Flavius Bassus Herculanus (floruit 449-452) was an aristocrat 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....

, husband of Justa Grata Honoria

Justa Grata Honoria

Justa Grata Honoria, commonly referred to during her lifetime as Honoria, was the older sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III. Coins attest that she was granted the title of Augusta not long after the ascension of her brother in 426....

. He was honoured with the consulate

Roman consul

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

 in 452 with Sporacius as his colleague.

Life

Bassus Herculanus was a senator considered "of such good character that it was not expected he would aspire to royalty or revolution." F.M. Clover speculates over the possibility that his name "Bassus" might indicate a relationship with the Auchenii Bassi, one of the branches of the Anicii gens, but admits "Unfortunately the name Bassus was not the exclusive preserve of the Anicii in late antiquity, and the other two names are indeterminate." The sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III

Valentinian III

-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....

, Justa Grata Honoria, in the words of Stewart I. Oost, "was a severely frustrated young woman. In 449 she had reached the age of thirty-one, yet she was forbidden to marry (like Pulcheria and the other sisters of Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...

) and devoted to Christian celibacy by command of her brother the emperor."

Honoria caused a scandal by sleeping with her chamberlain; Oost dates this event to 449. Valentinian needed to quickly find a husband who would not pose a threat to his rule, and for this reason Bassus was picked to be her husband. However, faced with the prospect of this loveless union, Honoria rebelled by sending a message -- and her ring -- to Attila asking for his help. Attila demanded she be given over to him with half of the Western Roman Empire; Valentinian refused the demand and she was married to Bassus. The marriage probably took place in 450.

Further reading

• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin
  Arnold Hugh Martin Jones
  Arnold Hugh Martin Jones — known as A.H.M. Jones — was a prominent 20th century British historian of classical antiquity, particularly of the later Roman Empire.-Biography:...
  
  , John Robert Martindale, John Morris
  John Morris (historian)
  John Robert Morris was an English historian who specialised in the study of the institutions of the Roman Empire and the history of Sub-Roman Britain...
  
  , "Fl. Bassus Herculanus 2", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0521072336, pp. 544-545.