Quintus Fabius Labeon

Quintus Fabius belonged to one of the most noble and influential patrician clans of Rome. Later sources built the family tree of Fabiev to the son of Heracles and the Italian nymph , claiming that at the beginning this family was called Fodia (from the Latin fodere - dig), because its representatives used wild holes to catch wild animals ^[1] . Anticologist T. Wiseman called this explanation “unusual enough to be true” ^[2] .

According to the Capitol fasts , the father and grandfather of Quintus Fabius had the same denomination - Quintus ^[3]

Quinta Fabius' career began in 196 BC. e. from the questure ^[4] . Being one of the city quaestors, he, together with his colleague Lucius Aurelius, demanded from the priestly colleges of the augurs and pontiffs to pay arrears of taxes for the war years; they turned to the people's stands for help, but in the end were forced to pay ^[5] .

In 189 BC e. Labeon took the position of praetor ^[6] . As a result of the draw, he received command of the fleet in the Antioch War , but by the time he arrived in Aegis , peace had already been concluded. Then, “so that it would not turn out that he spent the praetor year idly,” Quintus Fabius went to Crete and demanded from local cities that they should release the Romans and Italians held in slavery on the island. By threatening to start a war, the praetor achieved the release of four thousand people. Then he secured the withdrawal of the Seleucid garrisons from the cities of Enos and Maronei in Thrace ^[7] and established the boundaries between these communities and Macedonia ^[8] . In 188 BC e. on the orders of the proconsul of Gnei, Manlius Wulson, Labeon received 50 warships from King Antiochus and, in fulfillment of the conditions of the world, burned them near Patara ^[9] . Then he stormed the city of Telmess in Lycia , gathered his entire fleet in Piraeus and sailed back to Italy ^{[10] [11]} .

Upon his return to Rome, Quintus Fabius received a sea ​​triumph , despite the protest of the people's tribunes and the statements of ill-wishers that he “did not see the enemy in the eye” ^[12] . In 185 BC e. Labeo nominated himself as consul. Three other patricians became his rivals - Servius Sulpicius Galba , Lucius Emilius Pavel (later Macedonian ) and Publius Claudius Pulhr . Labeon was considered a favorite, but Pulhr received very energetic support from his brother - Appius Claudius , the consul of this year, who led the elections, and as a result was elected "to his own surprise and contrary to general expectation" ^{[13] [14]} .

A year later, Quintus Fabius was still elected consul (183 BC). His colleague was the plebeian Mark Claudius Marcellus ^[15] ; both consuls received Liguria as a province, and Labeon remained in this region the next year with the powers of a proconsul, but he did not achieve any serious success ^[14] .

In his consular year, Quintus Fabius was one of the triumphs who organized the Saturnia colony in Etruria ; it is known that a year earlier he participated in the withdrawal of the colonies at Polence and Pizavr ^[14] . In 180 BC e. Labeon became a member of the College of Pontiffs, taking the place of the deceased Lucius Valerius Flaccus ^[16] . Nothing is exactly known about his future fate: in the surviving part of the “History of Rome from the founding of the city” by Titus Livius, nothing is said about the death of Quintus Fabius, and at the same time, a certain Labeon appears among ten legates who were organizing a new order in the Balkans after the Third Macedonian War ( 167 BC) ^[17] . It may be precisely Quintus Fabius ^[18] .

Antique authors tell about another episode from the life of Labeon, which does not have exact dates ^[19] . The Senate instructed Quintus Fabius to settle a dispute about the borders between Naples and Nola , and, "having arrived at the scene, he urged both parties separately not to be greedy, not to demand too much, and it’s better to give up your own than to wish someone else." As a result, the parties to the dispute so moderated their claims that between them was a strip of no man's land. Labeo made this land the property of Rome ^{[20] [21]} .

Suetonius claims that Labeon was a poet and could help the playwright Publius Terence Afra in his work ^[22] .

In 124 and 114 BC. e. the post of monetarist of the Roman Republic was occupied by another Quintus Fabius Labeon , who was supposedly the grandson of Labeon the consul and immortalized on coins individual episodes from the biography of his grandfather. Historians identify this monetarist with Quintus Fabius, the son of Quintus, Labeon, who held the position of praetor at the end of the 2nd century and ruled the province of Near Spain ^[23] .

Sources

1. Valery Maxim . Memorable deeds and sayings. - SPb. , 1772. - T. 2. - 520 s.
2. Capitoline fasts (neopr.) . Site "History of Ancient Rome". Date of treatment April 8, 2017.
3. Titus Livy . The history of Rome from the foundation of the city. - M .: Nauka, 1994 .-- T. 3 .-- 768 p. - ISBN 5-02-008959-1 .
4. Plutarch . Comparative biographies. - M. , 1994. - ISBN 5-02-011570-3 , 5-02-011568-1.
5. Polybius . General history. - M .: AST, 2004 .-- T. 2 .-- 765 p. - ISBN 5-17-024958-6 .
6. Guy Suetonius Tranquill . Terence // Life of the Twelve Caesars. - M .: Nauka, 1999 .-- S. 231-234. - ISBN 5-02-012792-2 .
7. Mark Tullius Cicero . About duties // About old age. About friendship. About duties. - M .: Nauka, 1974. - S. 58-158.

Literature

1. Broughton R. Magistrates of the Roman Republic. - New York, 1951. - Vol. I. - P. 600.
2. Münzer F. Fabius 91 // Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft . - 1909. - Bd. VI, 2. - S. 1773-1775.
3. Münzer F. Fabius 92 // Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft . - 1909. - Bd. VI, 2. - S. 1775.
4. Wiseman T. Legendary Genealogies in Late-Republican Rome // G&R. - 1974. - Vol. 21, No. 2 . - P. 153-164.