Publius Cornelius Rufinus (dictator 334 BC)

Publius Cornelius Rufinus was a dictator during the Roman Republic.

Rufinus belonged to the famous patrician gens Cornelia, as well as being the earliest recorded member of the branch of the family, the gens Cornelii Rufinii et Sullae.

He was appointed dictator in 334 BC but renounced his position due to a defect in the religious procedures for his appointment.^[1] He is then mentioned again the following year in the Fasti Consulares as sole dictator, in the first Dictator Year (a year without consuls). However, the historicity of the Dictator Years is usually rejected by modern historians.^[2]

He was an alleged distant patriarchal ancestor of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla.