Hannibal of Carthage was one of the most brilliant military strategists the world has ever seen, but when he crossed the Alps into Italy, Rome thought they could take him. But one man tried to warn them not to go head to head with Hannibal; Fabius Maximus knew Hannibal would destroy the Roman army if attacked head on. He tried to stop Rome from directly confronting Hannibal, but it's really hard to get people excited about your strategy of hanging around annoying Hannibal until he gets bored and leaves. So Rome decided to ignore Fabius and attack Hannibal directly at the Battle of Cannae.