Person — one identity, discriminated; every claim below carries its ground or says it has none

Fabius Rusticus

fl. under Nero · dates approximate · identity secure receipt — the person layer

Nero's historian: Tacitus' named source, partial to his patron Seneca — a Fabius the record's drawers never minted at all.

Who he is — which bearer of the name; the grounds are named

Tacitus cites him by name as an authority on Nero's court. secure

We have it on the authority of Fabius Rusticus that a note was written to Cæcina Tuscus, intrusting to him the charge of the prætorian cohorts, but that through Seneca's influence that distinguished post was retained for Burrus. Tac. Ann. 13.20 The Annals · Tacitus

How to tell him apart — the record confusing and un-confusing its own names; doors to the other men

Three Fabii, three centuries: the Delayer, the annalist, Nero's historian. secure The record's 'fabius' drawer predates him and never held him; he exists in the house only inside Tacitus' citations. He is neither the Delayer nor the annalist Pictor — the desk keeps the three apart by receipt. the other man: Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus

The career — offices and deeds as the record states them

Where the sources fork on Agrippina, Tacitus reports Rusticus' version by name. secure

Fabius Rusticus tells us that it was not Agrippina, but Nero, who lusted for the crime, and that it was frustrated by the adroitness of that same freed girl. Tac. Ann. 14.2 The Annals · Tacitus

The authorities — the registers cited page-anchored, never reprinted

PIR F 52: 'rerum scriptor sui temporis clarissimus' — and the entry cites the very Tacitus chapters the house serves. secure

Fabius Rusticus, rerum scriptor sui temporis clarissimus Tac. Agr. 10, citatus a Tacito in rebus Neronis enarrandis Tac. a. 13, 20; 14, 2; 15, 61, Prosopographia Imperii Romani, Pars II (Dessau, 1897), p. 51 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

The name's other bearers — identities sharing ‘fabius’; the desk keeps them apart

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus — c. 275–203 BCE Quintus Fabius Pictor — fl. 216 BCE

The record here: 166 works · 12,119 episodes served · identities carry claims, claims carry grounds — episode, page, or an honest open · dprr alignment reserved, nothing fetched

the names · lives · deeds · times · the shelf · sources & licenses