Publius Pinarius Mamercinus Rufus was a

Roman senator The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

who held 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 ...

alongside Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC.

Family

Rufus was the first member of the '' gens Pinaria'' to attain the consulship. The ''Pinarii'' were an ancient patrician family of Rome, whose origins were said to go back to the founding of the city.

Biography

In 489 BC, he was elected consul with Gaius Julius Iulus as his colleague.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

says that, during their term, games were held and a host of the

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

were invited to see them. The man who invited them, Attius Tullius Aufidius, warned Rufus and Iulus that the Volsci may commit an act similar to that of the

Sabines The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines di ...

in the

Rape of the Sabines The Rape of the Sabine Women ( ), also known as the Abduction of the Sabine Women or the Kidnapping of the Sabine Women, was an incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other citi ...

just a couple years earlier. The consuls then shared Aufidius' suspicions with the

Senate 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 ...

, and the Senate decreed that the Volsci should leave the city. The Volsci were indignant that they should have to leave the games without reason, and a conflict began between them and the Romans. In 488 BC, Rufus was one of the consular envoys sent to negotiate with the Volsci, and with

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus Gnaeus (or Gaius) Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" following his courageous actions during a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He ...

, who was a Roman exile leading the Volsci.

Notes

Bibliography

Primary sources

Livy, ''The History of Rome'', Book II

Secondary sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinarius Mamercinus Rufus, Publius 5th-century BC Roman consuls Mamercinus Rufus, Publius 5th-century BC diplomats