Fabius

Fabius, Quintus, Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator (known as ‘ the Delayer’) (died 203 BC) Roman general and consul five times between 233 and 209. He was appointed dictator in 221 and again for a second time in 217 after the Battle of Trasimene, during the Second PUNIC WAR. Appreciating that the Carthaginian forces were superior to his own, he declined to engage in pitched battles. His unspectacular tactics of slow harassment against Hannibal's army in Italy at first won little popular support, and the nickname Cunctator was intended as an insult. After the defeat at CANNAE (216) the feeling against his strategy waned and the insult became a title of approval. He opposed SCIPIO AFRICANUS's aggressive war against Carthage on the African mainland.

Fabius (d. 203 bc), Roman general and statesman, known as Fabius Cunctator (‘the Delayer’). After Hannibal's defeat of the Roman army at Cannae in 216 bc, Fabius successfully pursued a strategy of caution and delay in order to wear down the Carthaginian invaders.

George Washington, whose tactics were likened to those of the Roman general, was named the American Fabius, and the Fabian Society, an organization of socialists aiming at the gradual rather than revolutionary achievement of socialism, founded in 1884, was also named after Fabius.