Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (we’ll call him Fabius from now) was a Roman statesman and general in the third century BC, a troubling period in Roman history. Rome was besieged by a great and terrible enemy; Hannibal of Carthage, a man widely regarded as one of the best military commanders of all time.
Hannibal repeatedly defeated the Roman forces in battle and even came close to threatening the city of Rome itself. Panicking, the Senate put our man Fabius in charge of quelling the threat of Hannibal.
Fabius was a wise man. He had great respect for Hannibal’s military skill, and so refused to meet him in open battle, opting instead to engage Hannibal in a war of attrition, employing methods known today as guerilla warfare. He harassed Hannibal’s supply lines, burned his crops and chose to fight only in skirmishes. His objective? To drag out the war out for as long as he can.
Fabius eventually won (more on that later) and the Fabian Strategy is now a legitimately recognised military tactic, one that has been admired and adopted by great generals the likes of George Washington.
The interesting thing is that Fabian’s strategy of patient attrition can not only help one succeed in…
