Meanwhile the victorious Hannibal was surrounded by his officers offering their congratulations and urging him to take some rest during the remainder of the day and the ensuing night, and to allow his tired troops to do the same; Maharbal, however, the commander of his cavalry, was convinced there was not a moment to be lost. "Sir," he said, "if you want to know the true significance of this battle, let me tell you that within five days you will take your dinner, in triumph, on the Capitol. I will go first with my horsemen. The first knowledge of our coming will be the sight of us at the gates of Rome. You have but to follow."
To Hannibal this seemed too sanguine a hope, a project too great to be, in the circumstances, wholly conceivable. "I commend your zeal," he said to Maharbal, "but I need time to weight the plan you propose." "Assuredly," Maharbal replied, "no one man has been blessed with all God's gifts. You know, Hannibal, how to win a fight; you do not know how to use your victory."
It is generally believed that that day's delay was the salvation of the City and the Empire.