Flavius Anicius Probinus (fl 395-397) was a politician and aristocrat of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

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Biography

A member of the noble gens Anicia

Anicia (gens)

The gens Anicia was a plebeian family at Rome, mentioned first towards the end of the 4th century BC The first of the Anicii under to achieve prominence under the Republic was Lucius Anicius Gallus, who conducted the war against the Illyrii during the Third Macedonian War, in 168 BC.A noble family...

, Probinus was the son of Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus

Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus

Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus was a leading Roman aristocrat of the later 4th century, renowned for his wealth, power and social connections.-Family:...

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

Anicia Faltonia Proba

Anicia Faltonia Proba was a Roman noblewoman of the gens Anicia.- Biography :Proba's father was Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius ; the famous poet Faltonia Betitia Proba was a relative...

; he was then the brother of Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius, Anicius Petronius Probus

Anicius Petronius Probus

Flavius Anicius Petronius Probus was a politician of the Western Roman Empire.- Biography :A member of the gens Anicia, he was the son of Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus and of Anicia Faltonia Proba; his elder brothers were Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius and Anicius Probinus , his sister Anicia...

 and Anicia Proba. According to a reconstruction, Probinus was the father of Petronius Maximus

Petronius Maximus

Flavius Petronius Maximus was Western Roman Emperor for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Flavius Aëtius, and the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III...

, briefly Western Roman emperor in the spring of 455.

Probinus was raised with his brother Olybrius in Rome, where he was born. He divided with his brother the consulate in the year 395, while both were very young; on this occasion to the two brothers was dedicated a panegyric by Claudian

Claudian

Claudian was a Roman poet, who worked for Emperor Honorius and the latter's general Stilicho.A Greek-speaking citizen of Alexandria and probably not a Christian convert, Claudian arrived in Rome before 395. He made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby...

 (Panegyricus de consulatu Probini et Olybrii). Although they originated in a family belonging to the Roman senatorial aristocracy, traditionally pagan, Olybrius and Probinus were Christians; the appointment as consuls of these two Christians may have been a signal, desired by the emperor Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

, the very next year to the usurpation and Pagan restoration of Eugenius

Eugenius

Flavius Eugenius was an usurper in the Western Roman Empire against Emperor Theodosius I. Though himself a Christian, he was the last Emperor to support Roman polytheism.-Life:...

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Probinus was then proconsul

Proconsul

A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...

 of Africa in 396-397.

With his brother he received the dedication of the work Exempla elocutionum by Arusianus Messius

Arusianus Messius

Arusianus Messius, or Messus, Latin grammarian, flourished in the 4th century.He was the author of a small extant work Exempla Elocutionum, dedicated to Olybrius and Probinus, consuls for the year 395...

, and both received a letter (Epistles, v) by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus was a Roman statesman, orator, and man of letters. He held the offices of governor of Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and consul in 391...

 in 397. It is known that he composed verses.

Secondary sources

• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1971, ISBN 0521072336, pp. 734-735.
• Drinkwater, John, and Hugh Elton, Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0521529336, pp. 119-120.
• Hartmut Leppin, Theodosius der Große. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2003, p. 222.