“Today, when we think of victorious Romans, we almost invariably think of later personalities, such as Scipio, Caesar, Aurelian, and Constantine. But there is no denying that Fabius Maximus Rullianus was exceptionally good at war.”

 By Byron Waldron

DURING THE period of Rome’s early expansion across the Italian peninsula, the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus fought and won possibly more than 35 engagements between 322 and 291 BC. This record would not be broken by any other Roman until Pompey and Caesar 250 years later.

Fabius smashed the armies of numerous rival peoples, including Samnites, Gauls, Etruscans, Umbrians and Apulians. Although little known in the present day, as late as the fourth century AD, Roman historians still praised Fabius as one of their most accomplished commanders.

Let us look at the career of this early Roman Imperator.

Fabius did not begin his career in a quiet fashion. In 328 BC an epidemic raged in Rome. According to the Roman historian Livy, Fabius, then serving as curule aedile (a type of junior magistrate), accused Rome’s aristocratic women of poisoning the leading men of the city (Livy 8.18).

Fabius’ scapegoating led to the conviction of 170 women and reflects the deep-seated distrust that male Roman elites had for women. Although a tragedy, many Roman men would have seen Fabius as a hero and it launched his reputation as a public figure.

Fabius’ military career began during the early years of the Second Samnite War (324-303), which was fought against the Samnites, a powerful coalition of Oscan-speaking tribes located in the highlands of central-southern Italy.

In 322 Fabius served as the magister equitum (master of horse), the second-in-command, to Papirius Cursor, an accomplished general then serving as dictator (which, in the context of the Roman Republic, was a type of extraordinary magistrate).

When Papirius had to return to Rome to carry out religious observances, Fabius defied orders and attacked and defeated the Samnites in battle near a place named Inbrinium and, as Livy notes (8.30), possibly in a second battle as well. Infuriated, Papirius intended to execute Fabius for insubordination. He was saved when the senate, the soldiers and even people of Rome, as well as Fabius’ father Ambustus, intervened on his behalf.

Despite this controversial start, Fabius was elected consul for the first time in his career in 320. No longer subordinate to another general, he won engagements against the Samnites and their Apulian and Lucerian allies, and he ravaged Apulia on the Adriatic coast (Livy 8.40; Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 3.32). For his achievements, the senate awarded him a triumph, that is, the right to march his army through the city in a triumphal procession.

In the early 310s Fabius did not hold a command. In 319 the Samnite general Gavius Pontius defeated the Roman consuls Calvinus and Albinus at the Caudine Forks, which led to political paralysis. Fabius was appointed as interrex (a sort of interim ruler) to oversee elections for the year 318 (Livy 9.7). During this period, Rome and the Samnites appear to have agreed to a truce. It lasted intermittently between 319 and 314.

Tellingly, with the renewal of war in 314, the senate and people were quick to return Fabius to the battlefield. In 313 he was appointed dictator and charged with capturing the Samnite city of Saticula (near the present-day city of Benevento), which had been under siege since the previous year. He defeated a Samnite relief force whose general was killed in the fighting. Fabius seized the city, and he proceeded to subjugate the nearby towns and strongholds.

However, the town of Sora in Latium defected to the Samnites. According to Livy and the Greek historian Diodorus, while marching on the region, Fabius was beaten in a battle fought near a place named Lautulae (Diodorus 19.72; Livy 9.23). Although the defeat prompted revolts in Ausonia, Campania and Apulia, the battle itself does not appear to have undermined the confidence that the Romans continued to hold in Fabius. He would return to the field perhaps only a year later. Fabius undoubtedly learned valuable lessons from the engagement, as it would be the only defeat of his career.

The sources disagree on who commanded the different campaigns fought in 311, but according to Diodorus, Fabius was appointed dictator for a second time and recaptured Fregellae in the Liris Valley, and Calatia and Nola in Campania (19.101; compare Livy 9.28, who attributes these victories to others). Recent scholarship has argued that Fabius was indeed dictator in 311 (e.g. the Digital Prosopography of the Roman Republic).

