He put in
force every conceivable military stratagem and device, like a skilful
wrestler when he tries to lay hold of his antagonist, and kept attacking
Fabius, skirmishing round him, and drawing him from place to place, in
his endeavours to make him quit his policy of caution. But Fabius was
convinced that he was right, and steadily declined battle. His master of
the horse, Minucius, who longed for action, gave him much trouble. This
man made unseemly boasts, and harangued the army, filling it with wild
excitement and self-confidence. The soldiers in derision used to call
Fabius Hannibal's lacquey, because he followed him wherever he went, and
thought Minucius a really great general, and worthy of the name of
Roman. Minucius, encouraged in his arrogant vauntings, began to ridicule
the habit of encamping on the mountain-tops, saying that the dictator
always took care to provide them with good seats from which to behold
the spectacle of the burning and plundering of Italy, and used to ask
the friends of Fabius whether he took his army up so near the sky
because he had ceased to take any interest in what went on on the earth
below, or whether it was in order to conceal it from the enemy among the
clouds and mists. When Fabius was informed of these insults by his
friends, who begged him to wipe away this disgrace by risking a battle,
he answered, "If I did so, I should be more cowardly than I am now
thought to be, in abandoning the policy which I have determined on
because of men's slanders and sneers.
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