Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1007

Rh MAXIMUS. larities. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 9 ; comp. Juv. Sat. vi. 267, xi. 40.) In B. c. "295 Fabius was curule aedile, and fined certain matrons of noble birth for their disorderly life ; and with the produce of the fines built a temple to Venus near the Circus Max- imus. (Liv. x. 31 ; Victor. Region, xi.) He was consul in B. c. 292, and was completely defeated by the Pentrian Samnites. The adversaries of the Fabian house, the Papirian and Appian parties, took advantage of this defeat to exasperate the people against Fabius, and he escaped degradation from the consulate only through his father's offer to serve as his lieutenant for the remainder of the Avar. Victory returned with the elder Fabius to the Roman arms. In a second battle the consul retrieved his reputation, stormed several Samnite towns, and was rewarded with a triumph of which the most remarkable feature was old Fabius riding beside his son's chariot. (Plut. Fab. 24 ; Dionys. xvi. 15 ; Oros. iii. 22 ; Eutrop. ii. 9.) For his success in this campaign Fabius dedicated a shrine to Venus ohsequens, because the goddess had been obsequious to his prayers. (Serv. ad Jen. i. 720.) In B. c. 291 Fabius remained as proconsul in Sam- nium. He was besieging Cominium when the consul, L. Postumius Megellus, arbitrarily and violently drove him from the army and the province. (Dionys. xvi. 1 6.) Tlie Fasti ascribe a triumph to Fabius for his proconsulate. He was consul for the second time in B. c. 276, when he obtained a tri- umph de Samnitihus Lucaneis et Bruttiis (Fasti). Shortly afterwards he went as legatus from the senate to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt. The presents which Fabius and his colleagues re- ceived from the Egyptian monarch they deposited in the public treasury on their return to Rome. But a decree of the senate directed that the ambas- sadors should retain them. (Val. Max. iv. 3. § 10 ; comp. Dion Cass. Fr. 147 ; Liv. Epit. xiv. ; Zonar. viii. 6.) Fabius was slain in his third consul- ship, while engaged in quelling some disturbances at Vulsinii in Etruria. (Zonar. viii. 7 ; Flor. i. 21; Obseq. 27; comp. Vict. Vir. III. 36.) Like his father and grandfather, Fabius Gurges was princeps senatus. (Plin. H.N.vn. 41.) 3. Q. Fabius (Q. f. Q. n. Maxim us?). From the date alone of the only recorded fact of his life (Val. Max. vi. 6. § 5), it is probable that he was a son of the preceding, and father of Fabius the Great Dictator in the second Punic war. Fabius was aedile in B. c. 265, and, for an assault on its ambassadors, was sent in custody of a quaestor to Apollonia in Epeirus to be dealt with at pleasure. The Apolloniates, however, dismissed him unpun- ished. (Liv. Epit. XV. ; Dion Cass, Fr. 43 ; Zonar. viii. 8.) 4. Q. Fabius Q. f. Q. n. Maximus, with the agnomens Verrucosus, from a wart on his upper lip, OvicuLA, or the Lamb, from the mildness or apathy of his temper (Plut. Fab. 1 ; comp. Varr. R. R. ii. 1), and Cunctator, from his caution in war, grandson of Fabius Gurges, and, perhaps, son of the preceding, was consul for the first time in b. c. 233. Liguria was his province, and it af- forded him a triumph (Fasti) and a pretext for dedicating a temple to Honour. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 23.) He was censor in B. c. 23(r ; consul a socond time in 228 ; opposed the agrarian law of C. Flaminius in 227 [Flaminius, No. 1] ; was dic- tator for holding the comitia in 221, and in 218 lepatus from the senate to Carthage, to demand VOL 11. MAXIMUS. 993 reparation for the attack on Saguntum. In b. c. 217, immediately after the defeat at Thrasymenus, Fabius was appointed dictator, or rather, since no consul was at hand to nominate him, pro-dictator. From this period, so long as the war with Hanni bal was merely defensive, Fabius became the lead- ing man at Rome. His military talents were not perhaps of the highest order, but he understood beyond all his contemporaries the nature of the struggle, the genius of Hannibal, and the disposi- tion of his own countrymen. Cicero says truly of Fabius {Rep. i. 1), bellum Punicum secundum ener- vavits a more appropriate eulogy than that of Ennius, qui cunctando redituii rem, since Marcellus and Scipio restored the republic to its military eminence, whereas Fabius made it capable of resto- ration. His first act as dictator was to calm and corroborate the minds of the Romans by solemn sacrifice and supplication to the gods ; his next to render Latium and the neighbouring districts un- tenable by the enemy. On taking the field he laid down a simple and immutable plan of action. He avoided all direct encounter with the enemy ; moved his camp from highland to highland, where the Numidian horse and Spanish infantry could not fol- low him ; watched Hannibal's movements with un- relaxing vigilance, cut off his stragglers and foragers, and compelled him to weary his allies by necessary exactions, and to dishearten his soldiers by fruitless manoeuvres. His enclosure of Hannibal in one of the upland valleys between Cales and the Vultur- nus, and the Carthaginian's adroit escape by driv- ing oxen with blazing faggots fixed to their horns up the hill-sides, are well-known facts. But at Rome and in his own camp the caution of Fabius was misinterpreted. He was even suspected of wishing to prolong the war that he might retain the command ; of cowardice, of incapability, and even of treachery, although he gave up the produce of his estates to ransom Roman prisoners. Hanni- bal alone appreciated the conduct of Fabius. But his own master of the horse, M. Minucius Rufus, headed the clamour against him, and the senate, incensed by the ravage of their Campanian estates, joined with the impatient commonalty in condemn- ing his dilatory policy. Minucius, during a brief absence of Fabius from the camp, obtained some slight advantage over Hannibal. A tribune of the plebs, M. Metilius, brought forward a bill for di- viding the command equally between the dictator and the master of the horse, and the senate and the tribes passed it. Minucius was speedily en- trapped, and would have been destroyed by Han- nibal, had not Fabius generously hastened to his rescue. Hannibal, on his retreat from Fabius, is reported to have saicT, " I thought yon cloud would one day break from the hills in a pelting storm." Minucius, who though rash was magnanimous, re- signed his command, but Fabius scrupulously laid down his oflSce at its legal expiration in six months, bequeathing his example to the consuls who suc- ceeded him. Aemilius copied, Varro disregarded liis injunctions, and the rout at Cannae illustrated the wisdom of Fabius' warning to Aemilius, — " Remember, you have to dread not only Hannibal but Varro." Fabius was, however, among the first on Varro's return from Cannae to thank him for not having despaired of his country ; and the de- fensive measures which the senate adopted in that season of dismay were dictated by him. After the winter of b.c. 2 1 6 — 2 1 5, the war graduillv assumed 3's