Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/653

Rh REBILUS. L. RA'MMIUS, a leading man at Brundu- Biiim, was accustomed to entertain the Roman ge- nerals and foreign ambassadors. It was said that Perseus, king of Macedonia, endeavoured to per- suade him to poison such Roman generals as he might indicate, but that Rammius disclosed the treacherous offer first to the legate C. Valerius, and then to the Roman senate. Perseus, however, in an embassy which he sent to the senate, strongly denied the truth of the charge, which he maintained was a pure invention of Rammius. (Li v. xlii. 17, 41 ; Appian, Mac. 9. § 4, who calls him Erennius.) RAMNUS, a freedman of M. Antonius, whom he accompanied in the Parthian war. {'Plwi. Anton. 48.) RAMSES, the name of many kings of Egypt of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties. It was during this era that most of the great monu- ments of Egypt were erected, and the name is con- sequently of frequent occurrence on these monu- ments, where it appears under the form of Ramessu. In Julius Afrjcanus and Eusebius it is written Jiamses, Rameses, or Ramesses. The most celebrated of the kings of this name is, however, usually called Sesostris by the Greek writers. [Sesostris.] RA'NIUS, a name of rare occurrence. Cicero (ad Att. xii. 21) speaks of a Ranius, who may have been a slave or a freedman of Brutus. There was a L. Ranius Acontius Optatus, who was con- sul in the reign of Constantine, A. d. 334 (Fasti). RAVILLA, an agnomen of L. Cassius Longi- nus, consul b. c. 127. [Longinus, No. 4.J RE'BILUS, the name of a family of the plebeian Caninia gens. 1. C. Caninius Rebilus, praetor b. c. 171, obtained Sicily as his province. (Liv. xlii. 28, 31.) 2. M. Caninius Rkbilus, probably a brother of the preceding, was sent by the senate into Mace- donia, in B. c. 1 70, along with M. Fulvius Flaccus, in order to investigate the reason of the want of success of the Roman arms in the war against Per- seus. In B. c. 1 67 he was one of the three am- bassadors appointed by the senate to conduct the Thracian hostages back to Cotys. (Liv. xliii. 11, xlv. 42.) 3. C. Caninius Rebilus, was one of Caesar's legates in Gaul in B. c, 52 and 51, and accompanied him in his march into Italy in b. c. 49. Caesar sent him, together with Scribonius Libo, with overtures of peace to Pompey, when the latter was on the point of leaving Italy. In the same year he crossed over to Africa with C. Curio, and was one of the few who escaped with their lives when Curio was defeated and slain by Juba. In B. c. 46 he again fought in Africa, but with more success, for he was now under the command of Caesar him- self. After the defeat of Scipio he took the town of Thapsus, on which occasion Hirtius calls him proconsul. In the following year, b. c. 45, during the war in Spain, there was a report that he had perished in a shipwreck (Cic. ad Ait. xii. 37. § 4, 44. § 4) ; but this was false, for he was then in command of the garrison at Hispalis. On the last day of December in this year, on the sudden death of the consul Q. Fabius Maxiraus, Caesar made Rebilus consul for the few remaining hours of the day. Cicero made himself merry at this appoint- ment, remarking that no one had died in this con- sulship ; that the consul was so wonderfully vigi- lant that he had never slept during his term of office ; and that it might be asked under what VOL. 111. RECTUS. 641 consuls he had been consul. (Caes. B. G. vii. 83, 90, viii. 24, &c., B. a i. 26, ii. 24 ; Hirt. B. A/r. 86, 93, B. Hisp. 35 ; Dion Cass, xliii. 46 ; Cic. ad Fain. vii. 30 ; Suet. Caes. 76, Ner. 15 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 53. s. 54 ; Tac. Hist. iii. 37 ; Plut. Caes. 58 ; Macrob. Sat. ii. 3.) 4. (Caninius) Rebilus, probably a brother of No. 3, was proscribed by the triumvirs in b. c. 43, but escaped to Sex. Pompey in Sicily. (Appian, B. C. iv. 48.) 5. C. Caninius Rebilus, probably a son of No. 3, was consul suffectus in B.C. 12 (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 10. § 20). In the Fasti Capitolini he is said to have died in his year of office, and could not therefore liave been the man of consular rank mentioned by Seneca {de Benef. ii. 21), accord- ing to the supposition of Drumann. 6. (Caninius) Rebilus, a man of consular rank, and of great wealth but bad character, sent a large sum of money as a present to Julius Graeci- nus, who refused to accept it on account of the character of the donor (Sen. de Benef . ii. 21). The name of this Rebilus does not occur in the Fasti, and he must, therefore, have been one of the con- Bules sufFecti. As Julius Graecinus was put to death in the reign of Caligula, it is very probable that the Rebilus mentioned above is the same as the C. Aminius Rehius, who put an end to his own life in the reign of Nero. Tacitus describes him as a person of great wealth and bad character, and also states that he was then an old man (Ann. xiii. 30). As the name of C. Anmiius Rehius is evi- dently corrupt, there can be little doubt that ws should change it, as Lipsius proposed, into Caninius Rebilus. (Respecting the Caninii Rebili in ge- neral, see Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. ii. pp. 107—109.) RF/BIUS, C. AMI'NIUS. [Rebilus, No. 6.] RECARANUS, also called Garanus, a fabuloua Italian shepherd of gigantic bodily strength and courage. It is related of him that Cacus, a wicked robber, once stole eight oxen of the herd of Reca- ranus, which had strayed in the valley of the Circus Maximus, and which the robber earned into his den in Mount Aventine. He dragged the animals along by their tails, and Recaranus would not have discovered them, had not their hiding-place been betrayed by their lowing. Recaranus accordingly entered the cave and slew the robber, notwith- standing his great strength. Hereupon he dedi- cated to Jupiter the ara maxima, at the foot of the Aventine, and sacrificed to the god the tenth part of the booty. The name Recaranus seems to be connected with gerere or create^ and to signify " the recoverer." The fact of his being a gigantic shepherd who recovered the oxen stolen from him, led the Romans at an early time to consider him as identical with the Greek Heracles, who was said to have made an expedition to the west of Europe ; but the whole story of Recaranus is a genuine Italian legend, without any connection with that about Heracles, although the belief in the identity of the two heroes was so general among the later Romans, that Recaranus was entirely thrown into the back ground. (Serv, ad Aen. viii. 203, 275 • Macrob. Sat. iii. 12 ; Aurel. Vict. On^. Gent. Rom, 6 ; comp. Hartung, Die Relig. der Rom. vol. ii. p. 21, &c.) [L. S.] RECEPTUS, NO'NIUS. [Nonius, No. 9.] RECTUS, AEMI'LIUS, governor of Egypt during the reign of Tiberius, sent to the emperor T T