nourable title of CUNCTATOR, or protector. But before he could obtain the praise he merited, he had to contend not only with the wiles and abilities of Hannibal, but with the impatience and imprudence of his countrymen. The former he was able to baffle, the latter nearly proved fatal to Rome. "If Fabius," said Hannibal, " is so great a commander as he is reported to be, let him come forth and give me battle." "If Hannibal," said Fabius in reply," is so great a commander as he thinks himself, let him compel me to it." A battle in Apulia, however, was brought on by the rashness of his master of the horse, Minucius, and it required all the ability of Fabius to prevent an entire defeat. His moderation towards Minucius afterwards, was equal to his exertions in the contest.

After he had laid down his office, the consul Paulus Æmilius endeavoured to tread in his steps; but rashness again prevailed over wisdom, and the defeat at Cannæ ensued in the year 215, and then the Romans began to do full justice to the prudence of Fabius. He was called the shield, as Marcellus the sword of the republic; and, by an honour almost unprecedented, was continued in the consulship for two successive years. He recovered Tarentum before Hannibal could relieve it, and continued to oppose that general with great and successful skill. It has been laid to his charge that when Scipio proposed to carry the war into Africa, he opposed that measure through envy; and Plutarch allows that though he was probably led at first to disapprove, from the cautious nature of his temper, he afterwards became envious of the rising glory of Scipio. It is, however, possible, that he might think it more glorious to drive the enemy by force out of Italy, than to draw him away by a diversion. Whether this were the case or not, he did not live to see the full result of the measure, for he died in the year 203, at a very advanced age, being, according to some authors, near a hundred. This was the very year preceding the decisive battle of Zama, which concluded the second Punic war. The highest encomiums are bestowed by Cicero upon Fabius, under the person of Cato, who just remembered him, and had treasured many of his sayings.'

FABIUS (PICTOR), a Roman historian, the first prose writer on the subject of Roman history, was the son of C.

1 Plutarch.—Livy.—Hooke's Roman Hist.

Fabius Pictor, who was consul with Ogulnius Gallus in the year 271 B. C. and grandson of the Fabius who painted the temple of health, from whom this branch of the family obtained the name of Pictor. He was nearly related to the preceding Fabius, and after the battle of Canne was sent to the Delphic oracle to inquire by what supplications the gods might be appeased. He wrote the history of this war with Hannibal, and is cited by Livy as authority in it. The fragments of his annals that remain in the works of the ancients, whether in Greek or Latin, for he wrote in both, relate chiefly to the antiquities of Italy, the beginnings of Rome, or the acts of the Romans. He is censured by Polybius, as too partial to the Romans, and not even just to the Carthaginians. His style was doubtless that of his age, unformed, and imperfect. An history, circulated as his, consisting of two books, one on the golden age, the other on the origin of Rome, is now known to have been a forgery of Annius of Viterbo.'

FABRA (ALOYSIO, or LOUIS DELLA), an Italian physician, was born at Ferrara in 1655. His father was a surgeon of much reputation, and recommended the medical profession to this son, who after the usual course of studies, took his degree of doctor at Ferrara, where he became afterwards first professor of medicine. He died May 5, 1723, after having published various dissertations on medical subjects and cases, which were collected in a quarto volume, and published at Ferrara in 1712 under the title "Dissertationes Physico-medica." Haller speaks rather slightingly of this author's works.

2

FABRE D'EGLANTINE (PHILIP FRANCIS NAZAIRE), one of the agents in the French revolution, was born at Carcassane, Dec. 28, 1755, and was educated in polite literature and natural philosophy by his parents, whom he quitted in his youth, and became by turns a painter, musician, engraver, poet, and actor. He performed on the stages of Versailles, Brussels, and Lyons, but with no great success. As a writer for the stage, however, he was allowed considerable merit, and obtained, on one occasion, at the Floralia, the prize of the EGLANTINE, the name of which he added to his own. In 1786 he published in a French periodical work, "Les Etrennes du Parnasse," a little poem called "Chalons sur Marne," in which he 1 Vossius de Hist. Lat.-Saxii Onomast. ? Manget and Haller.-Dict. Hist.

drew a very charming picture of the moral pleasures that were to be found in that place and its neighbourhood. This piece, however, fell very short of the celebrity to which he afterwards attained. In 1789 and 1790 he published two comedies, "Le Philinte," and "L'Intrigue Epistolaire," the former of which was reckoned one of the best French pieces of the last century.

He was soon, however, called to perform a more important part on the revolutionary stage, being chosen, in 1792, a deputy to the national convention. For this office he had all the negative qualities that were necessary, no regard for religion or civil subordination; and accordingly took a very active part in the insurrection of Aug. 10, and the prison massacres of the September following; the latter are called "measures which would save France." After this, it was in character to vote for the death of the king. It was generally supposed that he contributed with Danton and Robespierre to the massacre of May 31, 1793, when the Girondine faction was overthrown by a popular insurrection. What gives the appearance of authenticity to this supposition is, that Fabre himself, some days afterwards, observed to a friend, that the domineering spirit of the Girondines, who had engrossed all power and office, had induced him and his colleagues, in order to shake off the yoke, to throw themselves into the hands of the sansculoterie; but that he could not help, however, foreboding dangerous consequences from that day, May 31st, as the same mob which they had taught to despise the legislature, might, at the instigation of another faction, overthrow him in his turn.

