Lucius Verginius Rufus
Lucius Verginius Rufus (AD 15 – 97; sometimes incorrectly called Lucius Virginus Rufus) was a
Verginius Rufus was born in Northern Italy as a member of an equestrian family. He became consul in 63 under the emperor
After the murder of Emperor Domitian, Marcus Cocceius Nerva was elected emperor by the senate. Nerva chose as his co-consul for 97 the elderly Verginius Rufus, who was enticed out of retirement. However, when Verginius Rufus was to hold a speech, he dropped a book he was carrying, and while bending down to pick it up, slipped and broke his hip. He died not long afterward at the age of 82 and was given a state funeral.
At the public burial with which he was honored, the historian Tacitus (then consul) delivered the funeral oration. Pliny the Younger, his neighbor and ward, has recorded the lines which Verginius had ordered to be engraved upon his tomb: Hic situs est Rufus, pulso qui Vindice quondam Imperium asseruit non sibi sed patriae ("Here lies Rufus, who after defeating Vindex, did not take power, but gave it to the fatherland").
The remains of his tomb are in Ladispoli and the nearby Roman villa may have been his.[1]
See also
References
- ^ The archaeological sites of the Tolfa mountains http://www.archeoetruria.altervista.org/marinadipaloen.html
- Cassius Dio, Roman History 63.23.1-24.4
- Wells, Colin. The Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1992. 153-154
- Pliny, Letters, Book II.1, IX.19
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Virginius Rufus, Lucius". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the