Rufı ̄nos of Antioch (ca 402 CE)
Architect from Antioch summoned by Bishop Porphurios in 402 CE to build the cathedral
of Gaza. Mark the Deacon (V. Porph. 78.1), calling him an arkhitekto ̄n, describes the process of
construction in great detail. The empress Eudoxia prescribed the plan which Ruf ̄ınos
marked on the ground during a public ceremony.
Downey (1948) 104; Idem, Gaza in the Early Sixth Century (1963) 26–29; ODB 157, M.J. Johnson et al.;
PLRE 3 (1992) 952 (#4).
Kostis Kourelis
R ⇒ V R
R F A ⇒ A
R ⇒ (1) M; (2) V; (3) V
Rufus of Ephesos (ca 70 – 100 CE)
Despite fame in his own era, Rufus’ historical contexts and
milieu are not certain. The Souda (Gamma-241) says that he
and K were physicians under Trajan (98– 117 CE).
G, however, in quoting D’ didactic poem
on the Egyptian triplicate-use incense kuphi (Antid. 2.2
[14.117–119 K.]), reveals that Damokrate ̄s cites Rufus for
his work on kuphi, and since Damokrate ̄s worked under
Nero and Vespasian (54– 77 CE), Rufus presumably lived a
full generation before the decades given by the Souda, which
often skips the Flavians.
His birthplace was the thriving commercial center of
Ephesos, and the fuzzy traditions in later Byzantine and
Arabic sources suggest he practiced medicine in his home
city; no evidence suggests that Rufus ever was in Rome,
although he seems to have traveled widely in the eastern
half of the Roman Empire. Two sources probably suggest
that Rufus studied medicine in Alexandria: at Anatomical
Nomenclature, 133 (p. 151 DR), Rufus mentions that the
Egyptians have their own names for the parts of the body,
and two passages in Interrogation of the Patient (12.67–68, 70
[pp. 44, 46 Gärtner]) are striking observations on guinea-worm infestations in Egypt. By
Rufus’ day, human dissection was no longer an option for medical students; in fact, dissec-
tion of animals “.. ..most closely like a human being.. .” was the accepted norm, whereas
“in ancient times, [the internal parts] were learned from a man” (Nomenclature 9 – 10, p. 134
DR).
Rufus was principally a clinician, and his talents in diagnostics are sharply revealed in
the Case Histories (preserved in an Arabic translation: Ullmann 1978); even without direct
anatomical observations, Rufus’ Kidney and Bladder Diseases (Sideras 1977) discloses consum-
mate skills in treatment of common urological ailments, and long experience with many
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RUFI ̄NOS OF ANTIOCH