Flavius Astyrius or Asturius (floruit 441-449) was a general and a politician of the Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

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Biography

Astyrius was the father-in-law of Merobaudes and belonged to an aristocratic family.

He followed a military career: between 441 and 443 he is attested as dux or magister utriusque militiae. In 441 he was in Tarraconensis (Spain), where he defeated the Bagaudae

Bagaudae

In the time of the later Roman Empire bagaudae were groups of peasant insurgents who emerged during the "Crisis of the Third Century", and persisted particularly in the less-Romanised areas of Gallia and Hispania, where they were "exposed to the depredations of the late Roman state, and the great...

. In 443 he was succeeded by this son-in-law Merobaudes.

He was appointed consul for the year 449. At the beginning of his office he was in Gaul (probably in the capital city of the praetorian prefecture, Arelate), and Nicetius delivered a panegyric in his honour.

A consular diptych

Consular diptych

In Late Antiquity a consular diptych was a particular type of diptych which could function as a writing tablet but was also intended as a deluxe commemorative object, commissioned by a consul ordinarius and then distributed to reward those who had supported his candidature as...

 produced by Astyrius in 449 is preserved at Liège

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

. The diptych shows Astyrius seated on a curule chair

Curule chair

In the Roman Republic, and later the Empire, the curule seat was the chair upon which senior magistrates or promagistrates owning imperium were entitled to sit, including dictators, masters of the horse, consuls, praetors, censors, and the curule aediles...

wearing complete consular regalia and the inscription Flavius Asturius vir clarissimus and inlustris comes ex magistro ustriusque militiae consul ordinarius.