Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/377

Rh PICTOR. Polyhius (iii. 9. § 4) that he had a seat in the senate, and consequently he must have filled the ofFice of quaestor ; but we possess no other parti- culars respecting his life. The year of his death is uncertain ; for the C. Fabius Pictor whose death Livy speaks of (xlv. 44) in b. c. J 67, is a different person from the historian [see No. 5]. One might conjecture, from his not obtaining any of the higher dignities of the state, that he died soon after his return from Delphi ; but, as Polybius (iii. 9) speaks of him as one of the historians of the second Punic war, he can hardly have died so soon ; and it is probable that his literary habits rendered him dis- inclined to engage in the active services required of the Roman magistrates at that time. The history of Fabius Pictor probably began with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy, and came down to his own time. The earlier events were related with brevity ; but that portion of the history of which he was a contemporary, was given with much greater minuteness (Dionys. i. 6). We do not know the number of books into which the work was divided, nor how far it came down. It con- tained an account of the battle of the lake Trasi- mene (Liv. xxii. 7) ; and Polybius, as we have already remarked, speaks of him as one of the his- torians of the second Punic War. We have the express testimony of Dionysius (/. c.) that the work of Fabius was Avritten in Greek ; but it has been supposed from Cicero (de Orai. ii. 12, de Leg. i, 2), Gellius (v. 4, x. 15), Quintilian (i. 6. § 12), and Nonius (s. V. Picuviniis), that it must have been written in Latin also. This, however, is very im- probable ; and as we know there were two Latiji writers of the name of Fabius, itamely, Ser. Fabius Pictor, and Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus, it is more likely that the passages above quoted refer to one of these, and not to Quintus. [See below. No. 6.] The work of Q. Fabius Pictor was one of great value, and is frequently referred to by Livy, Poly- bius, and Dionysius. Polybius (i. 14, iii. 9), indeed, charges Fabius with great partiality towards the Romans ; and as he wrote for the Greeks, he was probably anxious to make his countrymen appear in the best light. The work seems to have con- tained a very accurate account of the constitutional changes at Rome ; Niebuhr attributes the excellence of Dion Cassius in this department of his history to his having closely followed the statements of Fabius {Hist, vf Rome, vol. ii. note 367). In his account of the early Roman legends Fabius is said to have adopted the views of Diodes of Peparethus [ DiocLES, literary. No. 5] . (Mdller, De Q. Fahio Fidore, Altorf, 1690 ; Whiste, De Fabio Pictore cderisqm Fubiis Jlistoricis, Ilafniae, 1832 ; Vossius, De Hist. Lat. p. 1 2 ; Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Hist. Horn. p. 38, &c.; Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman His- tory., vol. i. p. 27, ed. Schmitz.) 5. Q. Fabius Pictor, probably son of No. 4, was praetor b. c. 189. The lot gave him Sardinia as his province, but as he had been consecrated flamen Quirinalis in the preceding year, the pontifex maximus, P. Licinius, compelled him to remain in Rome. Fabius was so enraged at losing his pro- vince that he attempted to abdicate, but the senate compelled him to retain his office, and assigned to him the jurisdiction inter peregrinos. He died B.C. 167. (Liv. xxxvii. 47, 50, 51, xlv. 44.) 6. Ser. Fabius Pictor, probably a son of No. 6, was a contemporary of A. Postumius Albinusj PICUS. 3G5 who was consul b. c. 151, and is said by Cicero to have been well skilled in law, literature, and anti- quity (Brut. 21). He appears to be the same as the Fabius Pictor who wrote a work De Jure Pon- tijicio, in several books, which is quoted by Nonius (s. vv. Picumnus and Polubrum). We also have quotations from this work in Gellius (i. 12, x. 15) and Macrobius (Sat. iii. 2). This Ser. Fabius probably wrote Annals likewise in the Latin lan- guage, since Cicero (de Orat. ii. 12) speaks of a Latin annalist, Pictor, v;hom he places after Cato, but before Piso ; which corresponds with the time at which Ser. Pictor lived, but could not be applicable to Q. Pictor, who lived in the time of the second Punic War. Now as we know that Q. Pictor wrote his history in Greek, it is probable, as has been already remarked under No. 4, that the passages referring to a Latin history of Fabius Pictor relate to this Ser. Pictor. (Krause, IbvL p. 132, &c.) The annexed coin was struck by some member of this family, but it cannot be assigned with cer- tainty to any of the persons above mentioned. It bears on the obverse a head of Pallas, and on the reverse a figure of Rome, seated, with tlie legend of n. fabi n. pictor. On the shield we find QViRiN., which probably indicates that the person who struck it was Flamen Quirinalis. COIN OF N. fabius PICTOR. PICUMNUS and PILUMNUS, were re- garded as two brothers, and as the beneficent gods of matrimony in the rustic religion of the ancient Romans. A couch was prepared for them in the house in Avhich there was a newly-born child. Pilumnus was believed to ward off all the suffer- ings from childhood from the infant with his pilnm., with which he taught to pound the grain ; and Picumnus, who, under the name of Sterqui- linius, was believed to have discovered the use of manure for the fields, conferred upon the infimt strength and prosperity, whence both were also looked upon as the gods of good deeds, and were identified with Castor and Pollux. (Serv. ad Jen. ix. 4, X. 76 ; August. De Civ. Dei. vi. 9, xviii. 15 ; Ov. Met. xiv. 321, &c. ; Virg. Aen. vii. 189). When Danae landed in Italy, Picumnus is said to have built with her the town of Ardea, and to have become by her the father of Daunus. [L. S.] PICUS (nr/cos), a Latin prophetic divinity, is described as a son of Saturnus or Sterculus, as the husband of Canens, and the father of Faunus (Ov. Met. xiv. 320, 338, Fast. iii. 291 ; Virg. Aen. vii. 48 ; Serv. ad Aen. x. 76). In some tra- ditions he was called the first king of Italy (Tzetz. ad Lye. 1232). He was a fiimous soothsayer and augur, and, as he made use in these things of a picus (a wood-pecker), he himself also was called Picus. He was represented in a rude and primitive manner as a wooden pillar with a wood- pecker on the top of it, but afterwards as a young man with a wood-pecker on his head (Dionys. i. 14; Ov. Met. xiv. 314 ; Virg. Aen, vii. lo7). The whole