Gaius Vibius Rufinus was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, who flourished during the early first century. He was suffect

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

as the colleague of Marcus Cocceius Nerva in August of a year during the first half of the first century; which year is still in dispute. Rufinus was an acquaintance of the poet

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, who addressed two of his poems to him from his exile in Tomis.

Date of his consulship

Some scholars, such as

Attilio Degrassi Attilio Degrassi (Trieste, 21 June 1887 – Rome, 1 June 1969) was an archeologist and pioneering Italian scholar of Latin epigraphy. Degrassi taught at the University of Padova where he trained, among others, the epigraphist Silvio Panciera, c ...

, date the consulship of Rufinus and Nerva based on the attested dates the former was governor of

Germania Superior Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesontio' ...

, namely the years 43 and 45. Paul Gallivan, in his study of the suffect consuls of the reign of Claudius, reasoned from those dates that "Rufinus must have assumed the consulship between 39 and 42", for which only 40 and 41 have vacancies in August. Other experts date their consulship to either 21 or 22, where there are corresponding gaps; no suffect consuls are yet attested for the year 21.

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...

, who argues for one of these years, points out that Nerva was ''

curator aquarum The ''Curator Aquarum'' was a Roman official responsible for managing Rome's water supply and distributing free grain. Curators were appointed by the emperor. The first curator was Agrippa. Another notable ''Curator Aquarum'' was Frontinus, a Ro ...

'' in the year 24, an office which required the consulship first. That Vibius Rufinus' father,

Gaius Vibius Rufus Gaius Vibius Rufus was a Roman senator and orator, who flourished during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the second half of AD 16 with Gaius Pomponius Graecinus as his colleague. The first of his family to achieve consular rank, Rufus ...

, was consul himself not more than 6 years before, is not an insurmountable problem, for Rufus at the time of his consulship was elderly, and the gap in years between his consulship and Rufinus' would have been small. While the 21 years between consulship and being appointed governor of Germania Superior might present an objection to this earlier date, Syme observes that " C. Vibius Marsus (''suff.'' 17) succeeding P. Petronius (''suff.'' 19) in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, in or about the year 42."

Life

Rufinus was the son of Vibius Rufus and Publilia M.f., who had been at a young age the second wife of the orator

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

mentions Rufinus as the author of a work in six books on trees, herbs, and flowers. Syme interprets Ovid's poems to indicate Rufinus had been active in the

Batonian War The (Latin for 'War of the Batos') was a military conflict fought in the Roman province of Illyricum in the 1st century AD, in which an alliance of native peoples of the two regions of Illyricum, Dalmatia and Pannonia, revolted against the Ro ...

, which transpired from AD 6 to the year 9. If so, his role in that conflict is unclear: in different papers Syme speculated that Rufinus had been a

military tribune A military tribune (Latin ''tribunus militum'', "tribune of the soldiers") was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribune as a stepping stone to ...

,Syme
"Vibius Rufus and Vibius Rufinus"
''

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik The ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' (commonly abbreviated ZPE; "Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy") is a peer-reviewed academic journal which contains articles that pertain to papyrology and epigraphy. It has been described as "th ...

'', 43 (1981), p. 375 a quaestor or a legate of quaestorian rank. Syme speculates whether this military experience might explain his appointment to the important province of Germania Superior "many years later, although military experience was a recommendation less powerful than loyalty." Besides the governorship of Germania Superior, the other office Rufinus is known to have held was governor of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. Starting with the earlier pair of possible dates for his consulship, Syme notes that for the

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...

ar governorship of Asia and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

"Tiberius tried for a time to keep to an interval of ten years from a man's consulship", and assigns Rufinus' governorship to 36/7; this was the same term of governorship that Tiberius barred Gaius Sulpicius Galba from holding.Syme, ''History in Ovid'', pp. 85f

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vibius Rufinus, Gaius 1st-century Romans category:Roman governors of Asia Roman governors of Germania Superior Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Rufinus, Gaius