Who was the best Roman general?

[Harkilaz]

Fabius Maximus...He wasn't a great commander, but he saved Rome from Hannibal

That's far too simple a way of looking at it! There was a combination of factors that contributed to the defeat of Hannibal... It wasn't as though all Roman commanders followed Fabius' strategy, many confronted Hannibal in battle after Cannae! Fabius was however, one of the only generals to realise Hannibal's logistical limitations when he first set foot in Italy before he had anywhere as a supply base.

Fronda in his book Between Rome and Carthage: Southern Italy during the Second Punic War supposes the alliances to both Hannibal and Rome were dictated by centuries of interstate rivalries that determined what actions the cities and towns would take when faced by Hannibal - political factionalism within the cities governing elite and interstate rivalries hindered Hannibal's strategy - for example - gaining Capua turned a number of cities from ever joining Hannibal out of choice because of their fear of Capuan hegemony (who most likely didn't want to control all of Italy, but take back what had been stripped of them by Rome) - those in the past that had joined Capua in her policy decisions in war turned from Rome - and those that didn't had fought that very same Capuan league in the past, and their very survival depended on staying with Rome as they feared they'd lose out in an alliance with Hannibal. This was the case all over the South where he tried to turn allies from Rome. In Bruttium, centuries of warfare between the Greeks and the Bruttians made the Greeks hesitant of joining Hannibal when most of Bruttium joined him, which is true of Greek intercity rivalry too - when he captured Locri, who had previous interstate rivalry with Rhegion, the Rhegions turned to Rome for help fearing Locrian hegemonic aspirations. Likewise, the Bruttians also attacked Croton without Hannibal's knowledge, which shows they also expected more power - sadly - with Rome's reaction after Cannae to garrison cities that might sway in order to prevent such a thing (though this did not mean it would work - see Tarentum in 213/2) this limited Hannibal's success massively. The combination of long term conditions (local rivalries) and short term factors (Rome's military response) proved to much for Hannibal's strategy to overcome.

Here are some tables from Fronda's book which reveals alliance patterns in Apulia and Campania.






There isn't any indication that the allies had any particular love for Rome and its future, instead, the Second Punic War reveals that decisions made by each city and town was to further it's own interests and survival rather than loyalty to Rome. If the pro-Hannibal (or anti-Roman) political faction elite in the other cities had managed to win over the pro-Roman elite, Rome would have been in dire straits!

Personally I'd go for Caesar - his engineering ability alone was brilliant!