for by your brave and manly deeds, and in future you will be with us, for I have a surety. And leading forward the girl he presented her to him. [*](Ibid. chap. xx. (186 A-C). Cf. also Valerius Maximus, vii. 3. 7.)
Hannibal kept the Tarentines in subjection by a garrison-all the city except the acropolis. Fabius drew him away a very long distance by a trick, and captured and sacked the city. When his secretary asked him what decision he had reached in regard to the sacred images, he said, Let us leave behind for the Tarentines their angered gods. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Fabius Maximus, chap. xxii. (187 A-C); Livy, xxvii. 16.)
Marcus Livius, who had all the time held the acropolis with his garrison, said that it was because of him that the city had been taken. The others laughed at him, but Fabius said, You are quite
right; for, if you had not lost the city, I should not have recaptured it. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Fabius Maximus, chap. xxiii. (187 E); Cicero, De oratore, ii. 67 (273), and De senectute, 4 (11).)When he was already an elderly man, his son was consul, and was attending to the duties of his office in public in the presence of a large number of people. Fabius, mounted, was advancing on horseback. When the young man sent a lictor, and ordered his father to dismount, the others were thrown into consternation, but Fabius, leaping from his horse, ran up more nimbly than his years warranted, and, embracing his son, said, Well done, my boy; you show sense in that you realize whose official you are, and what a high office you have taken upon you. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Fabius Maximus, chap. xxiv. (188 A); Livy, xxiv. 44; Valerius Maximus, ii. 2. 4; Aulus Gellius, ii. 2.)