Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius ( 395–397) was a politician and aristocrat of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

Life

Olybrius was a son of Sextus Petronius Probus, one of the most influential men of his era and consul in 371, and wife and cousin

Anicia Faltonia Proba Anicia Faltonia Proba (died in Africa, 432) was a Roman noblewoman of the ''gens'' Anicia. Biography Proba's father was Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius (consul in 379); the famous poet Faltonia Betitia Proba was her grandmother. She marr ...

. His brothers were Anicius Probinus and

Anicius Petronius Probus Anicius Petronius Probus ( 395–406 AD) was a politician of the Western Roman Empire. Biography A member of the ''gens'' Anicia, he was the son of Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus. (consul in 371) and of Anicia Faltonia Proba;. his elder br ...

. His sister was Anicia Proba. Olybrius was raised with his brother Probinus in Rome, where he was born. He and his brother Anicius Probinus shared the consulate in 395, while both were very young;

Claudian Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (Greek: Κλαυδιανός; ), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almo ...

dedicated ''Panegyricus de consulatu Probini et Olybrii'' to the brothers on this occasion. Although they belonged to a traditionally pagan senatorial family, Olybrius and Probinus were

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

. Arusianus Messius dedicated his ''Exempla elocutionem'' to both brothers, and

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus Quintus Aurelius Symmachus Nickname, signo Eusebius (, ; c. 345 – 402) was a Roman statesman, orator, and intellectual. He held the offices of governor of proconsular Africa (province), Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and R ...

addressed a letter to both in 397 (''Epistles'', v).

Family

He married his cousin Anicia Juliana, to whom the

church father The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...

wrote a letter and the church father

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

wrote two letters. Augustine also wrote a treatise in the form of a letter about widowhood, which was addressed to Iuliana. Olybrius and Juliana had: one son, Anicius Probus (''

fl. ''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 ...

'' 424-459),

praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

in 424 and ''vir illustris'' in 459, married to Adelphia, daughter of Valerius Adelphius and paternal granddaughter of Valerius Adelphius Bassus (''

'' 383 and 392), ''vir consularis'' and ''consul. Venet.'' in 383 and in 392, and great-granddaughter of

Lucius Valerius Septimius Bassus Lucius Valerius Septimius Bassus (c. 328 - aft. 379 or 383) was a Roman politician. Life He was the son of Valerius Maximus (praetorian prefect), Valerius Maximus and first wife Septimia Bassa. He was ''praefectus urbi'' Romae under the emperors ...

and his possible wife Adelphia, as their son's ''nomina'' and ''cognomen'' suggest; and one daughter,

Demetrias Demetrias () was a Greek city in Magnesia in ancient Thessaly (east central Greece), situated at the head of the Pagasaean Gulf, near the modern city of Volos. History It was founded in 294 BCE by Demetrius Poliorcetes, who removed th ...

.Anne Kurdok, "''Demetrias ancilla dei'': Anicia Demetrias and the problem of the missing patron", in Kate Cooper, Julia Hillner, ''Religion, dynasty and patronage in early Christian Rome, 300-900'', Cambridge University Press, 2007, , pp. 190-224.

Notes

Bibliography

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones Arnold Hugh Martin Jones Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (9 March 1904 – 9 April 1970), known also as A. H. M. Jones or Hugo Jones, was a prominent 20th-century British historian of classical antiquity, particularly of the later Roman Empire ...

, John Martindale, John Morris, ''

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 ...

'' (PLRE). vol. 1, Cambridge 1971, p. 639. * Hartmut Leppin, ''Theodosius der Große. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft'', Darmstadt 2003, p. 222. {{Authority control 4th-century Christians 4th-century Roman consuls Olybrius, Hermogenianus Year of death unknown