Marcus Bassaeus Rufus 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 held a number of appointments during the reigns of the emperors

Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatoria ...

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

and

Commodus Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...

. The most notable of these were ''

praefectus vigilum The ''Vigiles'' or more properly the ''Vigiles Urbani'' ("watchmen of the Rome, City") or ''Cohortes Vigilum'' ("Cohort (military unit), cohorts of the watchmen") were the firefighters and police of ancient Rome. History The ''Triumviri Nocturn ...

'', ''

praefectus ''Praefectus'', often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but ...

'' or governor of

Roman Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...

, and

praetorian prefect The praetorian prefect ( la, praefectus praetorio, el, ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders be ...

Anthony Birley Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was the son of Margaret Isabel (Goodlet) and historian and archaeologist Eric Birley. Early life and education Anthony ...

describes Rufus as "a tough soldier who had risen from humble Italian peasant origins".

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

records two anecdotes that emphasize his humbler beginnings. In one, Rufus had a caller while he was engaged in pruning a vine that grew upon a tree; when Rufus did not climb down at the first summons, the man had rebuked him and said: "Come now, prefect, get down." Dio explains, "That is, he had used this title in speaking to him as to one who was now bearing himself haughtily but had formerly been of lowly station; and it was precisely this title that Fortune subsequently gave him."Dio, ''Romanika Historia'', LXXI.5 In the second, Rufus was present when Marcus Aurelius was talking in Latin to someone in Latin, but neither the man addressed nor anyone else nearby, either, understood the emperor; Rufus then exclaimed: "No wonder, Caesar, that he does not know what you said; for he does not understand Greek either." Dio explains that even Rufus was ignorant of what Marcus Aurelius said. Karol Kłodziński notes that not only of "five praetorian prefects of the Antonines, whose full

cursus honorum The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...

is known, only

Marcius Turbo Quintus Marcius Turbo was prefect of the Praetorian Guard and a close friend and military advisor to both emperor Trajan and Hadrian during the early 2nd century. Early life Not much is known about the early life of Turbo. There are few recor ...

and Bassaeus Rufus achieved the praetorian prefecture without holding equestrian ''

tres militiae The ''tres militiae'' ("three military posts") was a career progression of the Roman Imperial army for men of the equestrian order. It developed as an alternative to the ''cursus honorum'' of the senatorial order for enabling the social mobility ...

''", and in addition "both got promotion to ''ordo equester'' through the '' primipilat''".

Public career

His career is recorded in an inscription recovered at Rome, but since its publication has been lost. As mentioned, the equestrian career of Bassaeus Rufus began with him being twice ''primus pilus''; this was followed with commission as

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 ...

of a ''cohors vigilis'', then of an urban cohort, and lastly a praetorian cohort. From here he advanced to civil appointments, beginning with

procurator Procurator (with procuracy or procuratorate referring to the office itself) may refer to: * Procurator, one engaged in procuration, the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, agency * ''Procurator'' (Ancient Rome), the title of ...

of the imperial properties in the regions of Asturias and Galicia, then became governing procurator of the imperial province of

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the Celts, Celtic kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were th ...

before the end of the reign of emperor Antoninus Pius. This was followed by the procuratorship of

Gallia Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany. In 50 BC, af ...

and both

Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...

e; the duties of this official included supervising the distribution of funds for the armies on the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

. Rufus must have distinguished himself in this appointment, for he advanced to '' procurator a rationibus'', or overseer of the imperial secretariat in Rome. Rufus was later promoted to ''

'' at some point before 10 March 168, according to an inscription with that date. Between that date and 10 July of that year, he was promoted to prefect of Egypt. However Marcus Aurelius found he was needed in a more important position, and at some point before the death of

Lucius Verus Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – January/February 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with ...

in early 169, Bassaeus Rufus was promoted to Praetorian Prefect. Shortly afterwards he was given a colleague as praetorian prefect, Marcus Macrinius Vindex. Both were selected to help with the threat posed by the

Marcomanni The Marcomanni were a Germanic people * * * that established a powerful kingdom north of the Danube, somewhere near modern Bohemia, during the peak of power of the nearby Roman Empire. According to Tacitus and Strabo, they were Suebian. Origin ...

on the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

frontier; the previous praetorian prefect,

Titus Furius Victorinus Titus Furius Victorinus (died 168 AD) was a Roman '' eques'' who held a number of appointments during the reigns of the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. The most prominent of these offices were ''praefectus vigilum'', ''praefectus'' or ...

, had been killed the year before in battle with these Germanic invaders. Nevertheless, their responsibilities included more than military matters. An inscription recovered from Saepinum (modern

Sepino Sepino is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Campobasso in the Italian region Molise, located about south of Campobasso. The archaeological site of Saepinum is located nearby. Sepino borders the following municipalities: Cercemaggio ...

) records the response of Rufus and Vindex to a petition from the imperial

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

Cosmus concerning the management of the imperial flocks. Rufus is recorded as present in another case, this one heard by the emperor Marcus Aurelius, which involved his former tutor

Herodes Atticus Herodes Atticus ( grc-gre, Ἡρώδης; AD 101–177) was an Athenian rhetorician, as well as a Roman senator. A great philanthropic magnate, he and his wife Appia Annia Regilla, for whose murder he was potentially responsible, commissioned ...

: Herodes had accused three rivals from Athens of conspiracy, and these three men appealed to Marcus at his headquarters at

Sirmium Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous provice of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrians an ...

. Herodes, who had shortly before the meeting lost two young slave girls when they were killed by lightning, failed to present his case properly, instead attacking him for "sacrificing me to the whim of a woman and a three-year-old child!" Rufus, who watched all this, believed only one conclusion was possible: Herodes wanted to die. Under the two prefects Rufus and Vindex, victories followed for the Romans. Although Vindex met with death in 172, Rufus distinguished himself: the lost Roman inscription states he received ''

dona militaria As with most other military forces the Roman military adopted an extensive list of decorations for military gallantry and likewise a range of punishments for military transgressions. Decorations, awards and victory titles Crowns *Grass crown � ...

'' appropriate to his rank. Rufus is known to have accompanied Marcus Aurelius to the front in July 175, after which the emperor awarded him a further distinction: ''consularia ornamenta''. This is the equivalent of the

consulship A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

for non-Senators, and was commonly granted to praetorian prefects who had a successful tenure. Rufus received this during the triumph Marcus Aurelius celebrated on his return to Rome 23 December 176. Bassaeus Rufus retired from public life not long after this.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius: A Biography'', p. 207

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bassaeus Rufus, Marcus 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century Roman governors of Egypt Ancient Roman equites Roman governors of Noricum Roman governors of Egypt Praetorian prefects