Fabius Maximus Rullianus
Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus (or
Rullus), son of Marcus, of the
patrician Fabii of
ancient Rome, was five times
consul and a hero of the
Samnite Wars.
His first appearance in surviving records is as
Master of the Horse in
325 BC, when he won a daring victory against the
Samnites at
Imbrinium. However, he had acted without the authority of the
dictator Papirius Cursor, who was angry and demanded that the
Senate punish Fabius for disobeying orders.
Livy (8.31-36) describes a tense scene where Papirius stood nearly alone against the senate and people, who supported Fabius because of his victory, but who also did not wish undercut the absolute authority they had given Papirius; finally Fabius threw himself at the feet of the dictator and asked forgiveness, which was granted.
Fabius became consul for the first time in
322 BC, although little is said of his time in office. He appears next as a dictator himself in
315 BC, successfully besieging
Saticula and then, less successfully, fighting at
Lautulae. (
Diodorus mentions another dictatorship in
313 BC, but this is probably mistaken.) As consul in
310 BC, Fabius fought the
Etruscans at
Sutrium, then followed them when they fled into the
Ciminian Forest and defeated them again. Consul again in
308 BC, he defeated
Perusia and
Nuceria Alfaterna.
He then served as
censor beginning in
304 BC.
Fabius was consul for the fourth time in
297 BC, defeating the Samnites at
Tifernum by sending part of his line around the hills behind the enemy, and in
295 BC he was elected unanimously for a fifth term, where he won lasting fame for defeating a coalition of Etruscans, Samnites, and
Gauls in the epic
battle of Sentinum.
Rullianus' son was
Fabius Gurges, and his great-grandson the
Fabius Maximus, Cunctator, of the
Second Punic War.
Although Rullianus' fame is undoubted, the main source of his life is Livy, who in turn worked from annals by
Fabius Pictor and others, and many of the details are suspiciously similar to stories of the Cunctator.
*
Livy (books 8-11
passim)
*
Diodorus Siculus*
Valerius Maximus*
Frontinus
