In the assemblies of the people the most violent invectives were directed against the obstinate old man.

His political opponents, with the former praetor Gaius Terentius Varro at their head, laid hold of the quarrel--for the understanding of which we must not forget that the dictator was practically nominated by the senate, and the office was regarded as the palladium of the conservative party--and, in concert with the discontented soldiers and the possessors of the plundered estates, they carried an unconstitutional and absurd resolution of the people conferring the dictatorship, which was destined to obviate the evils of a divided command in times of danger, on Marcus Minucius,( 4) who had hitherto been the lieutenant of Quintus Fabius, in the same way as on Fabius himself.

Thus the Roman army, after its hazardous division into two separate corps had just been appropriately obviated, was once more divided; and not only so, but the two sections were placed under leaders who notoriously followed quite opposite plans of war.

Quintus Fabius of course adhered more than ever to his methodical inaction; Marcus Minucius, compelled to justify in the field of battle his title of dictator, made a hasty attack with inadequate forces, and would have been annihilated had not his colleague averted greater misfortune by the seasonable interposition of a fresh corps.

This last turn of matters justified in some measure the system of passive resistance.