The history of Fabius Pictor probably began with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy, and came down to his own time. The earlier events were related with brevity; but that portion of the history of which he was a contemporary, was given with much greater minuteness (Dionys. A. R. 1.6). We do not know the number of books into which the work was divided, nor how far it came down. It contined an account of the battle of the lake Trasimene (Liv. 22.7); and Polybius, as we have already remarked, speaks of him as one of the historians of the second Punic War. We have the express testimony of Dionysius (I. c.) that the work of Fabius was written in Greek; but it has been supposed from Cicero (Cic. de Orat. 2.12, de Leg. 1.2), Gellius (5.4, 10.15), Quintilian (1.6.12), and Nonius (s.v. Picumnus), that it must have been written in Latin also. This, however, is very improbable ; and as we know there were two Latin writers of the name of Fabius, namely, Ser. Fabius Pictor, and Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus, it is more likely that the passages above quoted refer to one of these, and not to Quintus. [See below, No. 6.]

The work of Q. Fabius Pictor was one of great value, and is frequently referred to by Livy, Polybius, and Dionysius. Polybius (1.14, 3.9), indeed, charges Fabius with great partiality towards the Romans; and as he wrote for the Greeks, he was probably anxious to make his countrymen appear in the best light. The work seems to have contained a very accurate account of the constitutional changes at Rome; Niebuhr attributes the excellence of Dio Cassius in this department of his history to his having closely followed the statements of Fabius (Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. note 367). In his account of the early Roman legends Fabius is said to have adopted the views of Diocles of Peparethus [DIOCLES, literary, No. 5].