In 309 many of the Etruscans of central-northern Italy joined the war on the Samnite side and besieged the pro-Roman Etruscan town of Sutrium. The consul Aemilius Barbula attempted to break the siege but was repelled in a battle, and so in 308 Fabius was elected consul a second time and marched to Sutrium’s aid. In the battle that followed, Fabius occupied the high ground and rained javelins and stones on the advancing Etruscan army before breaking the enemy with a downhill charge. Capturing 38 Etruscan standards, he then marched through the Ciminian Forest to surprise the Etruscans living further north. Raiding as they went, the Romans routed a hastily assembled local force (Livy 9.32-33, 35-36).

Although Fabius made an alliance with the Umbrian town of Camerinum, Livy (9.37) reports that the spread of Roman terror provoked further Etruscan towns and neighbouring towns in Umbria to join the war against Rome. Despite this, Fabius made short work of his opponents. He besieged and captured the town of Castola, which forced the Etruscans to abandon a second siege of Sutrium (Diodorus 20.35), and he confronted an Etruscan-Umbrian army either near Sutrium or further to the north at Perusia. Refusing battle during the day, he stormed their camp at night (Livy 9.37). The victory prompted the Etruscan cities of Perusia, Cortona and Arretium to treat for peace.

Meanwhile, the Samnites appear to have defeated the other consul, Marcius Rutilus, who lost tribunes, knights, and a legate in battle against the enemy and was himself badly wounded. In an act of selflessness, Fabius agreed to the senate’s request to appoint his old rival Papirius as dictator, to take over the war in Samnium (Livy 9.38). According to Livy, the Roman army in Etruria then routed an Umbrian force, defeated an Etruscan army at Lake Vadimon, and bested a remnant force near Perusia, which had already defected from Rome (Livy 9.39-40). Perusia again treated for peace and accepted a Roman garrison within its walls.

It is possible that some of Fabius’ engagements in Etruria are duplicates, as we would otherwise have to believe that he won five pitched battles in a single year. Nevertheless, Fabius’ achievements were regarded as significant. On the Etruscan army at Lake Vadimon, Livy claims that this was the largest army yet mustered by the Etruscans, raised by a sacred law whereby each soldier had chosen his comrade, and that the Roman victory ‘broke for the first time the power of the Etruscans after their long-continued and abundant prosperity’ (9.39).

As for Papirius, he won a famous victory against the Samnites in the Battle of Longulae. At the end of the year, Fabius and Papirius were both awarded triumphs. Despite their infamous clash 14 years prior, Fabius and Papirius had proven that they could hold office at the same time and best Rome’s enemies, albeit in separate regions of Italy. Three hundred years later, Livy conjectured that, should Alexander the Great have invaded Italy, he would have met with defeat due to the high quality of Romans commanding armies during the late fourth century. Livy’s confident speculation is a product of his chauvinism, but Fabius and Papirius are among the Romans whom he offers as examples.

In 307 Fabius was elected consul for the second year in a row and marched against Nuceria Altaferna in Campania. In the previous year, a Roman flotilla had raided Campania, but the raiding force had ventured too far inland and was defeated near Nuceria. Fabius attacked the city, which unconditionally surrendered to the consul. He then bested a force of Samnites, Marsi and Paeligni, the latter peoples having just joined the war on the Samnite side. Fabius’ fellow consul, his ally Decius Mus, continued forcing Etruscan cities to treat for peace, but a renewed Umbrian war effort prompted the senate to order Fabius to return to the north. Fabius force-marched his army to Mevania in Umbria, and the Umbrians, despite their initial surprise, resolved to confront the consul. They attacked Fabius’ men while they were making camp, but the Romans did not panic and successfully defended their position (Livy 9.41). The Umbrians sued for peace, and Fabius, Decius or both captured the fortress of Caerium in Etruria (Diodorus 20.44).

With this, the northern theatre of the Second Samnite War effectively came to a close. The fighting in the north had begun in 309, and after the lack of success of Aemilius Barbula, it was Fabius who won the victories in 308 and 307 that forced the Etruscans and Umbrians to seek terms.

