Flavius Avienus ( 501–509) was a Roman politician during the reign of

Theodoric the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...

. He held the

consulship The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

with

Pompeius Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

as colleague in 501. He probably belonged to the '' gens Decia''; he was the son of

Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius ( 480–483), was a Roman politician. He was the first consul appointed under Odoacer's rule (480), and afterwards was Praetorian prefect of Italy.John Moorhead"The Decii under Theoderic" '' Historia: Zeitschrift f ...

(consul in 480), and brother of Albinus (consul in 493), Theodorus (consul in 505) and

Inportunus Inportunus ( 509–523) was a Roman aristocrat who lived during the reign of Theodoric the Great. He held the consulship without colleague in 509. Inportunus was the son of Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius (consul in 480), and brother of Albinus ( ...

(consul in 509). John Moorhead argues that the brothers were on different sides of the Laurentian schism, with Albinus and Avienus supporting Symmachus and Theodore and Inportunus supporting

Laurentius Laurentius is a Latin given name and surname that means "''From Laurentum''" (a city near Rome). It is possible that the place name ''Laurentum'' is derived from the Latin ''laurus'' (" laurel"). People with the name include: In Early Christiani ...

. He was a correspondent of

Magnus Felix Ennodius Magnus Felix Ennodius (473 or 47417 July 521 AD) was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin rhetorician and poet. He was one of four Gallo-Roman aristocrats of the fifth to sixth-century whose letters survive in quantity: the others are Sidonius A ...

; one letter by Ennodius to Avienus has been preserved.Ennodius, ''Epistulae'', III.8. By 507/509, Avienus and his brother Albinus had already become ''

patricii The patricians (from ) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 B ...

''; around this time, but after the death of their father, they were asked to become patrons of the Greens and to appoint a

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

Notes

Further reading