Life
Tall and always in movement, he is described as acute, ambitious, greedy and without principles, but a rigorous Christian. His difficulty with the Greek language is recorded by the sources, as well as his Aquitanian origin.
In 388 he was appointed magister officiorum. In 392 he served as Roman consul and in that same year he was appointed as Praetorian prefect of the East. Emperor Theodosius trusted Rufinus, and he used this influence to fight his opponents at the court. He came into conflict with Promotus and Timasius, respectively magister equitum and magister peditum of Theodosius. During a meeting of the council, Rufinus insulted Promotus, who slapped him; Rufinus went to Theodosius to report the affront, and Theodosius replied that if nothing changed he would have appointed Rufinus co-emperor. Taking advantage of the imperial support, Rufinus suggested Theodosius send Promotus to Thrace, where he would be entrusted with the training of the troops. Some barbarians followed Promotus in his travel, but, having an agreement with Rufinus, they suddenly attacked and killed Promotus (September 392).
During the period immediately after Theodosius' death, in January 395, Rufinus was virtually the ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire, since he exercised great influence over the young Emperor Arcadius. He attempted to further join himself to Arcadius by marrying his daughter to the young emperor, however this plan was stymied by another of the imperial ministers, Eutropius.
Rufinus hated the western magister militum Stilicho, and his influence over Arcadius prevented Stilicho from crushing Alaric when the Roman general had the chance. Stilicho had trapped Alaric and the Visigoths in Greece (395), but his Eastern troops were commanded by Arcadius, who, under suggestion by Rufinus, recalled them, so that Stilicho was forced to return his forces west across the border. However, the same Gothic mercenaries under Gainas he had recalled killed Rufinus on 27 November 395.
Rufinus had a sister, Silvia, who wrote two hymns.
Read more about this topic: Rufinus (consul)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... such is the horrible idea that I entertain respecting a life of servitude, that if I conceived of there being no possibility of my rising above the condition of servant, I would gladly hail death as a welcome messenger.”
—Maria Stewart (1803–1879)
“The new man is born too old to tolerate the new world. The present conditions of life have not yet erased the traces of the past. We run too fast, but we still do not move enough.... He looks but he does not contemplate, he sees but he does not think. He runs away from time, which is made of thought, and yet all he can feel is his own time, the present.”
—Eugenio Montale (1896–1981)