Anicius Probinus ( 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 ...

Biography

A member of the noble gens Anicia, Probinus was the son of

Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus ( 358–390) was a leading Roman aristocrat of the later 4th century AD, renowned for his wealth, power and social connections. The son of the consul Petronius Probinus, he married Anicia Faltonia Proba and ...

, one of the most influential men of his era and consul in 371, and of

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 ...

; he was then the brother of

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

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 ...

and Anicia Proba. According to a reconstruction,Drinkwater and Elton. Probinus was the father of

Petronius Maximus Petronius Maximus (31 May 455) was Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire, West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy Roman Senate, senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman ''magister ...

, briefly a Western Roman emperor in the spring of 455. Probinus was raised with his brother Olybrius in Rome, where he was born. He and his brother Olybrius shared the consulate in 395, while both were very young;Claudian, 143-67-70.

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 ...

. Probinus was then

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

in 396–397. While proconsul, in 396 he received a letter from

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 ...

(''Epistols'', ix); on 17 March 397, he received a law preserved in the ''

Codex Theodosianus The ''Codex Theodosianus'' ("Theodosian Code") is a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 an ...

'' (XII.5.3). Arusianus Messius dedicated his ''Exempla elocutionem'' to both brothers, and Symmachus addressed a letter to both in 397 (''Epistles'', v). It is known that Probinus composed verses.

Notes

Bibliography

Primary sources

, ''Panegyricus de consulatu Probini et Olybrii'' *

Secondary sources

* Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert 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 ...

'', Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1971, , pp. 734–735. * Drinkwater, John, and Hugh Elton, ''Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?'', Cambridge University Press, 1992, , pp. 119–120. * Hartmut Leppin, ''Theodosius der Große. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft'', Darmstadt 2003, p. 222. {{end 4th-century Christians 4th-century Roman consuls Probinus Roman governors of Africa Politicians from Rome