Gaius Fabricius Luscinus

[2][3] Fabricius was consul a second time in 278 BC, and once again successful against the Samnites, Lucanians and Bruttians.

The tales of Fabricius are the standard ones of austerity and incorruptibility, similar to those told of Curius Dentatus, and Cicero often cites them together; it is difficult to make out a true personality behind the virtues.

On the other hand, Valerius Maximus says that he and his co-consul/co-censor Quintus Aemilius Papus kept "silver in the[ir] homes... Each of them had a dish for the gods and a salt cellar, but Fabricius was more elegant because he chose to put a little pedestal of horn under his dish."

[Valerius Maximus, Chapter Four "Poverty" 4.3] In the Purgatorio of Dante's Divine Comedy, Canto XX depicted Fabricius as an example of virtue opposing Avarice, as the Pilgrim and Virgil trek through the realm of Purgatory, also galvanizing the connection between poverty and asceticism.

They say his principles were so deeply embedded within his character that he suffered intense impoverishment, and that he died a pauper and had to be buried by the state.