(Decius) Basilius Venantius (''

floruit ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

'' 508–533), was a Roman aristocrat who lived during

Ostrogothic The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

rule.

Biography

He was probably the son of Decius Marius Venantius Basilius,

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 484. Venantius had several sons who became consuls, including

Decius Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius ( 201June 251), known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius (), was Roman emperor from 249 to 251. A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was proclaimed emperor by his troops a ...

, the consul of 529, and Decius Paulinus, the consul of 534. Venantius himself was consul in 508. Later, but before 511, he was raised to the rank of '' patricius''. In 533 he was still alive and still held the patriciate, on the occasion King

Athalaric Athalaric (; 5162 October 534) was the king of the Ostrogoths in Italy between 526 and 534. He was a son of Eutharic and Amalasuintha, the youngest daughter of Theoderic the Great, whom Athalaric succeeded as king in 526. Athalaric was descr ...

congratulated him on the promotion of his son Decius Paulinus to the consulate, and (more importantly) the wealth to finance the celebrations that accompanied both his promotion and those of his brothers.

Bibliography

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Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...

, ''Variae epistolae''
IX, 23
{{Byzantine-bio-stub 6th-century western Roman consuls Patricii Decii