Fabius had almost single-handedly brought the northern theatre of the Second Samnite War to a close after a string of successes against the Etruscans and Umbrians. However, his greatest successes were yet to come.

In 306 the senate kept Fabius in the field for the third year in a row, who now held the office of proconsul. He defeated a Samnite army near the town of Allifae in Samnium and received their surrender after besieging the enemy camp. Fabius noted that some of his captives were members of the Hernician tribes, a scandal that prompted the Hernici to join the war on the Samnite side (Livy 9.42). However, Fabius ceased to receive military commands for the remainder of the war, which continued until 303. It was important to the Roman aristocracy that military commands not be dominated by any one man. Indeed, Fabius’ proconsulship had already been opposed by the consul Appius Claudius Caecus.

In 303 Fabius and his ally Decius were elected to the position of censor. In this capacity, they introduced the ceremony of the procession of the knights, and they reformed the organisation of the tribal assembly to reduce the voting power of the urban plebs, which had been increased by Appius Claudius Caecus (Diodorus 20.36; Livy 9.46). According to the historians Licinius Macer and Tubero (Livy 10.9, 11), in 299 Fabius was again elected to the position of curule aedile. According to this tradition, Fabius averted a famine by controlling the grain market and by drawing on his logistical experience in accumulating supplies for the army.

In 298 the third and final Samnite War broke out as both the Romans and Samnites sought to extend their control into Lucania in southern Italy. In the first elections to be held since the outbreak of war, Fabius and Decius were re-elected as consuls for the year 297 and invaded Samnium. In a valley near Tifernum, Fabius’ scouts detected a Samnite ambush, and so Fabius marched his army in an easily defended rectangular formation towards the Samnite position. The Samnites attacked, but Fabius had prepared a counter-ambush. A contingent under Scipio Barbatus, the great-grandfather of Scipio Africanus, advanced on the rear of the Samnites, provoking their retreat (Livy 10.14). Fabius captured 23 standards, and the way now lay open for the consuls to ravage Samnium.

Fabius stormed the town of Cimetra (Livy 10.15), and in 296 Fabius and Decius were kept in the field for six months as proconsuls. The Samnite general Gellius Egnatius, seeking to turn the tides against Rome, marched his army north into Umbria and Etruria to forge an anti-Roman coalition of Samnites, Etruscans and Umbrians. Exploiting Gellius’ absence, the proconsuls began targeting further towns, and according to one tradition, Fabius besieged and captured Romulea and Ferentinum (Livy 10.17, who notes alternate traditions). The consul Volumnius also had him stamp out pro-Samnite disturbances in Lucania (Livy 10.18). However, a force of Semnones, a Gallic people, had joined the growing anti-Roman coalition. The threat now required a focused response.

In 295 Fabius was elected consul for the fifth and final time with the express order to confront the coalition. Not only was he Rome’s most successful general to date, but his greatest successes in the Second Samnite War had been won in the very region where the coalition was now threatening Roman hegemony, in Etruria and Umbria. Fabius insisted on again having Decius as his colleague, and they marched their combined armies into Umbria. The consuls ordered the commanders defending Rome to raid Etruria, which prompted the Etruscans and their Umbrian allies to march away from Gellius’ Gallo-Samnite army to protect their homeland. This was what the consuls wanted, and they goaded Gellius into a pitched battle (Livy 10.27).

At the time, the Battle of Sentinum was possibly the largest battle ever fought on Italian soil. Decius commanded the left against the Gauls, whereas Fabius faced the Samnites on the right. After the Gallic horsemen and chariots defeated Decius’ cavalry and the Roman left began to waver, Decius immortalized his place in history by devoting his own life and the lives of the Gauls and Samnites as a sacrifice to the gods. He ended his life by throwing himself into the Gallic line, inspiring his soldiers to bravery.

