Curtius Rufus (/ˈkɜːrʃiəs ˈruːfəs/) was a Roman professional magistrate of senatorial rank mentioned by Tacitus and Pliny the Younger for life events occurring during the reigns of the emperors Tiberius and Claudius.

Due to the almost continuous expansion of the territory of Rome from the early Republic, the non-free and freedman populations were mainly of foreign extraction.

Rufus means “red.” Over several hundred years of this system the cognomen often became an extension of the nomen for distinguishing lines within the gens.

These conventions must influence the interpretation of certain remarks made by Tacitus and Tiberius regarding Curtius Rufus’ family background.

Of it Tacitus says: "Of the birth of Curtius Rufus, whom some affirm to have been the son of a gladiator, I would not publish a falsehood, while I shrink from telling the truth.

When confronted with the same story, Tiberius remarked “Curtius Rufus seems to me to be his own ancestor” (ex se natus).

The Julio-Claudians were unfavorably impressed by legitimate pedigree, as, according to the Pax Romana instituted by Augustus, powerful nobles were a threat to peace and security, and so were suppressed.

In 35 BC the land on the Rhône just to the north of Marseille was of strategic interest to Octavian Caesar, the future Augustus.

Gaius Octavius took the location away from the Celtic tribe that held it, settling a colony of Roman soldiers, the veterans of Legio II.

After his abandonment of his own fleet at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC he died hunted in Egypt by Octavian, who became official sole imperator (“commander”) in 27 BCE.

In 35 BCE, Legio II expelled the native Celtic population, the Cavares, from their village, Aurosia, and planted a colony there, Colonia Firma Julia Arausio Secundanorum.

The phrase of interest is Q(uinto) Curtio Rufo II vir(o) et invent(ore), “Quintus Curtius Rufus being duumvir and discoverer.” André Piganiol’s exegesis of the text is as follows.

Q. Curtius as II vir for duovir, an early form of duumvir, found a way to generate some revenue by annexing the “islands” and charging the community for them.

Salviat's answer is that Curtius was already an imperial officer, most likely Legate of Lower Germany, and was empowered to improve land, as he was doing by trying to establish a silver mine among the Germanics.

[4] The story told by Salviat, based on the evidence, is that of a local youth leaving home to see the world (perhaps via the big city at Marseilles) and coming back an imperial magistrate empowered to improve communities.

Salviat argues that it is on the extreme northern border, and the Fossa Augusta or “Augustan Canal” is not an irrigation ditch but is a major diversion of the Rhone intended to relieve the current at a confluence and provide a length over which boats could be towed.

[5] The first mention of Curtius away from home, and of his earliest position in the cursus honorum, is his "attachment" (haeserat) to "him who held Africa" (obtinenti Africam) as comes, literally a "companion," meaning a staff member.

Pliny the Younger explains that he was tenuis, "lean;" that is, "poor," and obscurus, as are most young people beginning a career.

Curtius' position on his staff is compatible with his later efforts to improve the revenue of his home town and of Lower Germany.

While he was in Africa, Curtius seems to have had a supernatural experience, according to him, of which he made no secret; in fact, it may have helped his career in the superstitious Roman social milieu.

In a letter to Lucius Licinius Sura concerning whether phantasmata are real objects, with their own "figure" (probably form) and a "divinity" (numen) or are "empty and vain" fictions of a terrified imagination; i.e., hallucinations, Pliny selects the former option because of "those things that I heard happened to Curtius Rufus".

Curtius was at leisure in a portico when he became frightened by the preter-human figure of a woman, which the Tacitean version calls a species, "appearance."

Between Curtius' position as a young comes to the quaestor of the Province of Africa and his achievement of consular rank is a large gap.

Tacitus says that he "departed" (digressus) to Rome,[1] no doubt with high hopes for his future, "where through the lavish expenditure of his friends (largitione amicorum) and his own vigorous ability (acri ingenio) he obtained the quaestorship (quaesturam ...

That one of them might have been Lucius Aelius Sejanus, chief of the Praetorian Guard, close friend, confidant, and agent of Tiberius, is likely.

The electoral body was probably the usual, the Centuriate Assembly, which, like all other institutions of government under the empire, received its direction from the emperor.

[1] This emperor in this story seems to appear as a public figure, which may indicate that the date of his vote for Curtius is before 26, when he retired to Capri on a permanent basis, leaving the government up to his trusted friend, Sejanus.

If that is the case, and the apt candidate, Curtius, was being groomed for consular rank at the minimum age of 25, then he can have been born no later than the year 1.

[10] Tacitus notes that during a long old age of "surly sycophancy to those above him, of arrogance to those beneath him, and of moroseness among his equals", having attained the consulship in 43 (suffect for Claudius) and his triumph in 47, he received the province of Africa, where he eventually died, in accordance with the earlier prediction.

[11] Pliny also notes in his letter to Sura that he was struck down with illness upon reaching Africa after the same female figure met him upon the docks.