Pictor
- a surname in the gens Fabia.
- A C. Fabius Pictor, Cic. Tusc. 1, 2, 4.—
- B Q. Fabius Pictor, an ancient Roman historian, Cic. de Or. 2, 12, 53.
the name of a family of the Fabia Gens, which was given to them from the eminence which their ancestor obtained as a painter. [See below, No. 1.]
1. C. Fabius Pictor, painted the temple of Salus (aedem Salutis pinxit), which the dictator C. Junius Brutus Bubulcus contracted for in his censorship, B. C. 307, and dedicated in his dictatorship, B. C. 302. This painting, which must have been on the walls of the temple, was probably a representation of the battle which Bubulus had gained against the Samnites [Bubulcus, No. 1]. This is the earliest Roman painting of which we have any record. It was preserved till the reign of Claudius, when the temple was destroyed by fire. Dionysius, in a passage to which Niebuhr calls attention, praises the great correctness of the drawing in this picture, the gracefulness of the colouring and the absence of all mannerism and affectation. (Plin. H.N. 35.4. s. 7; V. Max. 8.14.6; Dionys. A. R. 16.6, in Mai's Exc.; Cic. Tusc. 1.2.4; comp. Liv. 10.1; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. p. 356.)
2. C. Fabius Pictor, son of No. 1, was consul B. C. 269, with Q. Ogulnius Gallus. The events of his consulship are related under Gallus, p. 228.
3. N. Fabius Pictor, also son of No. 1, was consul B. C. 266 with D. Junius Pera, and triumphed twice in this year, like his colleague, the first time over the Sassinates, and the second time over the Sallentini and Messapii (Fasti). It appears to have been this Fabius Pictor, and not his brother, who was one of the three ambassadors sent by the senate to Ptolemy Philadelphus, in B. C. 276 (V. Max. 4.3.9, with the Commentators). For an account of this embassy see Ogulnius.
Cicero says that N. Fabius Pictor related the dream of Aeneas in his Greek Annals (Cic. Div. 1.21). This is the only passage in which mention is made of this annalist. Vossius (de Hist. Latin. i. p. 14) and Krause (Vitae et Fragm. Hist. Roman. p. 83) suppose him to be a son of the consul of B. C. 266, but Orelli (Onom. Tull. p. 246) and others consider him to be the same as the consul. One is almost tempted to suspect that there is a mistake in the praenomen, and that it ought to be Quintus.
4. Q. Fabius Pictor, the son of No. 2, and the grandson of No. 1, was the most ancient writer of Roman history in prose, and is therefore usually placed at the head of the Roman annalists. Thus he is called by Livy scriptorum antiquissimus (1.44) and longe antiquissimus auctor (2.44). He served in the Gallic war, B. C. 225 (Eutrop. 3.5; Oros. 4.13; comp. Plin. Nat. 10.24. s. 34), and also in the second Punic war; and that he enjoyed considerable reputation among his contemporaries is evident from the circumstance of his being sent to Delphi, after the disastrous battle of Cannae in B. C. 216, to consult the oracle by what means the Romans could propitiate the gods (Liv. 22.57, 23.11; Appian, Annib. 27). We learn from Polybius (3.9.4) that he had a seat in the senate, and consequently he must have filled the office of quaestor; but we possess no other particulars respecting his life. The year of his death is uncertain; for the C. Fabius Pictor whose death Livy speaks of (45.44) in B. C. 167, is a different person from the historian [see No. 5]. One might conjecture, from his not obtaining any of the higher dignities of the state, that he died soon after his return from Delphi; but, as Polybius (3.9) speaks of him as one of the historians of the second Punic war, he can hardly have died so soon; and it is probable that his literary habits rendered him disinclined to engage in the active services required of the Roman magistrates at that time. Works Annales
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]. Further Information
Möller, De Q. Fabio Picture, Altorf, 1690; Whiste, De Fabio Pictore ceterisque Fabiis Historicis. Hafniae, 1832; Vossius, De Hist. Lat. p. 12; Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Hist. Rom. p. 38, &c.; Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman History, vol. i. p. 27, ed. Schmitz.
5. Q. Fabius Pictor, probably son of No. 4, was praetor B. C. 189. The lot gave him Sardinia as his province, but as he had been consecrated flamen Quirinalis in the preceding year, the pontifex maximus, P. Licinius, compelled him to remain in Rome. Fabius was so enraged at losing his province that he attempted to abdicate, but the senate compelled him to retain his office, and assigned to him the jurisdiction inter peregrines. He died B. C. 167. (Liv. 37.47, 50, 51, 45.44.)
6. Ser. Fabius Pictor, probably a son of No. 5, was a contemporary of A. Postumius Albinus, who was consul it. 100.51, and is said by Cicero to have been well skilled in law, literature, and antiquity (Brut. 21). He appears to be the same as the Fabius Pictor who wrote a work De Jure Pontificio, in several books, which is quoted by Nonius (s. vv. Picunmus and Polubrnm). We also have quotations front this work in Gellius (1.12, 10.15) and Macrobius (Macr. 3.2). This Ser. Fabius probably wrote Annals likewise in the Latin language, since Cicero (Cic. de Orat. 2.12) speaks of a Latin annalist, Pictor, whom he places after Cato, but before Piso; which corresponds with the time at which Ser. Pictor lived, but could not be applicable to Q. Pictor, who lived in the time of the second Panic War. Now as we know that Q. Pictor wrote his history in Greek, it is probable, as has been already remarked under No. 4, that the passages referring to a Latin history of Fabius Pictor relate to this Ser. Pictor. (Krause, Ibid. p. 132, &c.)
The annexed coin was struck by some member of this family, but it cannot be assigned with certainty to any of the persons above mentioned. It bears on the obverse a head of Pallas, and on the reverse a figure of Rome, seated, with the legend of N. FABI N. PICTOR. On the shield we find QVIRIN., which probably indicates that the person who struck it was Flamen Quirinalis.
See Fabius, p. 656.