... Rufinus is the fragment of the name of a governor of

Britannia Superior Britannia Superior (Latin for "Upper Britain") was a province of Roman Britain created after the civil war between Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. Although Herodian credits Severus with dividing Roman Britain into the Northern territory of ...

, a province of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

probably some time during the early third century AD. He may have been the same man as Aulus Triarius Rufinus who was suffect

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

around 210, although Quintus Aradius Rufinus who was consul ten or fifteen years later is another possibility. The name Rufinus is recorded only on an inscription found at the ancient Roman fort of

Regulbium Regulbium was the name of an ancient Roman fort of the Saxon Shore in the vicinity of the modern English resort of Reculver in Kent. Its name derives from the local Brythonic language, meaning "great headland" (*''Rogulbion''). History The f ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, in a context with pottery that could be loosely dated to c. 220 AD. This same name is also identified at the Roman Fort at Aballava in reference to the

Aurelian Aurelian (; ; 9 September ) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 270 to 275 AD during the Crisis of the Third Century. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disinte ...

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

: "To Jupiter, Best and Greatest, and to the Divinities of the two Emperors and the Genius of the unit of Aurelian Moors, Valerian's and Gallienus' Own, Flavius Vibianus, tribune of the cohort and commander of the unit mentioned above, (set this up) under the direction of Julius Rufinus, princeps." Likely referring to the Governor of the Province. Salway 2022Benet Salway (2022). «Roman Governors and Government of Asia Minor in the Third Century AD: Recent Developments» in Werner Eck, Federico Santangelo, Konrad Vössing (eds.) ''Emperor, army, and society: studies in Roman imperial history for Anthony R. Birley.'' Bonn: Habelt Verlag. . notes a recent milestone from

Galatia Galatia (; , ''Galatía'') was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here ...

that records a C. Aradius Rufinus dated to a.d. 236, who can likely be identified with the consular governor of

References

*Sheppard Sunderland Frere
''Britannia: A History of Roman Britain''
Routledge 1987, , p. 165 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rufinus Roman governors of Britain Ancient Romans in Britain 3rd-century Romans