Digital Prosopography of the Roman Republic

FABI0709 Q. Fabius (cf. 112) Q. f. Q. n. Maximus Gurges

Status

  • Patrician

Life Dates

  • 265, death - violent (Broughton MRR I) Expand

    Mortally wounded against Volsinii.

Relationships

son of
? Q. Fabius (112) Q. f. M. n. Maximus Gurges (cos. 292) (Broughton MRR III)

Career

  • Consul? 265 (Broughton MRR I) Expand
    • Orosius names Fabius in 264 by mistake (4.7.1). The filiation of Mamilius is suggested by that of the Consul of 262. It is usually assumed (see Münzer, RE no. 112) that Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges, son of Rullianus, was Consul for the third time in 265, but Beloch (RG 458, note 1) holds that the Consul of 265 was his son, also named Gurges (on the name, see Flor. 1.16), who was father of the Cunctator. The intervals between the respective consulships, 292, 265, and 233, agree with this view. Degrassi, who accepts it, points out that Chr. 354 and the late Fasti preserve no number to mark a repeated consulship. This view also involves accepting the evidence of Plutarch (Fab. 13, and 24.5) and the implication in Pliny (NH 7.133) that the Cunctator was the great-grandson of Rullianus, and rejecting Livy's statement that he was the grandson (30.26.8). On Münzer's conjecture regarding another Fabius of this period, see 267, Aediles. (Broughton MRR I)
    • Chr. 354 (Maximo et Vitulo), so also Fast. Hyd., and Chr. Pasc.; Cassiod.; Zon. 8.7; see Degrassi, 115, 432f. Fabius was sent to assist the lords of Volsinii against their serfs, who had revolted, but was wounded and died (Flor. 1.16; Zon. 8.7; cf. Val. Max. 9.1, ext. 2; Metrod. Sceps., in Plin. NH 34.34; Auct. Vir. Ill. 36, who says Decius Mus was sent; John Ant., in FHG 4.557, fr. 50). (Broughton MRR I)
    • Citing the long periods during which Fabius Ambustus (44) (39 years) and Fabius Rullianus (114) (41 years) held office, Sumner returns to Munzer, against MRR 1.220, note 1, and attributes to Fabius Gurges the consulship of 265, and thus a similar span for his years of office (28 years). If Fabius Verrucosus, the Cunctator, was an augur for 62 or 63 years (see MRR 2.202, 314, 315, note 10) from 266-265 to his death in 203, he must have been born at least by 280 and probably earlier. Livy however cites only quidam auctores for this (30.27.7). This date would bring him his first consulship at the age of 46 or 47, which is surprisingly late. The term of 62 or 63 years may be the sum of the terms of two Fabii, but evidence is lacking. Moreover, Pliny identifies Ambustus, Rullianus, and Gurges as members of three generations of Fabii who in succession became Principes Senatus, by implication omitting Verrucosus as a member of a fourth, while, as against Livy (30.26.8), who describes Verrucosus as a grandson of Rullianus, Plutarch (Fab. 1.3; 24.5) terms him a great-grandson. Sumner is justified in bringing into the stemma another Q. Fabius Maximus, unknown unless he was the Q. Fabius (30) who was aedile in or by 267 (MRR 1.200-201). See Sumner, Orators 30-32, with stemma. On both the censorship of Fabius Maximus Verrucosus in 230 and his consulship in 209, see above, on M. Aemilius Barbula (33), cos. 230, the remarks on the elogium found at Brindisi. (Broughton MRR III)

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