The Fabian Society, a British think tank founded in London in 1884, is named after the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus whose battle strategy was one of harassment and attrition rather than violent military battles against the Carthaginian army under general Hannibal.
Fabius had much in common with the great Chinese warrior and strategist Sun Tzu who wrote the extraordinary military treatise The Art of War in the 5th century BC. According to Sun Tzu, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. . . the greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”