The Battle of Ager Falernus (or the Battle of the Falernian Territory) was a skirmish during the Second Punic War between the armies of Rome and Carthage. After winning the Battle of Lake Trasimene in Italy in 217 BC, the army commanded by Hannibal Barca marched south and reached Campania. The Carthaginians ultimately moved into the district of Falernum, a very fertile river valley surrounded by mountains. Fabius Maximus, who had been elected dictator and commander of the Roman field forces after the disastrous defeat at Trasimene, had dogged Hannibal and stuck to a strategy to fight only under favourable conditions (Fabian Strategy). He now occupied all the river crossings and mountain passes leading out of the valley, thus blocking the Carthaginians inside. After stripping the area of gr