Numerius Fabius Vibulanus
Numerius Fabius Vibulanus | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Roman |
| Years active | fl. c. 421–407 BC |
| Office | Consul (421 BC) Consular tribune (415, 407 BC) |
Numerius (or Gnaeus) Fabius Vibulanus (fl. c. 421–407 BC) was a Roman senator and military commander. As
Fabius was later a consular tribune in 415 and 407 BC.[4] In 407 BC, Fabius and the other tribunes oversaw the loss of Verrugo to the Volscians.[5]
Censor?
Fabius could have been one of the unknown
Name
The ancient sources exhibit confusion about Fabius's first name. The Fasti Capitolini, a list of Roman magistrates compiled during the time of Emperor Augustus, says Fabius's forename was Numerius, while the historian Livy calls him Gnaeus (or the corruption Marcus), and Diodorus Siculus has both Numerius (407 BC) and Gaius (415 BC).[7] The Fabii are the only known patrician house to have used the rare name "Numerius", and there was a legend according to which the Fabii acquired the name as part of a marriage pact with a Samnite noble named Numerius Otacilius, in the fifth century BC.[8] This story as a whole is unhistorical since there was no significant contact between Rome and Samnium during that period.[9]
Münzer accepted the essence of the tale as correct, but redated the marriage alliance to the mid-third century BC in order to explain the two families' political successes during the period. By implication then, Fabius Vibulanus, the consul of 421 BC, was not called "Numerius", since, according to Münzer's theory, he predates the marriage alliance on which the name is contingent.[10] Ogilvie thought "Gnaeus" more likely than "Numerius", thinking that Livy represented an older and more reliable tradition.[11] Costa also preferred "Gnaeus", suggesting that its variant "Naeus" was confused with "Numerius" when the forenames were (as was common) abbreviated.[12] Pinsent, on the other hand, rejected "Gnaeus", which he though is simply a corruption of text in Livy's manuscript, and accepted "Numerius", dismissing the story of the marriage alliance and its association with the name as later fabrications.[13]
Endnotes
- ^ Broughton, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Livy, 4.43.
- ^ Ogilvie, p. 598.
- ^ Münzer, RE, col. 1881.
- ^ Broughton, p. 79.
- ^ Suolahti, Jakkko. Roman Censors: A Study on Social Structure, 1963, pp.176, 619-620
- ^ Münzer, RE, col. 1881; Broughton, pp. 69–70, 74.
- ^ Münzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Münzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties, p. 70; Ogilvie, pp. 597–598.
- ^ Münzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Ogilvie, pp. 597–598.
- ^ Costa, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Pinsent, pp. 24–25 (note 13), 28–29.
References
- Broughton, T. Robert S. (1951). The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume I: 509 B.C.–100 B.C. New York: American Philological Association.
- Costa, Giovanni (1911). "Il prenome Numerio nella gente Fabia (Ricerche di storia gentilizia romana)". Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica. 39: 80–86.
- Ab urbe condita libri
- Münzer, Friedrich, "Fabius 163", Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE, PW), volume VI, part 2, column 1881 (Stuttgart, 1909).
- Münzer, Friedrich (1999) [1920]. Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families. Translated by Thérèse Ridley. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5990-5.
- Ogilvie, R.M. (1965). A Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- JSTOR 1086908.