fter an unsuccessful attempt upon the Roman
colony of Spoletium, he turned aside through the Apennines into Picenum,
and thence into the northern part of Apulia. Here he spent a great part
of the summer, and was able effectually to refresh his troops, who had
suffered much from the hardships of their previous marches; but no
symptoms appeared of the insurrections he had looked for among the
Italians.

Meantime the Romans had collected a fresh army, which they placed under
the command of Q. Fabius Maximus, who had been elected Dictator by the
Comitia of the Centuries. Fabius formed a different plan for the
campaign. He determined to keep the heights, and not to risk a battle,
but at the same time to watch the Carthaginian army, cut off its
supplies, and harass and annoy it in every possible way. From pursuing
this policy he received the surname of _Cunctator_, or the _Lingerer_.

Hannibal now recrossed the Apennines, descended into the rich plains of
Campania, and laid waste, without opposition, that fertile territory.
But he was unable either to make himself master of any of the towns, or
to draw the wary Fabius to a battle. The Roman general contented himself
with occupying the mountain passes leading from Samnium into Campania,
by which Hannibal must of necessity retreat, and believed that he had
caught him, as it were, in a trap; but Hannibal eluded his vigilance by
an ingenious stratagem, passed the defiles of the Apennines without
loss, and established himself in the plains of Apulia, where he
collected supplies from all sides, in order to prepare for the winter.
Meantime the Romans, having become impatient at the inactivity of
Fabius, raised Minucius, the Master of the Horse, to an equality in
command with Fabius. His rashness very nearly gave Hannibal the
opportunity, for which he was ever on the watch, to crush the Roman army
by a decisive blow; but Fabius was able to save his colleague from
destruction; and Hannibal, after obtaining only a partial advantage,
took up his winter quarters at the small town of Geronium. Minucius
acknowledged his error, and resumed his post of Master of the Horse.

During the winter the Romans made preparations for bringing an
unusually large force into the field. The people thought that it needed
only a man of energy and decision at the head of an overwhelming force
to bring the war to a close. They therefore raised to the consulship C.
Terentius Varro, said to have been the son