A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. M.FabiusButeo, M. F. M. N., brother apparently of the preceding, was consul B. C. 245. Florus says (2.2. §§ 30, 31), that he gained a naval victory over the Carthaginians and afterwards suffered shipwreck; but this is a mistake, as we know from Polybius, that the Romans had no fleet at that time. In 216 he was elected dictator

without a master of the knights, in order to fill up the vacancies in the senate occasioned by the battle of Cannae: he added 177 new members to the senate, and then laid down his office. (Liv. 23.22, 23; Plut. Fab. Max. 9.) We learn from Livy, who calls him the oldest of the ex-censors, that he had filled the latter office; and it is accordingly conjectured that he was the colleague of C. Aurelius Cotta in the censorship, B. C. 241. In the Fasti Capitolini the name of Cotta's colleague has disappeared.