Tom Holland

But I think things could have been very different.

But I think it is possible that just as you could imagine Lord Halifax rather than Churchill coming to power, you know, in the darkest moment for Britain of the Second World War,

and perhaps opening negotiations, which would in turn have led to Britain probably suing for terms, I think it is possible to imagine a situation in which the Romans would have done the same.

Because when the news of Cannae reaches Rome, there understandably are massive displays of grief, but also of dread.

So you have

women start to mourn the dead.

And that's, you know, in any city is an eerie and unearthly sound.

And you also start to get impromptu public meetings of Roman citizens gathering together in the forum or other meeting places to discuss what should be done.

And you could see a situation, I think, in which

the circumstances kind of snowball and it becomes impossible for hawks in the Senate to continue the war.

However, the Churchillian role in this story is played by a guy called Fabius Maximus, who is known as the Delayer.

We talked about him in our previous series.

The previous year, in the wake of the defeat of the Romans at Lake Trasimene, another brilliant victory for Hannibal, Fabius had been appointed the supreme commander of the Roman forces just for a six-month term.

He had pursued a policy of shadowing Hannibal and never actually engaging him in open battle.

And this had proved very effective and successful.

Obviously, by sending eight legions to go and fight Hannibal and then be wiped out at Cannae, the Romans had turned their back on this policy.

But now, with the news of Cannae brought to Rome, it's evident that Fabius's strategy had been the correct one.

And so he has a tremendous moral force and he takes full advantage of it.

He doesn't have an official position, but people look up to him as the guy who has been proved right.

And so what he does is to give an incredible display of sang-froid, of kind of cool and measured confidence, and it wins him the effective command of the city.