A complex problem was faced by Hannibal himself. He needed to decide how to exploit the fruits of victory, and--barring a total Roman political collapse, on which Hannibal could not count--the decisions he made would shape the future course of the war.
The main action at Cannae was barely concluded, and mopping-up operations on the battlefield perhaps still going forward, when there occurred one of the most famous reported exchanges of the Second Roman War. According to Livy,
Hannibal's officers crowded around him with
congratulations on his victory. The others all advised
him, now that he had brought so great a war to a
conclusion, to repose himself and to allow his weary soldiers to repose for the remainder of that day and the following night. But Maharbal, the commander of the cavalry, held that no time should be lost. "Nay," he
cried, "that you may realize what has been accomplished
by this battle, in five days you shall banquet in the Capitol! Follow after; I will precede you with the
cavalry, that the Romans may know that you are there
before they know that you are coming!" To Hannibal the
idea was too joyous and too vast for his mind at once to grasp it. And so, while praising Maharbal's goodwill, he declared that he must have time to deliberate regarding
his advice. Then said Maharbal, "In very truth the gods bestow not on the same man all their gifts; you know how
to gain a victory, Hannibal: you know not how to use one." That day's delay is generally believed to have saved the City and the empire.
No aspect of the war has prompted more subsequent debate than Hannibal's rejection of Maharbal's advice. We do not know what if anything Polybius had to say about Hannibal's decision, since Polybius' narrative breaks off before reaching that point. But from Livy's time on, the general consensus through the centuries--no doubt shaped by Livy's ow...