Vulcacius Rufinus

Vulcacius Rufinus († 368 ) was a Roman official in late antiquity . As Praetorian Prefect , Rufinus held the highest civil office in the late Roman Empire for many years; In 347 he also held the consulate together with the army master Flavius ​​Eusebius .

Life

Rufinus came from an apparently influential pagan family. His brother Naeratius Cerealis was 352–353 city ​​prefect of Rome and 358 consul, his sister Galla was married to Julius Constantius , a brother of Emperor Constantine the Great , and another sister was the mother of Maximus , who served as city prefect from 361–362. Constantius Gallus , who administered the east of the empire as Caesar (lower emperor) from 351–354 , was a son of his sister Galla from her marriage to Julius Constantius.

Nothing is known about Rufinus' youth. At the beginning of his career he worked in Numidia in North Africa, where the city of Timgad names him one of their most important sponsors. In 342 he already held an important administrative function in the East as comes per orientem Aegypti et Mesopotamiae . From 344 he was as Praetorian prefect one of the highest officials in the west of the empire; at first it seems to have been active mainly in Italy, from 347 then entirely or mainly in the Illyricum . He was one of the advisors to Constantine's son Constans and was honored with a consulate in 347.

When Magnentius Constans overthrew Constans and usurped rule in the west of the empire , Rufinus was one of the negotiators he sent to Constantius II , the last surviving son of Constantine and ruler of the eastern part of the empire. Unlike the other members of the embassy, ​​he was not arrested after his arrival with Constantius II; he was also allowed to keep his post as Praetorian prefect in the Illyricum.

In 354, after the fall of Magnentius, Rufinus was active as Praetorian prefect in Gaul . When supply problems arose, he had to calm the hungry troops in Cabillonum . A little later he was replaced as Praetorian prefect, presumably because his nephew Constantius Gallus had fallen out of favor with Constantius II because of his high-handed appearance in Antioch .

When Claudius Mamertinus had to resign from his post in 365 because he was accused of embezzling state funds, Rufinus returned from retirement to become Praetorian Prefect once again. This time he was responsible for Italy, the Illyricum and Africa . In this function he successfully campaigned for the return of Memmius Vitrasius Orfitus , who had been deposed as prefect of Rome and exiled because of financial irregularities in the wine tax in 359.

Rufinus died in 368. His successor as Praetorian prefect was Sextus Petronius Probus .

literature

• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Vulcacius Rufinus 25. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , pp. 782-783 (with extensive references).
• Joachim Migl: The order of the offices. Praetorian prefecture and vicariate in the regional administration of the Roman Empire from Constantine to the Valentian dynasty (=  European university publications . Series III, volume 623 ). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1994, ISBN 3-631-47881-X , p. 108–117 (with discussion of Vulcacius Rufinus' geographical area of ​​responsibility as Praetorian prefect).
• Otto Seeck : Rufinus 15 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IA, 1, Stuttgart 1914, column 1187 f.