Rufinus (Byzantine official)

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Flavius Rufinus (c. 335 – November 27, 395) was a fourth century Eastern Roman statesman of Gaulish extraction who served as the Praetorian Prefect for the emperors Theodosius I and Arcadius.

Rufinus served as consul in 392 before becoming Praetorian Prefect at Constantinople. During the period immediately after Theodosius' death in January 395 Rufinus was virtually the ruler of the Eastern Roman empire, since he exercised great influence over the young and weak-willed Emperor Arcadius. He attempted to further join himself to Arcadius by marrying his daughter to the young emperor, however this plan was stymied by another of the imperial ministers, Eutropius. His influence over the empire came to a violent end on November 27 when he was assassinated by Gothic mercenaries.

Rufinus was both a contemporary and a bitter rival of the Vandal-turned-magister militum Stilicho, and one of the charges made against Stilicho in 408 was that he had given orders for Rufinus' assassination.

He had a sister, Silvania, who wrote a pair of hymns and a short account of a journey to the East which were discovered at Arezzo in 1895.