Beginnings
Descended from an ancient patrician gens Fabii, he was the son of Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges, a grandson of another Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges and a great-grandson of Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, all famous Consuls. According to Fabius' biographer Plutarch, Fabius possessed a mild temper and slowness in speaking. As a child, he had difficulties in learning, which was perceived by other children to be a sign of inferiority. However, according to Plutarch, these traits proceeded from stability, greatness of mind, and lion-likeness of temper. According to accounts, by the time he reached adulthood, his virtues exerted themselves, and his slowness was revealed to be a symptom of his energy, passion, prudence, and firmness. During his first Consulship, he was awarded a triumph for his victory over the Ligurians, a tribe of Gauls, whom he had defeated and then driven into the Alps. He might have participated in the First Punic War, the first of three wars fought between the Roman Republic and Ancient Carthage, although no details of his role are known. After the end of the war he rapidly advanced his political career. He served twice as Roman Consul and Roman Censor, and in 218 BC he took part in the embassy to Carthage. It was Fabius Buteo, his kinsman who formally declared war in the Carthaginian Senate after the capture of Saguntum by Hannibal (Liv. Ab Urbe Cond. xxi. xviii).
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