Quintus Pomponius Rufus

Quintus Pomponius Rufus was a Roman senator active in the imperial service; he was governor during the reigns of the emperors Domitian and Trajan. Rufus was also suffect consul for the nundinium September–December AD 95 as the colleague of Lucius Baebius Tullus. Pomponius Rufus is known primarily from inscriptions.

Career An inscription from the Arch of Trajan in Lepcis Magna provides us some of the details of his cursus honorum. However, as Ronald Syme states, it "is perplexing in more ways than one." One issue is that the inscription lacks any mention of his traditional Republican magistracies -- quaestor, plebeian tribune, and praetor; while not all such inscriptions include these magistracies, more do than do not. Another is the mention that Rufus was ("prefect of the coasts of nearer Spain, and Gallia Narbonensis in the war which Emperor Galba fought for the Republic"). Syme observes this was Rufus' debut, in the Year of Four Emperors. "Galba's own insurrection in Spain, the war he raised against Nero, [was] under the name and plea of the Res Publica. Galba had support in certain cities of Narbonensis, such as Vienna. The coast now acquired strategic importance." Following his consulate, he was appointed governor of the province of Moesia Inferior from 98 to 100. This leaves the issue when he governed "Hispania"—presumably Hispania Tarraconensis—to be solved. If the names were listed in reverse chronological order, then his tenure there completed before the year 94. There is a gap in the list of governors for this province between the offices of Gaius Calpetanus Rantius Quirinalis Valerius Festus (78-81) and Gaius Catellius Celer (85-90); his own tenure as governor probably fell between those two. There is another possibility: Syme notes that Rufus may have served in that province as a juridicus, as had other senators. Syme admits that "in correct terminology [Rufus' office] is not styled leg. Aug. pro pr. But this inscription is not correct in all respects." Syme dates a possible posting as "iuridicus before or after Glitius Agricola, consul suffect in 97." This inscription was the work of his own or , Lucius Asinius Rufus.

When Rufus stepped down as proconsul in the year 111, he was at least 72 years old. Based on our knowledge of ancient Roman demographics, it is likely Pomponius Rufus died soon after he returned to Rome.