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* of September to 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. He was plebeian tribune in AD 66, in which year Thrasea was condemned to death by the Roman Senate; he would have placed his veto upon the *senatus consultum*, had not Thrasea prevented him, as he would only have brought certain destruction upon himself without saving the life of the defendant. He was praetor in the civil wars after the death of Nero (69 AD), when as one of the senate's ambassadors to the Flavian armies he was wounded by the soldiers of Petilius Cerialis. Although Arulenus Rusticus attained a suffect consulship during the reign of Domitian, in the following year he was condemned to death because he wrote a panegyric to Thrasea.