C. Vibius Rufinus of Tusculum (45 – 65 CE)
Latin authority on trees, plants, and flowers (P 1.ind.14–15, 19, 21). Vibius Rufinus, a
suffect consul of 21 or 22 with M. Cocceius Nerva (the emperor’s grandfather), was possibly
our botanist’s father; Vibius Rufinus, the proconsul of Asia, ca 36/37, and legate of Germania
Superior 42–45, was perhaps our botanist. Our Rufinus seems later than the addressee of
two Ovidian epistles replete with medical imagery (ex Pont. 1.3 and 3.4) whom Syme argues
was not a Rufinus (1434, n.94). Nonetheless an interest in botany accords equally with a
friend of O or a provincial governor.
RE 8A.2 (1958) 1981 (#49), R. Hanslik; R. Syme, “Vibius Rufus and Vibius Rufinus,” Roman Papers 3,
ed. A.R. Birley (1984) 1423–1435 at 1430–1435; NP 12/2.177 (#II.14), W. Eck.
GLIM
Vibius Sequester (300 – 500 CE?)
Wrote a geographical work in Latin, De fluminibus fontibus lacibus nemoribus paludibus montibus
gentibus per litteras. This is a list of geographical names which occur in Latin poets, such as
V, L, and O, arranged in alphabetical order. The list contains both real
and mythological toponyms.
Ed.: GLM 145 – 159.
RE 8A.2 (1958) 2457–2462 (#80), W. Strzelecki; KP 5.1251–1252, F. Lasserre; PLRE 1 (1971) 823;
NP 12/2.177–178 (#II.19), K. Sallmann.
Natalia LozovskyVicellius (100 BCE? – 150 CE?)
Roman writer known solely from I “L,” de Ost., who describes him as prior to
A (cf. perhaps M. VIGELLIVS, known solely as P’ Stoic house-mate:
C, De Or. 3.78; RE 8A.2 [1958] 2130–2131[#1], H. Gundel). Io ̄anne ̄s quotes or
paraphrases Vicellius’ Seismologium, which predicts, based on the sun-sign in which a quake
occurs, catastrophes in the regions from India to Hispania which are ruled by that sign: § 55 –
58 (pp. 110–117 Wa.). Compare the omen-literature of writers such as P, and
contrast Seismologia that predict type not place of trouble: CCAG 5.4 (1940) 155–163, 7
(1908) 167–171. Io ̄anne ̄s § 23 – 26 (pp. 57–62) also quotes or paraphrases a work predicting
misfortunes in regions from India to Hispania, based on the sun-sign in which thunder
occurs, which some scholars have attributed to Vicellius. Such Brontologia (or Tonitrualia)
usually predict the type not place of trouble, based on the sun-sign: CCAG 4 (1903)
128 – 131, 8.3 (1912) 123–125, 9.2 (1953) 120–123, and -H; but CCAG 7
(1908) 163–167 combines a lunar Brontologion, predicting type of trouble, with the Vicellian
Tonitruale.
HLL §409.3.
PTK
Victorius of Aquitania (445 – 465 CE)
Mathematician, calculated paschal dates. In Calculus, his elementary arithmetical text,
Victorius discussed the properties of numbers, conventions of arithmetical expression, and
C. VIBIUS RUFINUS OF TUSCULUM