FABIUS. The name of one of the oldest and most illustrious patrician families of Rome. Three brothers of this name alternately held the office of Consul for seven years (n.c. 485-479). In 479 the Fahii. under Kl_Eso Fanius Viau LA'S S, migrated to the banks of the Cremera, a small stream that flows into the Tiber a few miles above Rome. Here, two years after, they were decoyed into an ambuscade by the Veientes, with whom they had been at war, and, with the exception of one member, who had remained at Rome, and through whom the race was perpetu ated. the entire Bens, consisting of 306 men. was put to the sword. The most eminent of the Fabii were QUINTUS FABIUS RITILI AN U S—supposed to have been the first who obtained for himself and his family the surname of Maximus—and his descendant, QUINTUS FABIUS MAXIM US VErtnu cosus, named CUNCTATOR, 'the delayer.' The for mer was the most eminent of the Roman generals in the second Samnite War (e. 326-304 n.e.), and was twice dictator and six times consul. The lat ter, who, in the course of his career, was five times consul and twice censor, was appointed dictator immediately after the defeat of the Ro mans by Hannibal at Lake Trasimenus, in n.c. 217. The peculiar line of tactics which he observed in the second Punie War obtained for him the surname by which he is best known in history.
Hanging on the heights like a thundercloud, to which Hannibal himself compared him, and avoid ing a direct engagement, he tantalized the enemy with his caution, harassed them by marches and countermarches, and cut off their stragglers and foragers. while at the same lime his delay al lowed Rome to assemble her forces in greater strength. This poliey—•hieh has become pro verbial as 'Fabian policy'—although the wisest in t he circumstances, was appreciated neither in eamp nor at Inane: and shortly after. Alarens Munch's master of the horse, was raised to rn equal share in I he dietatorship—a posit ion, however. wbielb he occupied for but a short time.
During his fifth consulship (e. 210 B.G.) Fabius recovered Tarentum, whien had long been one of Hannibal's important positions. lle died in n.o. 203. C. FAmus, surnamed Pie-TOR, executed upon the walls of the temple of Salus—dedicated by the dictator C. Junius Brutus Bubulus in B.C. 302 —the earliest Roman paintings of which we have any record; and his grandson, QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR, was the first writer of a Roman history in prose. The fragments of his Annals may be found in Peter, Historical-um Rontanorum Fray nicnta (Leipzig, 1883).