However, the work was highly partisan towards Rome, blaming the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) on Carthage and idealizing the Roman Republic as a well-ordered state loyal to its allies.
[7] In 216 BC, during the Second Punic War, he was appointed to travel to the oracle at Delphi, the religious centre of Greece, in order to seek guidance after the disastrous Roman defeat to Hannibal at Cannae.
[13][7] Fabius' history was written in Greek, which was at that time the only language suitable to reach a large educated public in Italy, Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean world.
[15][7][16] In the words of Arnaldo Momigliano, "under the impact of Hellenisation the natives of many countries were persuaded to rethink their national history and to present it in the Greek language to the educated readers of a multinational society.
[18] Fabius' work, which is variously called the Annales Graeci or the Romaika (≈ Romaion) praxeis by ancient authors,[19][20] comprised three large sections: one on the ktisis (creation story), which included the first years of the Republic; a second part on "the antiquities after the foundation phase", that is the period from the Decemvirate (ca.
[5][2] According to historian Hans Beck, "the calculation of the city's foundation date that matched with Olympiad chronologies attests both to the call for accuracy and to the desire to stress an analogy to Greek culture."
[21] According to Beck, however, the label "annalistic" should be avoided to describe Fabius' work, for the surviving fragments "make it plain that the conceptual assumptions of this model (lack of style, a mere compilation of people, places and prodigies) are not accurate.
[24] His views of Roman history as a closed unity in search for social meaning were biased towards his nation, and probably emerged as a nationalistic reaction influenced by the conflict between Rome and Carthage, especially the political turmoil that followed the defeat of Cannae in 216 BC.
[25][7] Beck writes that "the work’s apologetic tone, its idealization of the republic as a well-ordered state, and the emphasis on Rome’s loyalty to its allies all seem to support this view, suiting an effort at damage-control immediately after Cannae.
"[26] Fabius' portrayal of the Siege of Saguntum as the cause of the Second Punic War, dismissing Hannibal's attack as sweeping "injustice", soon became the dominant view among ancient historians.
[7] In the early 2nd century BC, Roman historians Lucius Cincius Alimentus and Gaius Acilius were highly influenced by Fabius in matters of language, form, and theme.