Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/686

Rh G74 RUFUS. self, bankrupts in character and fortune, to murder Augustus. Being detected in these treasonable designs, he was thrown into prison and executed. (Veil. Pat. ii. 91—93 ; Dion Cass. liii. 24 ; Suet. Aug. 19.) RUFUS EPHE'SIUS. [Rufus, physicians, No. 2, p. 669.] RUFUS, FAE'NIUS or FE'NIUS, was ap- pointed by Nero praefectus annonae in A. D. 55, and gained the favour of the people by his dis- charging the duties of this office without any view to private emolument. He was in consequence appointed praefect of the praetorian cohorts along with Sofonius Tigellinus, in A. D. 62, as Nero wished, by the elevation of Rufus, to counter- balance the unpopularity of the latter appointment. But Rufus never obtained much influence with the emperor, and all the real power was in the hands of his colleague Tiu:ellinus, whose depraved mind was more akin to Nero's own. In addition to this, his friendship with Agrippina had rendered him an object of suspicion to Nero ; and he was therefore the more easily induced to take part in the conspiracy of Piso, a. d. 65. On the detection of the conspiracy he was compelled to put an end to his own life, which he did not do with the same firmness as most of his accomplices. His friends shared in his fall, and one was banished simply on account of his intimacy with him. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 22, xiv. 51, 57, xv. SO, 53, 61, m^ 68, xvi. 12 ; Dion Cass. Ixii. 24.) RUFUS FESTUS AVIE'NUS. [Avienus.] RUFUS, GEMI'NIUS, was accused of the crime of majestas towards the end of a. d. 32, in consequence of his intimacy with Sejanus. He put an end to his own life, and his wife Publia Prisca followed his example. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 4 ; Tac. An7i. vi. 14.) RUFUS, HE'LVIUS, a common soldier, saved the life of a Roman citizen in the war with Tacfarinas in Africa in a. d. 20. (Tac. Ann. iii. 21.) RUFUS, JULIA'NUS, consul a. d. 178 with Gavins Orfitus. (Laraprid. Commod. 12.) RUFUS, JU'LIUS. 1. Consul a. d. 67 with L, Fonteius Capito. He died of a carbuncle, as is related by the eider Pliny. {H. N. xxvi. 1. s. 4.) 2. A contemporary of Martial, was apparently a writer of satires. (Mart. x. 99.) 3. One of the Roman nobles slain by the em- peror Severus. (Sparti?,n. Sever. 13.) RUFUS, M. LUCFLIUS, known to us only from coins, a specimen of which is annexed. The obverse represents the head of Pallas ; the reverse Victory driving a biga, with M. lvcill bvf. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 239.) COIN OF M. LUCILIU8 RUFUS. RUFUS, MA'RCIUS, one of the legates of Crassus in the Servile war. (Frontin. Strut, ii. 4. §7.) RUFUS. RUFUS, ME'NIUS. [Rufus, physicians. No. 1, p. 668.] RUFUS, L. MESCI'NIUS, Cicero's quaestor in Cilicia, B.C. 51, of whose official conduct Cicero complains to Atticus in the strongest terms {ad Ait. vi. 3, 4). On his departure from the province Cicero li'ft Tiro at Laodiceia to settle his accounts with him ; and in consequence of the difficulties and misunderstandings which arose out of this settlement, Cicero wrote to him a long letter which is extant {cui Fam. v. 20). But though Cicero had found so much fault with Rufus in his letter to Atticus, he bestows the highest praises upon him in a letter in which he urges him to join the side of Pompey on the breaking out of the civil war {ad Fam. v. 19). At a later time, B. c. 46,* Cicero writes Rufus a letter of consolation, as he seems to have been discontented with his position {ad Fam. V. 21). In the same year Cicero reconmiended him to Serv. Sulpicius, the governor of Acliaia, in which province Rufus had some business which required his presence {ad Fam. xiii. 26, 28). After the death of Caesar he joined the republican part)', and served under Cassius Longinus, by whom he was sent against Tarsus. (Dion Cass, xlvii. 31.) The name of L. Mescinius Rufus frequently occurs on coins as triumvir of the mint under Augustus ; and it appears from these coins that he must have held this office in the years B. c. 17 and 16. The following is an interesting specimen of one of these coins. On the obverse is a cippus with IMP. CAES. AVGV. COMM. CONS., that is, Im- perator Caesar Augustus communi consensu.^ and round the cippus l. mescinivs rvfvs hi vir : on the reverse we have inclosed in a chaplet of. oak, I. O. M. S. p. Q. R, V. S. PR. S. IMP. CAES. QVOD PER EV. R. P. IN AMP. ATQ. TRAN. S. E., that is, lovi Optimo Maximo S. P. Q. R. votum susceptum pro salute Imperatoris Caesaris, quod per eum res pvhlica in ampliore atque tranquilliore statu est. This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that, after the defeat of Varus some years after- wards, we read that games were vowed by Augus- tus to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, si. respuUica in meliorem statum vertissei {Siet. Aug. 23). (Eckhel, vol. V. p. 252, vol. vi. pp. 102 — 105.) COIN OP L. MESCINIUS RUFUS. RUFUS, MINU'CIUS. 1. M. Minucius Rufus, was consul b.c. 221, with P. Cornelius Scipio Asina, and carried on war, in conjunction with his colleague, against the Istrians, whom he subdued (Eutrop. iii, 7 ; Oros. iv. 13 ; Zonar. viii. 20). In B. c. 217 Rufus was appointed magister equitum to the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus, who had been called to this office after the disastrous defeat of the Romans at the battle of the lake Trasimenus. The cautious policy of Fabius dis- pleased the impetuous temper of Rufus, who excited the discontent of the soldiers and the people against the slow and defensive system of the dictator. Certain religious rites called Fabius to Rome, but before his departure he charged Rufus on no account