A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

7. M.FabiusAmibustus, N. F. M. N., son, as it appears, of No. 4, was consul in B. C. 360, and carried on the war against the Hernici, whom he conquered, and obtained an ovation in consequence. (Liv. 7.11; Fast. Triumph.) He was consul a second time in 356, and carried on the war against the Falisci and Tarquinienses, whom he also conquered. As he was absent from Rome when the time came for holding the comitia, the senate, which did not like to entrust them to his colleague, who had appointed a plebeian dictator, and still less to the dictator himself, nominated interreges for the purpose. The object of the patricians was to secure both places in the consulship for their own order again, which was effected by Ambustus, who seems to have returned to Rome meantime. He was appointed the eleventh interrex, and declared two patricians consuls in violation of the Licinian law. (Liv. 7.17.) He was consul a third time in 354, when he conquered the Tiburtes and obtained a triumph in consequence. (7.18, 19; Fast. Triumph.) In 351 he was appointed dictator merely to frustrate the Licinian law again at the comitia, but did not succeed in his object. (Liv. 7.22.) He was alive in 325, when his son, Q. Fabins Maximus Rullianus, was master of the horse to Papirius, and fled to Rome to implore protection from the vengeance of the dictator. He interceded on his son's behalf both with the senate and the people. (8.33.)