Petronius Probinus (''

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 ...

'' 341346 AD) was an aristocrat and statesman 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 ...

. He 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 the year 341 and ''

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 from July 345 to December 346.

Biography

Probinus was the son of

Petronius Probianus Petronius Probianus ( 315–331 AD) was a politician of the Roman Empire. Life Probianus was a member of the '' Petronii Probi'', a family of the senatorial aristocracy. He was the son of Pompeius Probus, consul in 310, the father of Petroniu ...

, a consul and praefectus urbi, and was from the ''

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...

'' Petronia, an influential patrician family that provided several high-ranking officers for the imperial administration between the

4th Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

and

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth Avenue * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a cont ...

centuries AD. Probinus himself was consul in 341 and ''praefectus urbi'' of Rome from July 5, 345, to December 26, 346. His wife was, according to Drinkwater and Elton,John Drinkwater and Hugh Elton, ''Fifth-century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?'' (1992), page 112. "Claudia"/"Clodia", a sister of

Clodius Celsinus Adelphus Clodius Celsinus Adelphius or Adelfius (''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) and Falto ...

,Anthony Wagner, op. cit. Pedigree 22, page 180 who in turn was married to his sister

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 ...

, one of the most influential

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

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

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

s during

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

.Anthony Wagner, "Pedigree and Progress - Essays in the genealogical interpretation of history, Phillimore, London, (1975) Pedigree 22, page 180

Issue

He had a son,

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 ...

, consul in 371 and four-time ''

Praetorian prefect The praetorian prefect (; ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief ai ...

''. His grandchildren include Anicius Probinus and

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 ...

consuls of 395, and the consul of 406,

Anicius Probus Anicius Probus (''fl''. 459) was a Roman politician. A Christian, he is attested in an inscription dated to 30 August 459, found in Aquileia, but now lost; it was the inscription on the tomb of Anicia Ulfina (emended in Iuliana by recent scholars)M ...

. The aristocrat

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 ...

was his grand-niece - and his daughter in law.

Notes

Sources

* Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Petronius Probinus 2", ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1992, , p. 735. {{DEFAULTSORT:Petronius Probinus 4th-century Roman consuls Urban prefects of Rome Petronii