Hannibal faces Minucius.
You have changed History! This is a sort of trick question,
though, since Hannibal's wishes didn't really have an effect on what the
Romans did. Still, it's hard to imagine that he would have wanted
anything different to happen. If the days had been split, he'd still
have had to face the entire Roman army in battle, even if he could have
enticed Minucius to attack on his own day. It is always dangerous
to fight a complete force, thus the saying "Divide and conquer."
It must have pleased him to have the army split in two, giving him a smaller
army to fight. Historically, this decision certainly worked in his
favor. Scroll down to see. By splitting
the army, the Romans gave Hannibal what he wanted... maybe. If Minucius
had his way, the days would have been split, and Hannibal might
have had the opportunity to destroy the entire force in one fell swoop.
Fabius wanted to split the army so that he might save half of it from Minucius'
foolish need to strike quickly. As it turned out, this choice saved
the Romans, and permitted them to fight another day. Hannibal enticed Minucius' part
of the army to come after him, and lured them up a hill, by retreating
in a specific manner. Minucius, aggressive to a fault, pursued Hannibal
into a trap, by which his entire force should have been destroyed.
Fabius used his half of the army, to come to Minucius' rescue, and
saved them from certain destruction. Minucius was wise enough to admit
that he had made a mistake. He apologized to Fabius, and promised
to follow him wherever he went. The army was rejoined, and all was
forgiven. Fabius' term was at an end, however, and he ceased to be
dictator. In a final act of class, he sold his own farm to pay the
ransom Hannibal demanded for Roman captives that had been taken. Now, there would be a change in
Roman leadership, and Hannibal would have more choices
to make. Hannibal found
that his food supply had become impossibly low. He desperately needed
supplies, and had to go in search of new sources. A scouting party
he sent out was crushed by a Roman detachment. Nearly surrounded,
Hannibal tried another ruse, by pretending to abandon his camp and move
away. The Romans did not fall for this trick, so Hannibal pulled
the same ploy again, and really did move away. This enabled
him to go south to greener fields in Cannae, where the two armies finally
came into conflict. The Roman consuls were now Aemilius
and Varro, who perpetuated the leadership problem that had plagued Rome
from the beginning. Aemilius was was friend of Fabius, who thought
it wise to continue the Fabian tactics. Varro was another impulsive,
impetuous soul, who could not wait to demonstrate his skill against the
Carthaginian General. Having learned one lesson from the experience
of Fabius & Minucius, Aemilius & Varro split days of control, rather
than splitting the army. The conflict in strategy, though, made all
the difference. On days of his command, Aemilius maneuvered around
Hannibal, keeping his troops at a safe distance, but preventing Hannibal
from going his own way. On his days, Varro prepared to have
conflict. If we have learned anything from our lessons so far, we
know how this turned out, don't we? Eventually, Varro got his way. The Battle at Cannae was one of
the most horrific battles in history. Some 50,000 Carthaginians faced
about 80,000 Romans, and the killing was vicious on both sides. Hannibal
once again used a trick, having a large segment of his army pretend to
desert to the Romans. Because of the ferocity of the battle, the
Romans could not spare many men to guard the Carthaginians, and, at an
appointed moment, the "prisoners" attacked the Roman army from behind.
Many Romans were slaughtered, including the consul Aemilius. Despair
beset the Romans, who now believed that all was lost. Hannibal was now faced with his
greatest decision. Rome lay before him, with no army to protect it.
To lay siege to a city so large, with high walls and an immense population,
would take a very long time, and it appeared to Hannibal that the citizens
would fight him with rocks and sticks if necessary, exacerbating his Fortification
Problem. He was still subject to the restraints of the Food
Factor and the Replacement Factor made it impossible for him
to get reinforcements from anywhere in the vicinity. His Generals
advised him to attack immediately, taking advantage of their temporary
dominance. It was nearly winter again, and Hannibal knew it would
be difficult to besiege a city in poor weather, when his troops would have
to live in the open. At the gates of his ultimate obstacle, Hannibal
faced the ultimate decision. What would you do?