The Senate faced the crisis with characteristic energy. New forces were raised and intrusted to a dictator, [4] Quintus Fabius Maximus. He refused to meet Hannibal in a pitched battle, but followed doggedly his enemy's footsteps, meanwhile drilling his soldiers to become a match for the Carthaginian veterans. This strategy was little to the taste of the Roman populace, who nicknamed Fabius _Cunctator_, "the Laggard." However, it gave Rome a brief breathing space, until her preparations to crush the invader should be completed. [Illustration: A CARTHAGINAN OR ROMAN HELMET (British Museum, London) Found on the battle field of Cannae.] BATTLE OF CANNAE, 316 B.C. After the term of Fabius as dictator had expired, new consuls were chosen. They commanded the largest army Rome had ever put in the field. The opposing forces met at Cannae in Apulia. The Carthaginians numbered less than fifty thousand men; the Romans had more than eighty thousand troops. Hannibal's sole superiority lay in his cavalry, which was posted on the wings with the infantry occupying the space between. Hannibal's center was weak and gave way before the Romans, who fought this time massed in solid columns. The arrangement was a poor one, for it destroyed the mobility of the legions. The Roman soldiers, having pierced the enemy's lines, now found themselves exposed on both flanks to the African infantry and taken in the rear by Hannibal's splendid cavalry. The battle ended in a hideous butchery. One of the consuls died fighting bravely to the last; the other escaped from the field and with the wreck of his army fled to Rome. A Punic commander who survived such a disaster would have perished on the cross; the Roman commander received the thanks of the Senate "for not despairing of the republic." [5] AFTER CANNAE The battle of Cannae marks the summit of Hannibal's career. He maintained himself in Italy for thirteen years thereafter, but the Romans, taught by bitter experience, refused another engagement with their foe. Hannibal's army was too small and too poorly equipped with siege engines for a successful attack on Rome. His brother, Hasdrubal, led strong reinforcements from Spain to Italy, but these were caught and destroyed before they could effect a junction with Hannibal's troops. Meanwhile the brilliant Roman commander, Publius Scipio, drove the Carthaginians from Spain and invaded Africa. Hannibal was summoned from Italy to face this new adversary. He came, and on the field of Zama (202 B.C.) met his first and only defeat. Scipio, the victor, received the proud surname, _Africanus_. PEACE IN 201 B.C.