Sextus Rufus
Works
Editions
Onuphrius Panvinius published at Frankfort in 1558, along with his work on the Roman Republic. a tract bearing the name of
Sextus Rufus, and entitled
De Regionibus Urbis Romae, which he professed to have found in an ancient MS.
It corresponds closely with the catalogue of Publius Victor [VICTOR], but is less complete, and is much mutilated. The MS. of Panvinius has disappeared, and no codex containing either of these productions is known to exist of a date earlier than the fifteenth century. They are believed by the best topographers to have been compiled at a late period, are not regarded as documents of authority, and have even been stigmatised as modern forgeries. Biondo Flavio, in his
Roma Instaurata (Veron. 1482), quotes from an old description of Rome by
Sextus Ruffus Vir Consularis, a copy of which he had seen in the library attached to the monastery of Monte Casino.
There can be little doubt that the piece thus described is the same with that printed by Panvinius; but there are no grounds whatever for establishing a connection between this personage, whoever he may have been, and Sextus Rufus the historian.
The De Regionibus will be found in Graevius, Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanurum, vol. iii. p. 25, and was
published separately with notes by Münnich, 8vo. Hannov. 1815.
Further Information
See the remarks on the
Regionarii appended to Mr. Bunbury's paper on the Topography of Rome, in the tenth number of the Classical Museum, p. 373
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W.R]
