Flavius Asclepiodotus or Asclepiades (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they 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 indicatin ...

423–425) was a politician of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

Asclepiodotus was the brother-in-law of the

sophist A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...

Leontius, and thus the uncle of Athenais, who in 421 married the Emperor

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his ...

taking the name of

Aelia Eudocia Aelia Eudocia Augusta (; grc-gre, Αιλία Ευδοκία Αυγούστα; 401460 AD), also called Saint Eudocia, was an Eastern Roman empress by marriage to Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450), and a prominent Greek historical figure i ...

. Eudocia favoured her family, exercising her influence over her husband to advance Asclepiodotus' career. In 422, Asclepiodotus was ''

comes sacrarum largitionum The ''comes sacrarum largitionum'' ("Count of the Sacred Largesses"; in el, , ''kómes tōn theíon thesaurōn'') was one of the senior fiscal officials of the late Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. Although it is first attested in ...

'', while between 14 February 423 (the year in which Eudocia was appointed '' Augusta'') to 1 February 425 he was

Praetorian prefect of the East The praetorian prefecture of the East, or of the Orient ( la, praefectura praetorio Orientis, el, ἐπαρχότης/ὑπαρχία τῶν πραιτωρίων τῆς ἀνατολῆς) was one of four large praetorian prefectures into whic ...

, and

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 throu ...

in 423. He was deposed because he was denounced to Theodosius by

Simeon Stylites Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite syc, ܫܡܥܘܢ ܕܐܣܛܘܢܐ ', Koine Greek ', ar, سمعان العمودي ' (c. 390 – 2 September 459) was a Syrian Christian ascetic, who achieved notability by living 37 years on a smal ...

for encouraging pagans and Jews and undermining Christians, a charge no doubt reinforced by the fact that his family was pagan, although Athenais had to convert to Christianity before marriage.

Bibliography

* Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Asclepiodotus 1", ''

The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1992, , p. 160. {{end 5th-century Byzantine people 5th-century Roman consuls Comites sacrarum largitionum Imperial Roman consuls Praetorian prefects of the East