XXIV.  The Romans, among many other marks of respect for Fabius, elected his son consul.  When he had entered on this office and was making some arrangements for the conduct of the war, his father, either because of his age and infirmities or else intending to try his son, mounted on horseback and rode towards him through the crowd of bystanders.  The young man seeing him at a distance would not endure this slight, but sent a lictor to bid his father dismount and come on foot, if he wanted anything of the consul.  Those present were vexed at this order, and looked on Fabius in silence, as if they thought that he was unworthily treated, considering his great reputation:  but he himself instantly alighted, ran to his son, and embracing him, said:  “You both think and act rightly, my son; for you know whom you command, and how great an office you hold.  Thus it was that we and our ancestors made Rome great, by thinking less of our parents and of our children than of the glory of our country.”  It is even said to be true that the great grandfather of Fabius, although he had been consul five times, had finished several campaigns with splendid triumphs, and was one of the most illustrious men in Rome, yet acted as lieutenant to his son when consul in the field, and that in the subsequent triumph the son drove into Rome in a chariot and four, while he with the other officers followed him on horseback, glorying in the fact that although he was his son’s master, and although he was and was accounted the first citizen in Rome, yet he submitted himself to the laws and the chief magistrate.  Nor did he deserve admiration for this alone.

Fabius had the misfortune to lose his son, and this he bore with fortitude, as became a man of sense and an excellent parent.  He himself pronounced the funeral oration which is always spoken by some relative on the deaths of illustrious men, and afterwards he wrote a copy of his speech and distributed it to his friends.

XXV.  Cornelius Scipio meanwhile had been sent to Spain, where he had defeated the Carthaginians in many battles and driven them out of the country, and had also overcome many tribes, taken many cities, and done glorious deeds for Rome.  On his return he was received with great honour and respect, and, feeling that the people expected some extraordinary exploit from him, he decided that it was too tame a proceeding to fight Hannibal in Italy, and determined to pour troops into Africa, attack Carthage, and transfer the theatre of war from Italy to that country.  He bent all his energies to persuade the people to approve of this project, but was violently opposed by Fabius, who spread great alarm through the city, pointing out that it was being exposed to great danger by a reckless young man, and endeavouring by every means in his power to prevent the Romans from adopting Scipio’s plan.  He carried his point with the Senate, but the people believed that he was envious of Scipio’s prosperity and desired to check him, because he feared that if he did gain some signal success, and either put an end to the war altogether or remove it from Italy, he himself might be thought a feeble and dilatory general for not having finished the war in so many campaigns.