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Dear Marylynncorder,
You knew what cunctation meant--I sure as heck didn't, so I've pasted the definition for the record, such as it is here. You know, so I'll have good study notes for the Final Exam!
When I looked at the word, all I could think was, "Does cunctation have anythin' to do with punctuation?" So go the workings of this poor brain.
Best regards,
DubDub
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he then put into operation the tactics that won him the surname Cunctator ("Delayer") by which he is best known. He constantly harassed the flanks of the...(enemy)... and by avoiding a decisive encounter gave Rome time to build its strength
Ahhh, so he was the inventor or at least an early practitioner of geurrilla warfare?
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Dear wow: I wouldn't call old Warty's tactics guerilla warfare, which involves very small units harrassing much larger units, always retreating, never defending their positions. Cunctator had an army almost the size of the invaders, but was smart enough not to give battle until the logistics problem weakened the invaders and strengthened him. No general worth his salt gives battle until he can see good chance of winning.
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No general worth his salt gives battle until he can see good chance of winning.So ... you're implying, then, that NONE of the generals on any side in WWI was worth his salt? How despicable. They did their very best, and millions of men died to prove that it wasn't a very good best. "... but he did for them both with his plan of attack" - Siegfried Sassoon, 1917. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Lots of people suffer from very coarse veins, WO'N.
I thought they were very close veins.
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No general worth his salt gives battle until he can see good chance of winning.
Except, praps, for Lee at Gettysburg...even most of his best officers, especially Gen. Longstreet, knew that ordering Pickett's Charge (an ill-fated assault on the Union center across over a mile of open field, with the Feds holding the high ground) was futile. But you could hardly say that Gen. Robert E. Lee wasn't worth his salt.
Your Happy Epeolatrist!
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Dear WO'N : Gen. R.E. Lee was justly regarded as a military genius until he ordered Pickett's charge. I am unable to comprehend how he can have made such a stupid mistake. I am mildly proud of the fact that one of my tribe, Gen. Henry Jackson Hunt, was in command of the Federal Artillery, and contributed materially to the victory by personally visiting every battery and ordering them to save ammo for that charge.
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>I am unable to comprehend how he can have made such a stupid mistake.
hubris, fed by desperation, -- unless it was the other way around.
()
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Especially when he knew above member of my tribe who had served under him for quite a few years in peace time, was quite possibly most competent artillerist in the war, and would never have let ammo get low with possibility of a charge. Above mentioned general is not closely enough related to me to be bragging material, but he's all I've got.
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I am unable to comprehend how he can have made such a stupid mistake
Some folks think the poor state of his health may have impaired his usually sound judgement on that fateful day. He was fatigued and haunted from a bad heart that had just worsened dramatically, and which sporadically thrumped and pained his chest all through that engagement at Gettysburg. Everytime he felt his heart's sudden paroxysms he feared it could be the final explosion. But he steeled himself against it and carried on. Lived a few years after the war, too. For a fine account of this, and the battle itself, I always recommend Michael Shaara's exquisite and gripping historical novel, The Killer Angels.
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