About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Caldara to a libretto by Apostolo Zeno, first performed on 4 November 1719 at the Viennese imperial court for the nameday of Emperor Charles VI. Caldara's was the first setting of the text, which was later also set under the alternative title 'Quinto Fabio'.
Plot
Drawing on an episode from Livy's history of Rome, the dictator Lucio Papirio forbids his cavalry commander Quinto Fabio to attack without his order. Fabio disobeys, but defeats the Samnites, and Papirio condemns him to death. Only when the people rise up against this harsh sentence does Papirio relent, handing Quinto's fate over to the judgment of the Roman people.
Cultural significance
Zeno's text, centred on the conflict between absolute obedience and military success, went on to receive nearly thirty settings. The score of the Vienna premiere, scored for seven soloists and an unusually rich orchestra of oboes, chalumeau, bassoon, four clarini, four trumpets and timpani, survives in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.