Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus (fl. 2nd century BC) was a Roman statesman of the patrician ''

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...

'' Fabia. He was

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 116 BC.

Family

Eburnus was the son of Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus, consul in 142 BC, himself adopted from the gens Servilia into the gens Fabia, allegedly by one of the two adoptive sons of

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (), surnamed Cunctator ( 280 – 203 BC), was a Roman statesman and general of the third century BC. He was Roman consul, consul five times (233, 228, 215, 214, and 209 BC) and was appointed Roman dictator, dict ...

himself. Two of his paternal uncles— Gnaeus Servilius Caepio and Quintus Servilius Caepio—served as consuls in 141 and 140, respectively. His first cousin was Quintus Servilius Caepio, consul in 106 BC and the co-commander at Arausio in 105 (this Caepio was paternal grandfather of Caesar's lover Servilia).

Career

Eburnus may have been a '' monetalis'' around 134 BC. He was most likely the Quintus Fabius Maximus who was

quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...

in 132, serving in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

under his father-in-law Publius Rupilius, who was a consul that year. Eburnus was held responsible for losing control of the city of Tauromenium to the slave uprising, and he was sent back to Rome "in disgrace" even though the Roman siege eventually succeeded. A considerable gap in his career followed. He held the

praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

ship no later than 119 BC, when he may have been the Fabius Maximus who presided as

over the court in which

Lucius Licinius Crassus Lucius Licinius Crassus (140 – September 91 BC) was a Roman orator and statesman who was a Roman consul and Roman censor, censor and who is also one of the main speakers in Cicero's dramatic dialogue on the art of oratory ''De Oratore'', set jus ...

prosecuted Gaius Papirius Carbo. The charge is unclear: extortion, perhaps under the '' Lex Acilia de repetundis'', or '' laesa maiestas'', an offense against the dignity of the state, have both been proposed. Carbo was convicted, and committed suicide. Eburnus was elected

for 116 with Gaius Licinius Geta. He seems to have been the

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

recorded as sending a letter to the Dymaeans, and if the identification is correct, he would have served from 115 to 114 BC. In 113, either he or Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus was the diplomatic legate sent to

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. In 108, he was censor with his co-consul, though as with some of his other offices, Allobrogicus has also been proposed as the Quintus Fabius Maximus who served. The censors of this year reappointed Marcus Aemilius Scaurus as ''

princeps senatus The ''princeps senatus'' ( ''principes senatus''), in English the leader of the senate, was the first member by precedence on the membership rolls of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the ''cursus honorum'' and possessing no ''imperium ...

''.

Eburnus and Roman morals

Eburnus's claim to fame was his severity by Late Republican Roman standards. As ''

pater familias The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (: ''patres familias''), was the head of a Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his extende ...

,'' he condemned to death one of his sons for "immorality" or "unchastity". As a youth, however, Eburnus had earned his ''

agnomen An ''agnomen'' (; : ''agnomina''), in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the ''cognomen'' had been initially. However, the ''cognomina'' eventually became family names, and so ''agnomina'' were needed to distinguish between sim ...

'' "

Ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

" because of his fair good looks ''(candor)'', and had the nickname "

Jove Jupiter ( or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus "sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( nom. and gen. ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mytholog ...

's chick" ''( pullus Iovis)''. He was said to have been struck by lightning on his buttocks, perhaps meaning a birthmark, hence the joking reference to him as a catamite of the lightning-wielding king of the gods. It has been observed that the contrast between Eburnus's reputation as "Jove's chick" and his later excessive severity against the '' impudicitia'' of his son is "thought-provoking". He was reviled for his son's death, and accused by

Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo ( – 87 BC) was a Roman general and politician, who served as consul in 89 BC. He is often referred to in English as Pompey Strabo, to distinguish him from his son, the famous Pompey the Great, or from Strabo the geograp ...

(possibly the consul of 89 BC) for having exceeded the limits of ''patria potestas''. Eburnus went into exile in

Nuceria Nocera dei Pagani (), as it was known between the 16th century and 1806, was a ''civitas'' that included a large portion of the Agro nocerino-sarnese, corresponding to five contemporary municipalities: Nocera Inferiore, Nocera Superiore, P ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, ''Pro Balbo'' 28; Gordon P. Kelly, ''A History of Exile in the Roman Republic'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 172–17
online.
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabius Maximus Eburnus, Quintus 2nd-century BC Roman consuls Ancient Roman exiles Eburnus, Quintus Filicides Ancient Roman patricians Senators of the Roman Republic