Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/680

668 RUFINUS. Falconiam Proham ; some translations from L;itiii into Greek. The style of Rufinus is remarkably perspicuous, and, although tinged with the corruptions of his age, is far removed from barbarism. His original works do not indicate commanding genius, nor indeed are the subjects such as to admit of much display, while his merits as a translator rank very low, since all his efforts in this department are cha- racterised by extreme inaccuracy. Indeed his object seems to have been rather tf» convey a gene- ral idea of the meaning of an author than faithfully to represent his words, and he does not hesitate to expand, condense, correct, or omit such passages as seemed to him obscure, diffuse, inaccurate or unnecessar}', although we cannot with justice accuse him of wilful distortion or suppression. Into the merits of the controversy with Jerome, to which perhaps he owes his chief celebrity, it is unnecessary to enter. It redounded to the praise of neither party, but the latter was un- doubtedly the aggressor, the motives of the attack were probably unworthy, and the coarse invective in which it was couched excites no feeling except disgust, especially when contrasted with the hyper- bolical praises lavished by him not long before upon the same individual. No complete impression of the works of Rufinus hav'.ng ever been published, we have noticed the best edition of each piece separately. (The events connected with the life of Rufinus have been investigated, with great industry and learning, by Giusto Fontanini, archbiship of An- cyra, in his Historia Literaria Aquileiensis, 4to. Rom. 1 742, and by J. F. B. Maria de Rubeis, in his Dissertationes Duae, 4to., Venet. 1745; to which we may add the notices prefixed to the edi- tion by Cacciari of the Historia Ecclesiastica, and the recent dissertation by J. H. Marzuttini, en- titled De Turanii Rnfini Presbyteri Aquileiensis Fide et Religione^ 8vo. Patav. 1835 ; see also Schrock, Kirc]ien<jeschichkyo. x. p. 121 ; Schone- mann, Bibl. Patrum Latt. vol. i. § 27 ; Bahr, Geschiehte der Rom. Litterat. Buppl. Band. 2te Abtheil. §§ 95—98.) 2. Rufinus, the name attached to a little poem in twenty-two lines, Pasiphaes Fabtda ex oimiibtis Metris Horatianis, which, as the name imports, contains an example of each of the different metres employed by Horace. It was first published by Cruquius (1579), by whom it was found in the Blandini MSS. attached to an ancient exposition of the Horatian metres. It has been printed by Burmann, in his Anthol. Lat. iii. 232, or No. 997, ed. Meyer, by Wemedorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iii. p. 393, comp. p. 339, and is usually appended to the larger editions of Horace. The author is alto- gether unknovvn, and even the name is uncertain, but he may be the same person with 3. Rufinus, a grammarian of Antioch, whose treatise De Metris Comicis, or rather extracts from it, composed partly in prose and partly in verse, is contained in the " Gramraaticae Latinae Auc- tores Antiqui" of Putschius, 4to., Hannov. 1605, pp. 2706 — 2727. He was probably not earlier than Theodosius, since he quotes Firmianus, Vic- torinus, Albinus, and Donatus. [W. R.] 4. Rufinus, the author of thirty-eight epi- grams in the Greek Anthology, and probably of one more, which is ascribed in the Planudean Anthology to an otherwise unknown Ru/us Do- RUFUS. 7nesticus, but is headed in the Palatine MS. 'Pov(pivov SuiieariKov. (Concerning the meaniiig of this title, see Du Cange, Gloss. Med. et Inf. Graec.) There can be no doubt that the author was a Byzantine, and his verses are of the same light amatory character as those of Agathias, Paulus, Macedonius, and others ; but beyond this there is no other indication of his age. Jacobs rejects the supposition of Reiske, that he should be identified with the author of the Pasiphae. (Brunck, Anal.'vol. ii. pp. 390,490 ; Jacobs, A7ith. Graec. vol. iii. pp. 98, 193, vol, xiii. pp. 947,948; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 494.) There were also two or three sophists and rhe- toricians of this name, for whom a bare mention will suffice, namely, Rufinus of Cyprus, a peripa- tetic philosopher, mentioned as a contemporary by Lucian {Demonact. 54. vol. ii. p. 393) ; Rufinus, of Naucratis, an illegitimate son of Apollonius of Naucratis (Philost. Vit. Sophist, ii. 19. p. 599); Rufinus, praetor of Smyrna under Severus and Caracalla, and perhaps some others. (See Olearius, ad Philost. ii. 25, p. 608 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 137.) [P. S.] RU'FIO. • I. A friend of Cicero, of whom nothing is known. (Cic. ad Ait. v. 2. § 2.) Er- nesti supposes that Sempronius Rufus is intended (comp. ad Alt. vi. 2. § 10, ad Fam. viii. 7), Rufio being the diminutive of Rufus ; but it is quite uncertain. 2. A friend of Trebatius. {Ad Fam. vii. 20.) It appears from an inscription in Gruter (p. 1 95, 1 3), that his gentile name was also Trebatius, since we there read of a C. Trebatius Rufio. 3. The son of a freedman of Julius Caesar, was left by him in command of three legions at Alex- andria. (Suet. Caes. 76.) 4. Rufio Vestorianus, whom Cicero expected that M. Antonius would restore to his rights as a citizen, b. c. 44. (Cic. ad Att. xiv. 14. § 2.) RU'FIUS, a modeller of small terra-cotta figures (siffilla), whose name is found inscribed on the base of one of these figures, found at Perugia in 1775, in the following form, c. rufius. s. finxit, where the S, no doubt, stands for Sigil- larius. Some read the name Rupius. (Orelli, Inscr. Lat. Sel. No. 4281 ; R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Schorn, pp. 398, 399.) [P. S.J RU'FIUS CRISPFNUS. [Crispinus.] RUFO, a friend of the younger Pliny, who addresses one of his letters to him. {Ep. ix. 19.) RUFUS, artists, 1, A painter, of whom no- thing is known beyond the mention of his name in the Greek Anthology {Anth. Pal. xi. 233, vol. ii. p. 386, ed. Jacobs). 2. A gem-engraver, whose name occurs on one stone in the form POT*OC (Raspe, No. 9823), and on a very beautiful cameo, in the Orleans cabinet, representing Aurora with the horses of the Sun, in the form POT*OC EOOIEI. {Pierne gravees d* Orleans., vol. i. pi. 45, pp. 195, 196 ; R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Schom, pp. 152, 153, 2d ed.) [P. S.] RUFUS i'Povcpos), the name of probably two physicians who have been sometimes confounded together, and whom it is not in every case easy to distinguish with certainty. 1. Mknius Rufus* (Mrivios *Pou(^os), must • It is not quite certain that Menius Rufus waa a physician at all, as Asclepiades does not say that