Talk:Publius Rutilius Rufus

Bankruptcy law reform
The section "Bankruptcy law reform" relies only on a misreading of a single 1918 article by "Professor Levinthal" (Louis Edward Levinthal, a lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a judge but probably not a professor). The article only mentions a Rutilius twice, once in a footnote referring to a Publius Rutilius as a praetor in 105 BC and once in text as simply Rutilius, and then as "the Praetor". This article's Publius Rutilius Rufus was a consul in 105 BC and should have been a praetor before he first sought to be consul in 115 BC. "The Development of the Praetor's Edict" (Jounal of Roman Studies, CUP, 2012) focuses on the uncertainty as to both the date and the praetor. Even without access to the full article we can see not only the opening but also footnotes 172 and 173, floating Publius Rutilius Calvus (praetor 166 BC), another in 93 BC and mentioning but dismissing another in 49 BC. We can't safely use Levinthal for a claim he doesn't directly make and which later scholarship contradicts. (Also, arguably we shouldn't be quoting him at such length anyway, with the quotation utterly dominating the section (overuse according to WP:QUOTEFARM)). Levinthal's the sole basis for the entire section. I'll remove it. NebY (talk) 20:37, 8 March 2021 (UTC)