However, it was the caution and tactical acumen of Fabius that truly won the battle. Having prepared reserves and flanking forces, he fed units to the Roman left to shore up the wavering legions, and he held back his own forces, seeking to preserve their energy by fighting defensively. Once the Samnites had exhausted themselves with fruitless attacks, Fabius reinforced the frontline and ordered his infantry and cavalry to attack. Fabius’ cavalry swept the Samnite horse from the field and attacked the flank of the Samnite infantry. Rolling up the Samnites, who buckled under pressure, Fabius sent part of his infantry and a squadron of picked Campanian horsemen to attack the Gauls in the rear. A massacre ensued as the Gauls and Samnites attempted to flee to their camp. Gellius was slain, and the anti-Roman coalition disintegrated (Livy 10.28-30). Fabius marched his army back to Rome to celebrate his third triumph, but there was no rest for the triumphator. He soon returned to Etruria, where he defeated a force of Perusians (Livy 10.31).

The senate was now determined to subjugate Samnium. In 293 Papirius’ namesake son defeated the formidable ‘linen legion’ of the Samnites in the Battle of Aquilonia, but the Samnites still had an ace up their sleeve. They transferred the command of one of their armies to Gavius Pontius, the general who had humiliated the Romans at the Caudine Forks nearly 30 years prior. Naturally, the Romans turned again to Fabius, who had been commanding armies even before the Caudine disaster.

Fabius was appointed to serve as the legatus (advisor and officer) of his son Fabius Gurges, who was one of the consuls of 292. However, Gurges, desirous of winning glory independent of his father, force-marched his army into Campania without waiting for his father’s arrival. He was surprised and defeated by Pontius’ Samnites. When Fabius arrived, he appears to have taken over de facto command or shared command of his son’s army.

No detailed account survives of the engagement that followed, but in the final major battle of the Third Samnite War, the two most accomplished generals on either side fought the last great contest in the field. Pontius was captured, and the Samnites retreated with heavy losses (Dio 8.30; Orosius 3.22). The father-son team spent the remainder of 292 capturing the towns of the Pentri (Dionysius of Halicarnassus 16.16; Eutropius 2.9), the most numerous of the Samnite tribes, and in 291, after the senate granted Gurges a proconsulship, they besieged the town of Cominium Ocritum. Before the Fabii could capture the town, the arrogant consul Postumius Megellus forced Gurges to hand over his army, so that the consul could capture the town himself (Dionysius of Halicarnassus 16.16). Despite this, the senate awarded Gurges a memorable triumph. Fabius rode on horseback in deference to his son, and Pontius was paraded and beheaded.

Information becomes patchy after this point as book 11 of Livy’s history no longer survives. As a result, Fabius ceases to appear in the historical record. At some point, perhaps as late as 275, Fabius was honoured as princeps senatus (leader of the senate), one of the supreme honours of the Roman Republic (Pliny, NH 7.133). But if the triumph of 291 was Fabius’ last moment in the military spotlight, it was a memorable finale for a memorable career.

Fabius was the first in his family to be awarded the nickname Maximus (‘Greatest’), which became hereditary. His great-grandson Fabius Maximus Verrucosus would follow his example. Just as Fabius Maximus Rullianus displayed caution on the battlefield at Sentinum, Verrucosus conducted his army with caution against Hannibal, earning the nickname Cunctator (‘Delayer’). Today, when we think of victorious Romans, we almost invariably think of later personalities, such as Scipio, Caesar, Aurelian, and Constantine. But there is no denying that Fabius Maximus Rullianus was exceptionally good at war. He was the most prolific commander of the Second and Third Samnite Wars. His campaigns ensured Roman expansion across central Italy, from Etruria and Umbria in the north to Samnium and Lucania in the south.

Note: The dating system used in this article removes the fictional ‘dictator years’ from the chronology.

Byron Waldron is a lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Dynastic Politics in the Age of Diocletian, AD 284-311 (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), and has written articles on Roman history, Persian history and Latin literature for edited volumes and journals, including the Journal of Late Antiquity and Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. He has also written documentaries for HistoryMarche, including popular series on Aurelian and the Third Samnite War.

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