Făbii

, a noble and powerful family at Rome, who derived their name from fab a , a bean, because some of their ancestors cultivated this pulse. They were said to be descended from Fabius, a supposed son of Hercules by an Italian nymph; and they were once so numerous that they took upon themselves to wage war against the Veientes. They came to a general engagement near the Cremera, in which all the family, consisting of 306 men, were totally slain, B.C. 477. There only remained one, whose tender age had detained him at Rome, and from him arose the noble Fabii in the following ages. The family was divided into six different branches, the Ambusti , the Maximi , the Vibulani , the Buteones , the Dorsones , and the Pictores , the three first of which are frequently mentioned in the Roman history, but the others seldom. Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 9 , ch. 5 .— Livy , bk. 2 , ch. 46 , . — Florus , bk. 1 , ch. 2 .— Ovid , Tristia , bk. 2 , li. 235 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 845 .