Valgius Rufus

Last updated

Gaius Valgius Rufus, was a Roman senator, and a contemporary of Horace and Maecenas. He succeeded Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus as suffect consul upon the latter's death in 12 BC. [1] Rufus is best known as a writer of elegies and epigrams, and his contemporaries believed him capable of great things in epic writing. The author of the panegyric on Messalla Corvinus compared Rufus as the equal of Homer. [2]

Rufus did not confine himself to poetry. He discussed grammatical questions by correspondence, translated the rhetorical manual of his teacher Apollodorus of Pergamon, and began a treatise on medicinal plants, dedicated to Augustus. Horace addressed to him the ninth ode of the second book of his poems. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaius Maecenas</span> Roman political advisor (d. 8 BCE)

Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was a friend and political advisor to Octavian. He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Roman emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate, remaining of equestrian rank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amphiaraus</span> Figure from Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus or Amphiaraos was the son of Oicles, a seer, and one of the leaders of the Seven against Thebes. Amphiaraus at first refused to go with Adrastus on this expedition against Thebes as he foresaw the death of everyone who joined the expedition. His wife, Eriphyle, eventually compelled him to go.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibullus</span> Roman poet and writer of elegies (c. 55–c. 19 BC)

Albius Tibullus was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valeria gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Valeria was a patrician family at ancient Rome, prominent from the very beginning of the Republic to the latest period of the Empire. Publius Valerius Poplicola was one of the consuls in 509 BC, the year that saw the overthrow of the Tarquins, and the members of his family were among the most celebrated statesmen and generals at the beginning of the Republic. Over the next ten centuries, few gentes produced as many distinguished men, and at every period the name of Valerius was constantly to be found in the lists of annual magistrates, and held in the highest honour. Several of the emperors claimed descent from the Valerii, whose name they bore as part of their official nomenclature.

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a Roman general, author, and patron of literature and art.

Manius Valerius Maximus Messalla was Roman consul in 263 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurelia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Aurelia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which flourished from the third century BC to the latest period of the Empire. The first of the Aurelian gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Aurelius Cotta in 252 BC. From then to the end of the Republic, the Aurelii supplied many distinguished statesmen, before entering a period of relative obscurity under the early emperors. In the latter part of the first century, a family of the Aurelii rose to prominence, obtaining patrician status, and eventually the throne itself. A series of emperors belonged to this family, through birth or adoption, including Marcus Aurelius and the members of the Severan dynasty.

Quintus Pedius was a Roman politician and general who lived during the late Republic. He served as a military officer under Julius Caesar for most of his career. Serving with Caesar during the civil war, he was elected praetor in 48 BC and was given a triumph for victories over the Pompeians during the civil war's second Spanish campaign.

Marcus Lollius was a Roman politician, military officer and supporter of the first Roman emperor Augustus. His granddaughter Lollia Paulina would marry the emperors great-grandson Caligula and become empress.

Rufus is one of the most common of the ancient Roman cognomina.

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire in the 1st century. He might have been the brother of empress Messalina.

Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger was a senator of the Roman Republic.

Quintus Pedius Poplicola or Publicola was a Roman who came from a Roman senatorial family.

Quintus Dellius was a Roman commander and politician in the second half of the 1st century BC. His family was of equestrian rank in the Roman social system of status.

Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola Messalla was a Roman Senator.

Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus, was a Roman senator who was elected consul for 53 BC.

Gaius Caninius Rebilus was a Roman Senator, who was appointed suffect consul in 12 BC with Lucius Volusius Saturninus as his colleague.

The gens Sallustia, occasionally written Salustia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the time of Cicero, and from that time they attained particular distinction as statesmen and writers. The most illustrious of the family was the historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus, who wrote valuable works on the Jugurthine War and the Conspiracy of Catiline, which still exist.

The Garland of Sulpicia, also sometimes known as the Sulpicia cycle or the Sulpicia-Cerinthus cycle, is a group of five Latin love poems written in elegiac couplets and included in volume 3 of the collected works of Tibullus. The five poems concern a love affair between a girl Sulpicia and a young man Cerinthus. They are followed in the collection by a further group of six short elegies ostensibly written by Sulpicia herself describing the same affair.

Tibullus book 2 is a collection of six Latin poems written in elegiac couplets by the poet Albius Tibullus. They are thought to have been written in the years shortly before Tibullus's death in c. 19 BC.

References

  1. Attilio Degrassi, I fasti consolari dell'Impero Romano dal 30 avanti Cristo al 613 dopo Cristo (Rome, 1952), p. 4
  2. Incerti auctoris panegyricus Messallae, l. 181; English translation (attilus.org; last accessed 17 March 2020)
  3. Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rufus, Gaius Valgius". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 821.

Further reading

Political offices
Preceded byas Ordinary consuls Suffect consul of the Roman Empire
12 BC
Succeeded byas Suffect consuls