Fabricia (gens)

The gens Fabricia were a family of ancient Rome.

They seem to have belonged originally to the Hernican town of Aletrium, where Fabricii occur as late as the time of Cicero.^[1] The first Fabricius who occurs in history is the celebrated Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, who distinguished himself in the war against Pyrrhus, and who was probably the first of the Fabricii who left his native place and settled at Rome. We know that in 306 BC, shortly be­fore the war with Pyrrhus, most of the Hernican towns revolted against Rome, but were subdued and compelled to accept the Roman franchise with­out the suffrage. But three towns, Aletrium, Ferentinum, and Verulae, which had remained faithful to Rome, were allowed to retain their former con­stitution; that is, they remained to Rome in the relation of isopolity.^[2] C. Fabricius Luscinus probably left Aletrium either at that time or soon after, and settled at Rome, where, like other settlers from isopolite towns, he soon rose to high honours.

Besides this Fabricius, no members of his family appear to have risen to any eminence at Rome. It is likely that, being strangers, they laboured under great disadvantages, and that the jealousy of the illustrious Roman families, plebeian as well as patrician, kept them down, and prevented their maintaining the posi­tion which C. Fabricius Luscinus had gained.

Luscinus is the only cognomen of the Fabricii that we meet with under the republic. In the time of the em­pire we find a Fabricius with the cognomen Veiento. There are a few without a cognomen.

Fabricii

The following other notable Fabricii are recorded in ancient sources:

• C. and L. Fabricius belonged to the municipium of Aletrium, and were twins. According to Cicero^[3] they were both men of bad character. C. Fabricius, in particular, is described as a tool used by Oppianicus, in about 67 BC, to destroy Aulus Cluentius Habitus.^[4]

• L. Fabricius, C. F., perhaps a son of the above, was curator viarum in 62 BC, and built a new bridge of stone, which connected the city with the island in the Tiber, and which was called, after him, pons Fabricius. The time at which the bridge was built is expressly mentioned by Cassius Dio,^[5] and the name of its author is still seen on the remnants of the bridge, which now bears the name of ponte quattro capi. The scholiast on Horace^[6] mistakenly calls the Fabricius who built that bridge a consul.^[7] There is also a coin bearing the name of L. Fabri­cius.^[8]

• Q. Fabricius was tribune of the people in 57 BC, and well disposed towards Cicero, who was then living in exile. He brought before the people a motion that Cicero should be recalled, as early as the month of January of that year. But the attempt was frustrated by Publius Clodius Pulcher by armed force.^[9] In the Monumentum Ancyranum and in Cassius Dio^[10] he is mentioned as consul suffectus of the year 36 BC.

References

• This article incorporates text by Leonhard Schmitz from the article "Fabricia gens" in the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870), vol. 2, p. 132.

Footnotes