Fabius was a patrician (upper-class) family of the Roman Republic. Although many magistrates came from the family surname, it wasn't the top family at producing important officials -- that honor belonged to the Cornelians. History shows the Fabius family fourth in important magistrate families, at least in number. Still, numerous consuls throughout Roman history carried the Fabius name.

The Fabius line didn't just produce magistrates, but other important figures as well. The earliest known patrician painter was Gaius Fabius Pictor. He may have served as a consulate during the Picenian war, and as a consulate. He is best known for the murals he painted on the Temple of Health.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus was a Roman general and consul who lived from about 275 B.C. until 203 B.C. He inherited the cognominen Maximus, which meant "most eminent," from an ancestor. His other cognominen -- Verrucosus -- came from a physical characteristic [source: Brooklyn College]. Verrucosus means scaly or wart-like, so with little historical records, modern scholars can only assume he may have had some sort of dermatological condition. Fabius Maximus likely served as a consulate in about 233 B.C., and was elected to five total consulships. He created the Fabian policy of caution and delay in his battle against Hannibal that later was used by George Washington. Many others later carried the name of Quintus Fabius.

Quintus Fabius Pictor is the earliest known Roman historian and writer of prose. He was born in about 254 B.C., the grandson of Gaius Fabius Pictor. He compiled a history that covered events from the founding of Rome in 753 B.C. to the end of the Second Punic War in 201 B.C. Gaius Fabius Pictor not only recorded history -- he participated in it. The Roman apparently took part in subjugating the Gauls north of Rome and was asked to consult the oracle of Apollo in Delphi on behalf of the Romans. His history was popular and widely read in Roman times; it likely survived until Cicero's time -- the first century B.C. -- but has since been lost.