A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

said to have been the son of a gladiator by some, followed in the train of one of the quaestors to Africa for the purpose of gain, and, while at Adrumetum, is reported to have seen a female of superhuman size, who prophesied to him that he would one day visit Africa as proconsul. Urged on by this vision, he repaired to Rome and obtained the quaestorship and praetorship in the reign of Tiberius, at a later period the consular imperium and triumphal ornaments, and at length the government of Africa, as had been predicted (Tac. Ann. 11.20, 21; Plin. Ep. 7.27). Some modern writers suppose that this Curtius Rufus was the father of Q. Curtius Rufus, the historian.