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Updated: June 22, 2025
This is well seen from those passages of Livius wherein he tells us that when the Roman army was 'sent forth against the Gauls, and again when tribunes were created with consular authority, no religious rites whatever were celebrated, and wherein he further relates how the Romans not only failed to punish the three Fabii, who contrary to the law of nations had fought against the Gauls, but even clothed them with honour.
The course pursued may itself admit of justification; but the mode in which it was carried out in the case of the more powerful of the Greek client- states was unworthy of a great power, and showed that the epoch of the Fabii and the Scipios was at an end.
They were afterward entrapped by the same stratagem as that by which they had entrapped the Fabii: having pursued cattle which had been intentionally driven on in all directions to decoy them, they fell into an ambuscade; in proportion as they were more numerous, the slaughter was greater.
Between Terni and Spoleto, in the valley of the Strettura, one of the hostlers of the illustrious Don Sigismondo engaged in a violent altercation about some turtle doves with one of his fellows in the service of the Roman Stefano dei Fabii, who is a member of the duchess's escort.
The way led to a hill of moderate acclivity; here they first halted: presently, as soon as the higher ground afforded them time to gain breath, and to recover from so great a panic, they repulsed them as they advanced up; and the small band by the advantage of the ground was gaining the victory, had not a party of the Veientians, sent round the ridge of the hill, made their way to the summit; thus again the enemy obtained the higher ground; all the Fabii were killed to a man, and the fort was taken: it is agreed on all hands that the three hundred and six were cut off; that one only, who nearly attained the age of puberty, was left as a stock for the Fabian race; and that he was destined to prove the greatest support in the dangerous emergencies of the Roman people both at home and in war.
This consul's name was Kæso Fabius. They were thought such excellent defenders of the claims of the patricians that for seven years following one or other of the Fabii was chosen consul.
So they began to take counsel how they might take this enemy by subtlety, and perceived, not without joy, that the Fabii grew daily bolder by success. So when the men went to gather booty they would cause that herds of cattle came in their way, as though it had been by chance, and that companies of soldiers, sent to hinder them from their plundering, fled before them, making pretence of fear.
Both nations underwent a one-sided, and therefore each a complete, development; it is only a pitiful narrow-mindedness that will object to the Athenian that he did not know how to mould his state like the Fabii and the Valerii, or to the Roman that he did not learn to carve like Pheidias and to write like Aristophanes.
But the period of his wars which he afterwards fought and his expedition by which he subdued Gaul, is just like a new beginning in his career and the commencement of a new course of life and action, in which he showed himself as a soldier and a general inferior to none who have gained admiration as leaders and been the greatest men: for whether we compare Cæsar's exploits with those of the Fabii, Scipios, and Metelli, or with those of his contemporaries or immediate predecessors, Sulla and Marius and both the Luculli or even Pompeius himself, whose fame, high as the heavens, was blossoming at that time in every kind of military virtue, Cæsar will be found to surpass them all his superiority over one appearing in the difficulties of the country in which he carried on his campaigns, over another in the extent of country subdued, over a third in the number and courage of the enemy whom he defeated, over another again in the savage manners and treacherous character of the nations that he brought to civility, over a fourth in his clemency and mildness to the conquered, over another again in his donations and liberality to his soldiers; and in fine his superiority over all other generals appears by the numbers of battles that he fought and of enemies that he slew.
The consul, leaving the senate-house, accompanied by the Fabii in a body, who had been standing in the porch of the senate-house, awaiting the decree of the senate, returned home. They were ordered to attend on the following day in arms at the consul's gate: they then retired to their homes.
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