His agnomen, Cunctator, usually translated as "the delayer", refers to the strategy that he employed against Hannibal's forces during the Second Punic War.

Facing an outstanding commander with superior numbers, he pursued a then-novel strategy of targeting the enemy's supply lines, and accepting only smaller engagements on favourable ground, rather than risking his entire army on direct confrontation with Hannibal himself.

According to Livy, in 218 BC Fabius took part in an embassy to Carthage, sent to demand redress for the capture of the supposedly neutral town of Saguntum in Spain.

[12] When the consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus was defeated in the Battle of the Trebia in December 218 BC, Fabius advised that the Romans should simply bide their time and deny Hannibal any chance at a general engagement, instead letting the invasion peter out while making sure the cities of their Italian Allies were supported or protected.

However, consul Gaius Flaminius opposed this and joined his colleague Gnaeus Servilius Geminus in raising two consular armies to confront Hannibal in central Italy.

Flaminius' plan came to a disastrous end when he was killed during the decisive Roman defeat at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, with panic sweeping Rome.

With consular armies destroyed in these two major battles, and Hannibal approaching Rome's gates, the Romans feared the imminent destruction of their city.

The Roman Senate decided to appoint a dictator, and chose Fabius for the role – possibly for the second time, though evidence of a previous term seems to be conflicting – in part due to his advanced age and experience.

Plutarch tells us that Fabius believed that the disaster at Lake Trasimene was due, in part, to the fact that the gods had become neglected.

He ordered a massive sacrifice of the whole product of the next harvest season throughout Italy, in particular that of cows, goats, swine, and sheep.

In addition, he ordered that musical festivities be celebrated, and then told his fellow citizens to each spend a precise sum of 333 sestertii and 333 denarii.

The attack, though of no strategic value, resulted in the retreat of several enemy units, and so the Roman people, desperate for good news, believed Minucius to be a hero.

"[14] When Fabius' term as dictator ended, consular government was restored, and Gnaeus Servilius Geminus and Marcus Atilius Regulus assumed the consulship for the remainder of the year.

"[15] Shortly after Fabius had laid down his dictatorship, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus were elected as consuls.

They rallied the people through the assemblies, and won their support for Varro's plan to abandon Fabius' strategy, and engage Hannibal directly.

Fabius had warned the other consul for the year, Aemilius Paullus, to make sure that Varro remained unable to directly engage Hannibal.

He placed guards at the gates of the city to stop the frightened Romans from fleeing, and regulated mourning activities.

[16] Although he did not again hold the office of dictator – and indeed, it was granted to others over him – he might as well have been one unofficially at this time, because whatever measures he proposed were immediately adopted with little or no further debate.

When Marcus Livius Macatus, the governor of Tarentum, claimed the merit of recovering the town, Fabius rejoined, "Certainly, had you not lost it, I would have never retaken it.

Fabius wished to ensure that sufficient forces remained to defend Roman territory if Scipio was defeated.

Another motive mentioned by Plutarch was personal jealousy of Scipio's popularity, so that Fabius continued to argue against the African expedition even after its initial successes.

According to Ennius, unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem – "one man, by delaying, restored the state to us."

Virgil, in the Aeneid, has Aeneas' father Anchises mention Fabius Maximus while in Hades as the greatest of the many great Fabii, quoting the same line.