Publius Cornelius Rufinus was a Roman politician and general of the third century BC. He is often thought to be a son of

Publius Cornelius Rufinus Publius Cornelius Rufinus was a dictator during the Roman Republic. Rufinus belonged to the famous patrician gens Cornelia, as well as being the earliest recorded member of the branch of the family, the gens Cornelii Rufinii et Sullae. He was a ...

, dictator in 334 BC, but this is impossible because the

Fasti Capitolini The ''Fasti Capitolini'', or Capitoline Fasti, are a list of the chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, extending from the early fifth century BC down to the reign of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Together with similar lists found at Rom ...

say that his father was a certain Gnaeus Cornelius Rufinus and his grandfather was a certain Publius Cornelius Rufinus, probably the dictator (note the 44-year gap in between Publius the Elder's dictatorship and Publius the Younger's first consulship). Rufinus was consul twice and dictator once, the latter in an unknown year. He brought the

Samnite War The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe. ...

to an end in his first consulship, in 290 BC, with his colleague Manius Curius Denatus. In the elections of 277 BC,

Gaius Fabricius Luscinus Gaius Fabricius Luscinus Monocularis ("the one-eyed"), son of Gaius, was said to have been the first of the Fabricii to move to ancient Rome, his family originating from Aletrium. In 284 BC he was one of the ambassadors to Tarentum, successfully ...

, consul the previous year, was an opponent of Rufinus but voted for him anyway, seeing that Rufinus was the only candidate with military genius. When Rufinus thanked him for the support, or when the people inquired why he voted for his opponent, Fabricius replied, ‘I would rather be robbed by a fellow countryman than sold by the enemy s a slave’ Rufinus took up arms again because of the vulnerability of the enemy, in his second consulship in 277 BC, in which he captured the town of Croton and Locri, but his reputation suffered severely because of his avarice and cruelty. Two years later, Rufinus was expelled from the senate by Fabricius, who was censor at the time, when he was found to have possessed over ten ''librae'' (or pounds) of silver plate. He was also the great-great-great grandfather of the infamous dictator

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had ...

, and a father of Publius Cornelius Sulla, Flamen Dialis c. 250 BC. Secondary sources: Reams (1985) ''The First Fifty Years of Sulla: A Re-assessment'', pp. 14 - 17; Keaveney (2005) ''Sulla: The Last Republican'', p. 5; Cagniart (1986) T''he Life and Career of Lucius Cornelius Sulla through his Consulship in 88 BC: A Study in Politics'', p. 21; Badian (1970) ''Lucius Sulla: The Deadly Reformer'', pp. 4 - 5; Carcopino (1931) ''Sylla; ou, la monarchie manquée'', p. 20 n. 4; Broughton ''MRR'' 1.183, 187 and 194; ed. Smith (1872) ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 3'', p. 665 (Rufinus no. 2); Crawford (1993) ''The Roman Republic'', pp. 29 - 30; Keulen (2009) ''Gellius the Satirist: Roman Cultural Authority in Attic Nights'', p. 186.

Primary sources In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time unde ...

: Dion. Hal. 20.13.1; Val. Max. 2.9.4; Vell. Pat. 1.14.6; Plin. NH. 7.166; Eutrop. 2.9.3; Cic. ''Orat''. 2.268; Aul. Gell. 4.8.1,17.21.39; Front. ''Strat''. 3.6.4; Zonar. 8.6; L. Amp. 18.9; Plut. ''Sul.'' 1.1; Flor. 1.18.2;Tert. ''Apol''. 6; Aug. ''Civ. Dei'' 5.18; Plin. ''NH''. 18.8; Juv. ''Sat''. 9.142.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornelius Rufinus, Publius 3rd-century BC Roman consuls Rufinus, Publius Ancient Roman dictators Roman patricians