After a dissolute youth and a significant military defeat during his first consulate, he was given the opportunity to salvage his reputation through the influence of his father, and became a successful general, eventually holding the highest honours of the Roman state.
[1][2] Gurges' grandfather, Marcus Fabius Ambustus, had been consul three times, interrex twice, and reportedly was princeps senatus, a dignity later filled by his son, grandson, and great-grandson.
Gurges' father, Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, was one of Rome's most celebrated generals, and had been consul five times between 322 and 297 BC.
As curule aedile in 295 BC, Fabius levied fines against wealthy Roman matrons who had been convicted of adultery, and dedicated the funds to building a temple of Venus, which stood near the Circus Maximus.
At Rome, the traditional rivals of the Fabii, the Papirii and the Claudii, urged that Fabius be relieved of his authority and degraded from consular rank as a punishment for his incompetence.
[12][13][1] Consul for the third time in 265 BC, with Lucius Mamilius Vitulus, Fabius was sent to aid the elders of Volsinii during a revolt of that city's plebeians against the aristocracy.
[2] At an uncertain time before his death, Fabius was named princeps senatus, a position of honour that had previously been held by his father and grandfather, and which would later be bestowed upon his son.