Faltonius Probus Alypius (''floruit'' 370–397) was a politician 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

Alypius was the son of

Clodius Celsinus Adelphius Clodius Celsinus Adelphius or Adelfius (''Floruit, fl.'' 333–351) was a politician of the Roman Empire. Life He was married to the poet Faltonia Betitia Proba, and they had two sons, Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius (consul in 379) a ...

, ''

Praefectus urbi The ''praefectus urbanus'', also called ''praefectus urbi'' or urban prefect in English, was prefect of the city of Rome, and later also of Constantinople. The office originated under the Roman kings, continued during the Republic and Empire, an ...

'' of Rome in 351, and of the Christian poet

Faltonia Betitia Proba Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. AD 306/315 – c. 353/366) was a Latin Roman Christian poet, perhaps the earliest female Christian poet whose work survives. A member of one of the most influential aristocratic families, she composed the '' Cento Verg ...

. His brother,

Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius (''floruit'' 361384) was a Roman politician, ''praefectus urbi'' of Rome from 368 to 370 and Roman consul in 379. Olybrius has been characterized as belonging to "the breed of flexible politicians who did well ...

, was

Roman consul 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 ...

in 379. In 370/371 he was exiled, under the investigations of Maximinus. In 378 he held a high office in

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the ...

, possibly ''

vicarius ''Vicarius'' is a Latin word, meaning ''substitute'' or ''deputy''. It is the root of the English word "vicar". History Originally, in ancient Rome, this office was equivalent to the later English " vice-" (as in " deputy"), used as part of th ...

'' of

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 ...

. On June 12, 391, he is attested ad ''Praefectus urbi'' of Rome. In 393 he was sent to the court of Emperor

Eugenius Eugenius (died 6 September 394) was a Western Roman emperor from 392 to 394, unrecognized by the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious p ...

, on occasion of the celebrations for the consulship of

Virius Nicomachus Flavianus Virius Nicomachus Flavianus (334–394 AD) was a grammarian, a historian and a politician of the Roman Empire. A pagan and close friend of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, he was Praetorian prefect of Italy from 390–392. Under the usurper Eugenius ...

for the following year. He was the addressee of some letters by

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 ...

, showing he was alive in 397, and maybe even from

Ambrose Ambrose of Milan (; 4 April 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting Roman Christianity against Ari ...

Sources

John Robert Martindale John Robert Martindale (born 1935) is a British historian specializing in the later Roman and Byzantine empires. Martindale's major publications are his ''magnum opus'', the ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', begun by A. H. M. Jones an ...

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 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 ...

'', Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 49. 4th-century Romans Ancient Roman governors Correspondents of Symmachus Urban prefects of Rome {{AncientRome-politician-stub