Quintus Minucius Rufus

Quintus Minucius Rufus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 197 BC.

In 211 BC, Minucius was an officer serving under Q. Fulvius Flaccus when Roman forces took back Capua after their defeat the previous year by Hannibal. He was a plebeian aedile in 201.

As praetor in 200, Minucius was assigned to Bruttium (modern-day Calabria), where he investigated thefts from the temple of Proserpina at Locri. His imperium was prorogued as propraetor into 199 so he could continue to look into the sacrilege. The year was plagued by bad omens; Minucius reported two from his province, a foal born with five feet, and three chickens born with three feet each.

In his study of the praetorship during the Republic, T. Corey Brennan has speculated that the prosecution of sacrilege at Bruttium may have been a useful way to out and suppress the "dissident element" in the region; the stated task of Minucius's prorogation was "to complete inquiries into coniurationes among the Bruttii." The word coniuratio during this period carried multiple connotations; literally a "swearing together" or "oath," it could refer both to a ritualized oath-taking and to a political conspiracy. The suppression of the Bacchanalia thirteen years later, recorded by Livy and a bronze tablet inscribed with the senate's decree, was also described as a series of coniurationes, and demonstrates at least a perceived connection between political dissent and private religious practices. Those whom Minucius arrested at Bruttium for sacrilege were sent to Rome, then returned to Locri with instructions from the senate that they restore the funds taken from the shrine.

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