Gessius (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Γέσσιος, ''floruit'' 420–443) was a politician of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, brother of the Empress

Aelia Eudocia Aelia Eudocia Augusta (; ; 460 AD), also called Saint Eudocia, was an Eastern Roman empress by marriage to Emperor Theodosius II (). Daughter of an Athenian philosopher, she was also a poet, whose works include ''Homerocentones'', or Homeric re ...

Life

Gessius was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, son of the pagan and sophist philosopher Leontius, and brother of

Valerius The gens Valeria was a patrician family at ancient Rome, prominent from the very beginning of the Republic to the latest period of the Empire. Publius Valerius Poplicola was one of the consuls in 509 BC, the year that saw the overthrow of the ...

and Athenais. In 421 Athenais changed her name in

and married the Emperor

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...

; as result, Valerius and Gessius received several honours. Gessius become

Praetorian prefect of Illyricum The praetorian prefecture of Illyricum (; , also termed simply the prefecture of Illyricum) was one of four praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided. The administrative centre of the prefecture was Sirmium (375–379 ...

, an office he probably lost after his sister lost her influence on the Emperor in 443 and went to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Sources

* {{PLRE, volume=2, title=Gessius 2, pages=510–511 5th-century Byzantine people Praetorian prefects of the Illyricum Byzantine Athenians Theodosian dynasty

Life

See also

Sources