Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1008

Rh 994 MAXIMUS. a new character, and, though still eminent, Fabius was no longer its presiding spirit. Pie was elected pontifex in 216, was already a member of the au- gural college, which office he held sixty-two years (Liv. XXX. 26) ; dedicated by public commission the temple of Venus Erycina, and opposed filling up with Latins the vacancies which the war had made in the senate. In B.C. 215 he was consul for the third time, when he ravaged Campania and began the siege of Capua. On laying down the fasces he admonished the people and the senate to drop all party feelings, and to choose such men only for consuls as were competent to the times. His advice led to his own re-election, b. c. 214. In this year he made an inroad into Samnium and took Casilinum. In 213 Fabius served as legatus to his own son, Q. Fabius [No. 5], consul in that year, and an anecdote is preserved (Liv. xxiv. 44 ; Plut. Fah. 24) which exemplifies the strictness of the Roman discipline. On entering the camp at Suessula Fabius advanced on horseback to greet liis son. He was passing the lictors when the consul sternly bade him dismount. " My son," exclaimed the elder Fabius alighting, " I wished to see whether you would remember that you were consul." On Hannibal's march upon Rome, in B. c. 211, Fabius was again the principal stay of the senate, and earnestly dissuaded abandoning the siege of Capua, which would have been yielding to the Carthaginian's feint on the capi- tal. Fabius was consul for the fifth time in b. c. 209, was invested with the almost hereditary title of the Fabii Maximi — Princeps senatus, — and inflicted a deadly wound on Hannibal's tenure of Southern Italy by the recapture of Tarentum. The citadel of Tarentum had never fallen into the hands of the Carthaginians, and M. Livius Macatus, its governor, some years afterwards, claimed the merit of recovering the town. " Certainly," rejoined Fabius, " had you not lost, 1 had never retaken it." (Plut. Fab. 23 ; Cic. de Oral. ii. 67.) The plunder of the town was given up to the soldiers, but, a question arising whether certain colossal statues and pictures of the tutelary deities of Ta- rentum should be sent to Rome, " Nay," said Fabius, "let us leave to the Taren tines their angry gods." (Liv. xxvii. 16 ; Plut. Fab. 22.) He re- moved thither, however, a statue of Hercules, the mythic ancestor of the Fabii, and placed it in the Capitol. M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero, consuls elect for b. c. 208, were at open enmity (Liv. xxvii. 35, xxix. 37; Val. Max. iv. 2) ; and their reconciliation, of the highest moment to the commonwealth, was principally the work of Fabius. In the closing years of the second Punic war Fabius appears to less advantage. The war had become aggressive under a new race of generals. Fabius, already in mature manhood at the close of the first, was advanced in years in the later period of the second Punic war. He disapproved the new tactics ; he dreaded, perhaps he envied, the political supremacy of Scipio, and was his uncompromising opponent in his scheme of invading Africa. Fabius did not live to witness the issue of the war and the triumph of his rival. He died in b. c. 203, about the time of Hannibal's departure from Italy. His wealth was great ; yet the people defrayed by con- tribution the funeral charges of their " father," the "great dictator," "who singly, by his caution, saved the state." Fabius had two sons ; the younger survived him MAXIMUS. (Liv. xxxiii. 42) ; he pronounced the funeral ora- tion of the elder (Laudatio) (Cic. de tien. 4), and though, strictly speaking, not eloquent, he was neither an unready nor an illiterate speaker. (Cic. Brut. 14, 18.) He adopted, probably on account of the tender age of his younger, and after the de- cease of his elder son, a son of L. PauUus Aemilius, the conqueror of Perseus. (Plut. Faull. Aem. 5.) Besides the life, by Plutarch, which is probably a compilation from the archives of the Fabian family, the history of Fabius occupies a large space in all narratives of the second Punic war. (Polyb. iii. 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 101, 103, 105, 106, X. 1. § 10, xviii. Fr. Hist. 18 ; Liv. xx. xxi. xxii. xxiii. xxiv. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii. xxix. XXX. ; Florus, Eutropius, and the epitomists gene- rally ; Cic. Brut. 18, Leg. Agrar. ii. 22, TuscuL iii. 28, Nut. Deor. iii. 32, Li Verr. Ace. v. 10, De Sen. 4, 17, De Off. i. 30 ; Sail. Jug. 4 ; Varr. Fr. p, 241, ed. Bipont. ; Dion Cass. Fr. 48, bb ; Appian, Annib.W — 16, 31; Quint. Jnst. vi. 3. §§ 52, 61, viii. 2. § 11 ; Plin. H. N. xxii. 5 ; Sen. de Ben. ii. 7 ; Sil. Ital. Funic, vii.) 5. Q, P'abius Q. f. Q. n. Maximus, elder son of the preceding, was curule aedile in b. c. 215, and praetor in 214. He was stationed in Apulia (Liv. xxiv. 9, 11, 12), in the neiglibourhood of Luceria {ib. 12, 20), and co-operated ably with the other commanders in the second Punic war. (Cic. pro Fab. Fost 1 .) He was consul in b. c. 213, when Apulia was again his province (Liv. xxiv. 45, 46). His father in this year served under him as legatus at Suessula. (Liv. xxiv. 43, 44 ; Plut. Fab. 24.) The younger Fabius was legatus to the consul M. Livius Salinator b. c. 207. (Liv. xxviii. 9.) He died soon after this period, and his funeral oration was pronounced bv his father. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 32, Tuscul. iii. '28, De Sen. 4, ad Fain. iv. 6.) 6. Q. Fabius Q. f. Q. n. Maximus, second son of No. 5, was elected augur in the room of his father, b. c. 203 (Liv. xxx. 26), although he was then very young, and had borne no office previously. He died in b. c. 196. (Liv. xxxiii. 42.) 7. Q. Fabius Maximus, praetor peregrinus in B. c. 181 (Liv. xJ. 18), was probably the same person with Q. Fabius, quaestor of the proconsul L. Manlius in Spain, B.C. 185. (Liv. xxxix. 29.) His relation to the preceding Maximi is uncertain. 8. Q. Fabius Q. f. Q, n. Maximus Aemi- LIANUS, was by adoption only a Fabius Maximus, being by birth the eldest son of L. Paullus Aemi- lius, the conqueror of Perseus, consul in b. c. 182. Fabius served under his father (Aemilius) in the last Macedonian war, b. c. 168, and was despatched by him to Rome with the news of his victory at Pydna. (Polyb. xxix. 6.) Fabius was praetor in Sicily B. c. 149 — 148, and consul in 145. Spain was his province, where he encountered, and at length defeated Viriarathus. (Liv. xliv. 35 ; Ap- pian, IJispan. 65, 67, 90, Maced. 17 ; Plut. Fault. Aem. 5 ; Cic. de Amic. 'lb.) Fabius was the pupil and patron of the historian Polybius, who has recorded some interesting and honourable traits of his filial and fraternal conduct, and of the affection entertained for him by his younger brother, Scipio Aemilianus. (Polyb. xviii. 18. § 6, xxxii. 8. § 4, 9. § 9, 10. § 3, 14, xxxiii. 6. § 3, 9. $ 5 xxx viii. 3. § 8; Cic. De Amic. 19, Faradox. 6L §2.) 9. Q. Fabius Q. Aemiliani p. Q. n. Max- imus, surnamed Allobkogicus, from his victory