Marcus Fabius Ambustus was a statesman of ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 who served as Pontifex Maximus

Pontifex Maximus

The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...

 in the year that Rome was taken by the Gauls, 390 BC

390 BC

Year 390 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Ambustus, Longus, Ambustus, Fidenas, Ambustus and Cornelius...

. His three sons--Caeso

Caeso Fabius Ambustus

Caeso Fabius Ambustus, was an ancient Roman who was the son of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, and brother to Numerius and Quintus. He was quaestor 409 BC with three plebeians as his colleagues, which was the first time that quaestors were chosen from the plebs...

, Numerius

Numerius Fabius Ambustus

Numerius Fabius Ambustus was an ancient Roman commander who was the son of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, and brother to Caeso and Quintus. In 406 BC, he and his forces captured the Volscian city of Anxur by securing the high ground above the town, from which they were able to launch attacks against its...

, and Quintus

Quintus Fabius Ambustus (tribune)

Quintus Fabius Ambustus was a politician in the Roman Republic, the son of Marcus Fabius Ambustus . In 390 BC, when his father was pontifex maximus, he and two of his brothers, Numerius and Caeso, were sent as emissaries to a Gaulish army besieging Clusium...

--were sent as ambassadors to the Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

s, when the latter were besieging Clusium

Clusium

Clusium was an ancient city in Italy, one of several found at the site. The current municipality of Chiusi partly overlaps this Roman walled city. The Roman city remodeled an earlier Etruscan city, Clevsin, found in the territory of a prehistoric culture, possibly also Etruscan or proto-Etruscan...

, and participated in an attack against the besieging Gauls. The Gauls demanded that the Fabii should be sur­rendered to them for violating the law of nations; and upon the senate refusing to give up the guilty parties, they marched against Rome, which they sacked after the battle of the Allia

Battle of the Allia

The Battle of the Allia was a battle of the first Gallic invasion of Rome. The battle was fought near the Allia river: the defeat of the Roman army opened the route for the Gauls to sack Rome. It was fought in 390/387 BC.-Background:...

. The three sons were in the same year elected consular tri­bunes.

Many scholars believe the entire story of the events at Clusium to be fiction, as Clusium had no real reason to appeal to Rome for help, and the Gauls needed no real provocation to sack Rome. The story, it is hypothesized, exists to provide an explanation for an otherwise unmotivated attack on Rome, and to depict Rome as a bulwark of Italy against the Gauls.