Publius Rutilius Rufus

Publius Rutilius Rufus (born around 160 BC, died after 78 BC) was a Roman statesman, soldier and jurist who served as consul in 105 BC alongside Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. He built a military career fighting at Numantia as a young tribune, against Jugurtha as a legate, and during the Cimbrian War as consul, when he raised fresh troops and imposed stricter training after his colleague was defeated at Arausio. Sent to the province of Asia as legate to the jurist Quintus Mucius Scaevola, Rutilius worked to curb abuses by Roman tax collectors there, a stand that made him enemies among the equestrian class. Those enemies had him prosecuted for extortion around 94 BC and convicted by an all-equestrian jury despite his likely innocence, a verdict later writers treated as a scandal of the courts of his day. He spent his exile in the Greek east, in Mytilene and Smyrna, where he wrote a history critical of his rival Marius and composed legal treatises.