Fabius Maximus

Wherefore they were all terrified and held their peace, excepting only Metilius. He enjoyed immunity of person as tribune of the people (for this is the only magistracy which is not robbed of its power by the election of a dictator; it abides when the rest are abolished[*](See Polybius, iii. 87.)), and vehemently charged and prayed the people not to abandon Minucius, nor permit him to suffer the fate which Manlius Torquatus inflicted upon his son, whom he beheaded although crowned with laurel for the greatest prowess,[*](The son had disobeyed consular orders and engaged in single combat with a Latin, in the great battle at the foot of Vesuvius, 340 B.C.) but to strip Fabius of his tyrant’s power and entrust the state to one who was able and willing to save it.

The rabble were moved by such utterances. They did not dare to force Fabius to resign his sovereignty, unpopular as he was, but they voted that Minucius should have an equal share in the command, and should conduct the war with the same powers as the dictator,—a thing which had not happened before in Rome. A little while afterwards, it is true, it happened again, namely, after the disaster at Cannae.[*](Cf. chapter xvi. )

At that time Marcus Junius the dictator was in the field, and at home it became necessary that the senate should be filled up, since many senators had perished in the battle. They therefore elected Fabius Buteo a second dictator. But he, after acting in that capacity and choosing the men to fill up the senate, at once dismissed his lictors, eluded his escort, plunged into the crowd, and straightway went up and down the forum arranging some business matter of his own and engaging in affairs like a private citizen.

Now that they had invested Minucius with the same powers as the dictator, the people supposed that the latter would feel shorn of strength and altogether humble, but they did not estimate the man aright. For he did not regard their mistake as his own calamity, but was like Diogenes the wise man, who, when some one said to him, These folk are ridiculing you, said, But I am not ridiculed. He held that only those are ridiculed who are confounded by such treatment and yield their ground.