Arulenus Rusticus

Quintus Junius Arulenus Rusticus (c. 35 – 93 AD) was a Roman Senator and a friend and follower of Thrasea Paetus, and like him an ardent admirer of Stoic philosophy. Arulenus Rusticus attained a suffect consulship in the nundinium September-December 92 with Gaius Julius Silanus as his colleague. He was one of a group of Stoics who opposed the perceived tyranny and autocratic tendencies of certain emperors, known today as the Stoic Opposition. His contemporaries referred to him in varying ways. The Fasti of Potentia and Ostia call him Q. Arulenus Rusticus, while Tacitus, Pliny the Younger and Dio Cassius call him Arulenus Rusticus or Rusticus Arulenus, yet Suetonius Junius Rusticus. That his brother was a friend of Pliny the Younger named Junius Mauricus, the senator Junius Rusticus (attested as alive in AD 29) is commonly identified as his father, and Quintus Junius Rusticus (suffect consul in 133 and ordinary consul in 162) as his grandson, only increases the perplexity. In his monograph on Roman naming practices, Olli Salomies attempted to determine to which gens Arulenus Rusticus belonged—Aruleni or Junii–only admit there is no better explanation than the suggestion of Ronald Syme that Arulenus "is either adoptive or maternal -- and accorded preference to the indistinctive 'Iunius'".