Marcus Mettius Rufus was a Roman eques who flourished during the reign of the emperors Domitian and Trajan.
He was appointed to a series of imperial offices, including praefectus or governor of Roman Egypt.
Hans-Georg Pflaum first traced the rise of his family, the Mettii, identifying their origins in Petelia, a small Greek-speaking town in Bruttium, whence they emigrated to Arles when Julius Caesar settled one of their ancestors, a soldier or centurion of his Legio VI, there.
[3] His primary concern as governor of Egypt was to safeguard the harvest and delivery of grain to the populace of Rome, but surviving letters from his administration show his responsibilities extended further.
[5] Another record concerns the administration of the trade route between Coptos on the Nile and the Red Sea ports.