On the overthrow of the Girondine party, and the esta blishment in power of the sansculoterie, Fabre began to render himself more conspicuous. As a member of the committee of public safety, he demanded of the jacobins "a manifesto furnished with 300,000 signatures, for the formation of a faction, or holy league of public safety," and was one of the instigators of the decree that ordained that all the English and Hanoverian prisoners should be shot, which, however, we believe, was never carried into execution. He was also appointed a member of the committee of public instruction, and in August 1793 gave his vote for suppressing all academies and literary corporations, which, from their privileges and aristocratic spirit, were considered as unfriendly to a truly republican government.

1

In October 1793, he submitted to the national convention the plan of a new calendar, which was afterwards adopted; but which, absurd as we find it, is said not to have been of his own composition.

In the winter of 1793, the Sansculoterie became divided into two parts or factions, the jacobins and cordeliers, or, in other words, the Robespierrists, and the Dantonists. Fabre was of the faction of Danton, and was confined with Danton's adherents in the prison of the Luxemburgh. After a month's imprisonment, Fabre was, with many others, dragged to the scaffold in April 1794, where he was executed in the thirty-fifth year of his age. Mercier, who was his colleague, speaks of him thus in his "Tableau de Paris:" "He was a promoter and panegyrist of the revolutionary system, the friend, the companion, the adviser of the pro-consuls, who carried throughout France, fire and sword, devastation and death." In 1802 a collection of his works was published in 2 vols. 8vo, containing some posthumous pieces. '

FABRE (JOHN CLAUDIUS), a voluminous French writer, or rather compiler, was born April 25, 1668, at Paris, the son of an eminent surgeon. He was subdeacon, and bachelor of the Sorbonne, and had been second teacher at St. Quintin, when he entered the congregation of the oratory at Paris. He rose to be successively professor of philosophy at Rumilly in Savoy, at Toulon, Riom, Mans, and Nantes; afterwards taught theology three years at Riom, and during three more at the seminary of the congregation at Lyons. While he lived in the last named city, he published a small dictionary, Latin and French, 8vo, compiled from the best classical authors, which has passed through several editions; and he also published at Lyons, in 1709, a new edition of Richelet's dictionary, 2 vols, folio, under the title of Amsterdam, which edition was suppressed on account of several theological articles respecting the affairs of the times; and because in his list of authors, he bestowed great encomiums on Messrs. of Port Royal, but none on their adversaries. This obliged him to quit the oratory, and retire to Clermont in Auvergne, where, being destitute of a maintenance, he undertook the education of some children, and had recourse to father Tellier, a Jesuit, the king's confessor, who twice supplied him with money.

Dict. Hist.-Biog, Moderne.-Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica.

In the latter end of 1715, Fabre again entered the congre gation of the oratory, and was sent to Douay, where he wrote a small pamphlet, entitled "Entretiens de Christine, et de Pelagie, sur la lecture de l'Ecriture-Sainte;" which is still in request. Having afterwards preached the Sunday sermons of the oratory of 'Tragany with great credit (for he had also talents for preaching), he went to reside at Montmorency, towards the end of 1723, and there began his "Continuation de l'Histoire Ecclesiastique, de feu M. l'Abbé Fleury ;" and published 16 vols. 4to or 12mo, which induced his superiors to invite him again to their houses, Rue St. Honoré, at Paris, where he died, October 22, 1755, aged eighty-five, much lamented by his brethren and friends, for his mildness, candour, modesty, and virtue. The discourse "Sur le renouvellement des études ecclesiastiques," &c. at the beginning of the thirteenth volume of the Continuation, is by the abbé Goujet. This Continuation discovers great learning, and facility in writing, but has neither the wit, penetration, character, style, nor accuracy of judgment possessed by the abbé Fleury. Fabre would have carried it on much farther, but was forbidden. to print any new volumes. He made the index to M. de Thou's history translated into French, 4to, and had begun. one to the "Journal des Sçavans," but soon gave up his undertaking to the abbé de Claustre, to whom the public owes that useful work, 10 vols. 4to. Fabre also left a moderate translation of Virgil, 4 vols. 12mo, and a translation of the Fables of Phædrus, Paris, 1728, 12mo, with notes. 1

FABRETTI (RAPHAEL), a very learned antiquary of Italy, was born at Urbino, of a noble family, in 1619. After he had passed through his first studies at Cagli, he returned to Urbino to finish himself in the law, in which he was admitted doctor at eighteen. Having an elder brother at Rome, who was an eminent advocate, he also went thither, ⚫ and applied himself to the bar; where he soon distinguished himself to such advantage, that he was likely to advance his fortune. Cardinal Imperiali entertained so great an esteem for him, that he sent him into Spain, to negociate several important and difficult affairs; which he did with such suc cess, that the office of the procurator fiscal of that kingdom falling vacant, the cardinal procured it for him. Fabretti continued thirteen years in Spain, where he was for some

Moreri.-Dict. Hist. de L'Avocat.