On this page: Ruso – Rusor – Rustianus – Rusticus – Rusticus Arulenus – Rutilia – Rutilia Gens
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RUSTICUS.
RUSO, ABU'DIUS, condemned and banished from Rome in the reign of Tiberius, A. d. 34 (Tac. Ann. vi. 30).
RUSO, CREMUTIUS, a friend of the younger Pliny (Ep. vi. 23).
RUSOR, a Roman divinity, was worshipped as one of the companions of Tellumo (Tellus), though the name was probably nothing but an attribute of Tellumo, by which was personified the power of nature (the earth) of bringing forth to light the seeds entrusted to her (Varro, ap. August, de Civ. Dei9 vii. 23). Rusor seems to be a contraction for rursor or reversor. [L. S.]
RUSTIANUS, PLAETO'RIUS. [plae-torius, No. 7.]
C. RUSTICE'LLIUS FELIX, an African, and a maker of small figures, is known by his epitaph, which was found at Rieti, according to Fabretti (Inscr. p. 243, No. 669), or at Borghetto, near Otricoli, according to Gruter, who also gives the artist's name in a different form, Tudicellius (Gruter, p. mxxxv. No. 3 ; Orelli, Inscr. Lot. Sel. No. 4279). It is remarkable that the inscription describes the artist as Sigillariarius, which R. Ro- chette explains as derived from SigiUare, a word synonymous with sigillum ; but perhaps it is only a mistake of the stone-cutter. (R. Rochette, Lettre a M. ScJiorn, p. 399, 2d ed.) [P. S.]
C. RUSTICELLUS, of Bononia, an orator of considerable skill mentioned by Cicero (Brut. 46).
RUSTICUS, a Roman architect of unknown age, who was a freedraan of the imperial family, fcince he is designated aug. L. on the sepulchral monument by which his name is known. (Spon, Miscellan. p. 225 ; R. Rochette, Lettre a M.Schorn, p. 400, 2d ed.) [P. S.]
RUSTICUS, to whom Pliny addresses one of his letters (Ep. ix. 29), is supposed by many commentators to be the son of the Antistius Rus-ticus mentioned below, but this is quite uncertain.
RUSTICUS, ANTI'STIUS, perished in Cappadocia. The piety of his wife Nigrina is celebrated by Martial (ix. 3]).
RUSTICUS ARULENUS. [rusticus, junius, No. 2.]
RUSTICUS, FA'BIUS, a Roman historian, quoted on several occasions by Tacitus, who couples his name with that of Livy (** Livius veterum, Fabius Rusticus recentium eloquentissimi auctores," Agr. 10). He was a contemporary of Claudius and Nero, but we know nothing of the extent of his work, except that it related at all events the history of the latter emperor. (Comp. Tac. Ann. xiii. 20, xiv. 2, xv. 61.)
RUSTICUS, JU'NIUS. 1. junius rusticus, appointed in the reign of Tiberius, a. d. 29, to draw up the acta of the senate (Tac. Ann. v. 4).
2. L. junius arulenus rusticus, more usually called Arulenus Rusticus, but sometimes also Junius Rusticus. Lipsius, however, has shown that his full name was L. Junius Arulenus Rusticus (ad Tac. Agr. 45). Rusticus was a friend and pupil of Paetus Thrasea, and, like the latter, an ardent admirer of the Stoic philosophy. He was tribune of the plebs b. c. 66, in which year Thrasea was condemned to death by the senate j and he would have placed his veto upon the senatuscon-sultum, had not Thrasea prevented him, as he would only have brought certain destruction upon himself without saving the life of his master. He was praetor in the civil wars after the death of
RUT1LIA.
Nero, A. D. 69, and was subsequently put to. death by Domitian, because lie wrote a panegyric upon Thrasea. Suetonius attributes to him a panegyric upon Helvidius Priscus likewise ; but the latter work was composed by Herennius Senecio, as we learn both from Tacitus and Pliny [senecio]. (Tac. Ann. xvi. 25, Hist. iii. 80, Agr. 2 ; Suet. Dom. 10 ; Dion Cass. Ixvii. 13 ; Plin. Ep. i. 5, 14, iii. 11 ; Plut. de Curios, p. 522, d.)
3. Q. junius rusticus, probably a son of No. 2, was consul a. d. ] 19 with the emperor Hadrian (Fasti). He is supposed by many commentators to be the consul Junius, of whom Juvenal speaks (Juv. xv. 27).
4. Q. junius pvusticus, probably a son of No. 3, and grandson of No. 2, was one of the teachers of the emperor M. Aurelius, and the most distinguished Stoic philosopher of his time. He received the greatest marks of honour from Aurelius, who constantly consulted him on all public and private matters, raised him twice to the consulship, and obtained from the senate after his death the erection of statues to his honour. His name, however, appears only once in the consular Fasti, namely, in a. d. 162. (Dion Cass. Ixxi. 35 ; Capitol. M. Antonin. Phil. 3 ; Antonin. i. 7, with the note of Gataker.)
L. RU'STIUS, occurs on coins, a specimen of which is annexed. On the obverse is the head of Mars, and on the reverse a ram. The name of Q. Rustius is also found on coins (Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 297, 298). Rustius occurs in Plutarch as the name of one of the Roman officers who accompanied Crassus in his expedition against the Parthians (Plut. Crass. 32) ; and there is no occasion to change it into Ruscius or any other name, as modern editors have proposed, since we have the decisive evidence of coins that Rustius was a Roman name. On the contrary, we are inclined, on the authority of these coins, to change Rusius in Cicero (Brut. 74), and Ruscius in Suetonius (Dom. 8), into Rustius. We also find a T. Rustius Nummius Gallus, one of the consules suffecti in A. d. 26.
COIN OF L. RUSTIUS.
RUTILIA, the mother of C. Cotta, the orator, accompanied her son into exile in B. c. 91, and remained with him abroad till his return some years afterwards. [cotta, No. 9.] She bore his death with the heroism of a genuine Roman matron. (Sen. Consol. ad Helv. 16 ; comp. Cic. ad Att. xii. 20 22.)
RUTILIA GENS, plebeian. No persons of this name are mentioned till the second century before the Christian aera; for instead of Sp. Ru-tilius Crassus, who occurs in many editions of Livy (iv. 47) as one of the tribunes of the plebs in b. c. 417, we ought undoubtedly to read Sp. Veturius Crassus. (See Alschefski, ad Liv. I. c.) The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was P. Rutilius Lupus, who perished during hw