The consequence was, first, that the most important instrument which the wisdom of their ancestors had placed in the hands of the senate just for such cases--the dictatorship--broke down in his hands; and, secondly--at least indirectly--the battle of Cannae.

But the headlong fall of the Roman power was owing not to the fault of Quintus Fabius or Gaius Varro, but to the distrust between the government and the governed--to the variance between the senate and the burgesses.

If the deliverance and revival of the state were still possible, the work had to begin at home with the re-establishment of unity and of confidence.

To have perceived this and, what is of more importance, to have done it, and done it with an abstinence from all recriminations however just, constitutes the glorious and imperishable honour of the Roman senate.
When Varro--alone of all the generals who had command in the battle -- returned to Rome, and the Roman senators met him at the gate and thanked him that he had not despaired of the salvation of his country, this was no empty phraseology veiling the disaster under sounding words, nor was it bitter mockery over a poor wretch; it was the conclusion of peace between the government and the governed.

In presence of the gravity of the time and the gravity of such an appeal, the chattering of demagogues was silent; henceforth the only thought of the Romans was how they might be able jointly to avert the common peril.