Dorso

• a Roman surname, Liv. 5, 46; 7, 28 al.

the name of a family of the patrician Fabia gens.

1. C. Fabius Dorso, greatly distinguished himself at the time when the Capitol was besieged by the Gauls. (B. C. 390.) The Fabian gens was accustomed to celebrate a sacrifice at a fixed time on the Quirinal hill, and accordingly, at the appointed time, C. Dorso, who was then a young man, descended from the Capitol, carrying the sacred things in his hands, passed in safety through the enemy's posts, and, after performing the sacrifice, returned in safety to the Capitol. (Liv. 5.46, 52; V. Max. 1.1.11.) The tale is somewhat differently related by other writers. Dio Cassius (Fragm. 29, ed. Reimar.) speaks of the sacrifice as a public one, which Fabius, whom he calls Caeso Fabius, had to perform as one of the pontiffs. Florus (1.13) also calls him a pontiff, who was sent by Manlius, the commander on the Capitol, to celebrate the sacred rite on the Quirinal. Appian, on the other hand, who quotes Cassius Hemina as his authority, says that the sacrifice was performed in the temple of Vesta. (Celt. 6.)

2. M. Fabius Dorso, son probably of No. 1, was consul in B. C. 345 with Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus Rufus, in which year Camillus was appointed dictator to carry on the war with the Aurunci. He made war with his colleague against the Volsci and took Sora. (Liv. 7.28; Diod. 16.66.)

3. C. Fabius Dorso LICINUS, son or grandson of No. 2, was consul in B. C. 273 with C. Claudius Canina, but died in the course of this year. It was in his consulship that colonies were founded at Cosa and Paestum, and that an embassy was sent by Ptolemy Philadelphus to Rome. (Vell. 1.14; Eutrop. 2.15.)

A Roman, who, according to the old legend, when Rome was in the possession of the Gauls, issued from the Capitol, which was then besieged, to go and offer on the Mons Quirinalis a stated sacrifice enjoined on the Fabian house. In the Gabian cincture, and bearing the sacred vessels in his hands, he descended from the Capitol and passed through the enemy without betraying the least signs of fear. When he had finished his sacrifice, he returned to the Capitol unmolested by the foe, who were astonished at his boldness and did not obstruct his passage or molest his sacrifice (Liv.v. 46).