The general public, however, continued to remember Quintus Fabius Maximus as a willing accomplice in the plot to rob the Allobroges of their land and hand it over to the richer senators. It was for that reason that in 698 A.U.C, when a grandson of his decided to restore the arch, he took pains to minimise the souvenir of the war in Transalpine Gaul. Thus the triumphal arch of Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus became a monument to other less embarrassing members of the gens Fabia. Besides Allobrogicus himself, statues of P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus – his blood uncle – and of his paternal grandfather L. Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, were placed in niches carved in the façade. Lastly, the grandson included a statue of himself.

In order to clear the name of my ancestor Allobrogicus of the stain of unjust suspicion of corruption, I have commissioned this record of events to be inscribed on the inner walls of the arch. His statue has been replaced by a larger and more valuable one, as befits a victorious Roman general. It’s the one in the lower left niche (see right).

I hereby declare that I have no intention of dragging the name of any Roman through the mud over this bygone incident, for I have no wish to squander my aurei on drawn-out lawsuits to defend myself or my friends against accusations of calumny. But, so that future generations may remember that the Allobrogian nation fell victim to the the insatiable greed of Republican Roman senators, I have decided to crown the arch with a colossal new sculpture : a wounded tribesman, symbol of the Allobrogian people. From the roof of the arch, his eyes gaze down upon Rome.

May the gods look favourably on this labour of justice and filial piety. Only they, from their place in the heavens, will be able to decipher the names inscribed on the sword that has pierced the heart of the naked warrior.