VIRGINIUS RUFUS, LUCIUS (A.D. 15-97)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 126 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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VIRGINIUS RUFUS, LUCIUS (A.D. 15-97) , Roman patriot
and soldier, three times

consul

(A.D. 63, 69, 97), was born near Comum, the birthplace of the two Plinys. When

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of
upper Germany under Nero (68), after he had put down the revolt of

Julius

JULIUS

Vindex in Gaul, he was more than once urged by his troops to assume the supreme power; but he firmly refused, and further declared that he would recognize no one as emperor who had not been chosen by the senate. Galba, on his

accession

ACCESSION (from Lat. accedere, to go to, to approach)

, aware of the feelings of the German troops and uncertain as to the intentions of Virginius, induced him to accompany him to Rome. But Virginius, as always, remained loyal to the head of the state. After the death of Otho, the soldiers again offered the throne to Virginius, but he again refused it. Considering themselves slighted, they drew their swords upon him, and he only saved himself from their hands by making his escape through the back of the tent. But the soldiers never forgave the fancied insult. Under

Vitellius

VITELLIUS, AULUS

, during a military disturbance at

Ticinum

TICINUM (mod. Pavia, q.v.)

, one of Virginius's slaves was arrested and charged with the

design

DESIGN (Fr. desiin, drawing; Lat. designare, to mark out)

of murdering the emperor. Virginius was accused of being implicated in the conspiracy, and his death was loudly demanded by the soldiers. To his credit

Vitellius

VITELLIUS, AULUS

refused to sacrifice so valuable a servant, on whose loyalty he could depend, to the vengeance of a capricious army. Virginius subsequently lived in retirement, chiefly in his villa at Alsium, on the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

of Etruria, till his death in 97, in which year he held the consulship, together with the emperor Nerva. At the public burial with which he was honoured, the historiap Tacitus (then

consul

) delivered the funeral oration. The younger Pliny, hid

neighbour

NEIGHBOUR (O. Eng. neahgebiir, from Walt, " nigh," " near ")

and ward, has recorded the lines which Virginius had ordered to be engraved upon his tomb:
" Hic situs est Rufus, pulso qui Vindice quondam Imperium asseruit non sibi sed patriae."
See Tacitus, Hist. i. ii.; Dio

Cassius

lxiii. 24-27, lxiv. lxviii. 2; Pliny, Epp. ii. 1, vi. 10; Juvenal viii. 221, with Mayor's note; L. Paul in Rheinisches Museum (1899), liv. pp. 602-30.

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