a noble family at Rome, of Sabine origin, said to have derived its name from faba, a bean, because some of its ancestors had cultivated that pulse. It is a curious circumstance, to which the annals of the Roman republic afford no parallel, that for seventeen consecutive years, from 495 to 479 B.C., one of the seats in the consulship was always filled by members of this house. At this period they were firm adherents of the aristocratic party, and exerted all their influence to support their privileges; but at last, convinced of the fatal consequences that must ensue to their country from an obstinate resistance to the wishes of the great body of the nation, the Fabii changed the policy of their family, and joined the popular party. When they found themselves regarded as traitors and apostates, they came to the resolution of leaving, with their dependents and adherents, a place where they could no longer live in peace, and of founding a settlement which might at least be of use to the people whom they were so intimately allied by blood and birth. It is in this way that we explain the fact of their being found near Veii. We may infer from Gellius (xvii. 21), that they were not merely an advanced guard, occupying a fort in the enemy's country, but that they had a settlement on the banks of the Cremera. Here the whole family was destroyed by the Veientes, 477 B.C. Only one remained to perpetuate the name, whose tender years, according to Livy, had kept him at Rome; but as he was consul ten years afterwards, we must regard this statement as purely legendary.