Eburnus was held responsible for losing control of the city of Tauromenium to the slave uprising, and he was sent back to Rome "in disgrace" even though the Roman siege eventually succeeded.
He held the praetorship no later than 119 BC, when he may have been[3] the Fabius Maximus who presided as praetor over the court in which Lucius Licinius Crassus prosecuted Gaius Papirius Carbo.
The charge is unclear: extortion, perhaps under the Lex Acilia de repetundis, or laesa maiestas, an offense against the dignity of the state, have both been proposed.
[10] As a youth, however, Eburnus had earned his agnomen "Ivory" because of his fair good looks (candor), and had the nickname "Jove's chick" (pullus Iovis).
He was reviled for his son's death, and accused by Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo (possibly the consul of 89 BC) for having exceeded the limits of patria potestas.