Fabricius
1.
Gaius, surnamed
Luscīnus. A Roman, consul for the first time in the year B.C.
283, when he triumphed over the Boii and Etrurians. After the defeat of the Romans, under the
consul Laevinus, by Pyrrhus (B.C. 281), Fabricius was sent by the Senate as legate to the
king, to treat for the ransom of the prisoners, or, according to others, to propose terms of
peace. Pyrrhus is said to have endeavoured to bribe him by large offers, which Fabricius,
poor as he was, rejected with scorn, to the great admiration of the king. Fabricius being
again consul, B.C. 279, was sent against Pyrrhus, who was then encamped near Tarentum. The
physician of the king is said to have come secretly to the Roman camp, and to have promised
Fabricius to poison his master for a bribe. The consul, indignant at this, had him put in
fetters and sent back to Pyrrhus, on whom this instance of Roman integrity made a strong
impression. Pyrrhus soon after sailed for Sicily, whither he was called by the Syracusans,
then hard pressed by the Carthaginians. Fabricius, having defeated the Samnites, Lucanians,
and Bruttii, who had joined Pyrrhus against Rome, triumphed over these nations. Pyrrhus,
afterwards returning to Italy, was finally defeated and driven away by M'. Curius Dentatus,
B.C. 276. Two years after, Fabricius being consul for the third time, with Claudius Cinna for
his colleague, ambassadors came from King Ptolemy of Egypt to contract an alliance with Rome.
Several instances are related of the extreme frugality and simplicity which marked the
manners of Fabricius. When censor, he dismissed from the Senate P. Cornelius Rufinus, who had
been twice consul, and had also held the dictatorship, because he had in his possession ten
pounds' weight of silver plate. Fabricius died poor, and the Senate was obliged to make
provision for his daughters ( Plut.
Pyrrh.), and in order to show the greatest
possible respect for his memory he was interred within the Pomoerium, though the law forbade
such burials.
2.
Lucius. A
curator viarum, B.C. 62, who built
the Pons Fabricius between the city and the
Insula Tiberina (q.v.).
