A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

seems to have belonged originally to the Hernican town of Aletrium, where Fabricii occur as late as the time of Cicero (Cic. Clu. 16, &c.) The first Fabricius who occurs in history is the celebrated C. Fabricius Luscinus, who distinguished himself in the war against Pyrrhus, and who was probably the first of the Fabricii who quitted his native place and settled at Rome. We know that in B. C. 306, shortly before the war with Pyrrhus, most of the Hernican towns revolted against Rome, but were subdued and compelled to accept the Roman franchise without the suffrage : three towns, Aletrium, Ferentinum, and Verulae, which had remained faithful to Rome, were allowed to retain their former constitution; that is, they remained to Rome in the relation of isopolity. (Liv. 9.42, &c.) Now it is very probable that C. Fabricius Luscinus either at that time or soon after left Aletrium and settled at Rome, where, like other settlers from isopolite towns, he soon rose to high honours. Besides this Fabricius, no members of his family appear to have risen to any eminence at Rome; and we must conclude that they were either men of inferior talent, or, what is more probable, that being strangers, they laboured under great disadvantages, and that the jealousy of the illustrious Roman families, plebeian as well as patrician, kept them down, and prevented their maintaining the position which their sire had gained. LUSCINUS is the only cognomen of the Fabricii that we meet with under the republic: in the time of the empire we find a Fabricius with the cognomen VEIENTO. There are a few without a cognomen.

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