Rustius

occurs on coins, a specimen of which is annexed. On the obverse is the head of Mars, and on the reverse a ram. The name of Q. Rustius is also found on coins (Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 297, 298). Rustius occurs in Plutarch as the name of one of the Roman officers who accompanied Crassus in his expedition against the Parthians (Plut. Crass. 32); and there is no occasion to change it into Ruscius or any other name, as modern editors have proposed, since we have the many decisive evidence of coins that Rustius was a Roman name. On the contrary, we are inclined, on the authority of these coins, to change Rusius in Cicero (Cic. Brut. 74), and Ruscius in Suetonius (Suet. Dom. 8), into Rustius. We also find a T. Rustius Nummius Gallus, one of the consoles suffecti in A. D. 26.