Fabius, as defender of the land, had time on his hands and he also had manpower. He took over the two legions of the consul Gnaeus Servilius and added a further two legions to the army that now lay at his disposal. At the same time he gave orders for all the people who lay ahead of Hannibal's line of march to abandon their farms, burn the buildings, and destroy the crops. {Centuries later his basic strategy was to be adopted by the Russian general Kutusov against Napoleon.} The people of Italy should withdraw into their land, leaving as little behind them as possible, and he himself-as commander of the only organised army-should avoid a pitched battle at any costs. Guerrilla tactics, harassing the flanks of the enemy, cutting off his foraging parties and gradually bleeding the invader to death, were the methods that Fabius was to employ against the general whom, very wisely, he was unwilling to meet on normal terms.
( Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford )
[ Hannibal ]
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