Flavius Antiochianus was a prominent Roman politician during the reigns of the Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

s Gallienus

Gallienus

Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...

, Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus

Quintillus

Quintillus , commonly known as Quintillus, was Roman Emperor for less than a year in 270.-Early Life and Election as Emperor:Quintillus was born at Sirmium in Illyricum. Originally coming from a low born family, Quintillus came to prominence with the accession of his brother Claudius II Gothicus to...

 and Aurelian

Aurelian

Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...

, in the period referred to as the Crisis of the Third Century

Crisis of the Third Century

The Crisis of the Third Century was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression...

 in 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....

.

Flavius Antiochianus was from a family of Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 descent from Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

, Syria

Syria (Roman province)

Syria was a Roman province, annexed in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War. It remained under Roman, and subsequently Byzantine, rule for seven centuries, until 637 when it fell to the Islamic conquests.- Principate :The...

. The identity of his mother is unknown; however, his father was the Flavius Antiochianus who served as a Prefect

Prefect

Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....

 and a leader of a Cohort

Cohort (military unit)

A cohort was the basic tactical unit of a Roman legion following the reforms of Gaius Marius in 107 BC.-Legionary cohort:...

 in Germania Superior

Germania Superior

Germania Superior , so called for the reason that it lay upstream of Germania Inferior, was a province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany...

 in 211, and subsequently in Mauretania Caesariensis

Mauretania Caesariensis

Mauretania Caesariensis was a Roman province located in northwestern Africa. It was the easternmost of the North African Roman provinces, mainly in present Algeria, with its capital at Caesarea , now Cherchell.-Historical background:In the first century AD, Roman...

, returning to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 to serve as a Praetorian prefect

Praetorian prefect

Praetorian prefect was the title of 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 aides...

 in 221 under the Roman Emperor Elagabalus

Elagabalus

Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...

.

The younger Antiochianus married a prominent and wealthy noblewoman, Pomponia Ummidia

Pomponia Ummidia

Pomponia Ummidia was Anatolian Roman noblewoman and was a prominent figure in Rome during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus and Aurelian. She lived in the period the Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire.Pomponia Ummidia came from a distinguished...

, sister of Roman Senator

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

 Pomponius Bassus

Pomponius Bassus (consul 259 & 271)

Pomponius Bassus was a Roman Senator of Anatolian descent who lived in the Roman Empire.Bassus was of Italian Roman, Pontian Greek ancestry, who came from a distinguished senatorial family...

. She was of Italian Roman, Pontian Greek

Pontic Greeks

The Pontians are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea...

 ancestry and a descendant of the former ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty 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....

.

Following their marriage, they lived at her large estate in Pisidia

Pisidia

Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...

. Inscriptions have been found there with Antiochianus and Pomponia Ummidia named as the owners. It is unknown whether they had any children.

Sometime in 267-270, in the reign of Claudius Gothicus, Antiochianus served as an ordinary consul and as a Praefectus urbi

Praefectus urbi

The praefectus urbanus or praefectus urbi, in English the urban prefect, 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, and held high importance in late Antiquity...

. In 270 under Aurelian, he served a second ordinary consulship with the Emperor, and as a Praefectus urbi between 271-272 and then again 274. There is a possibility that during his second consulship, Antiochianus may have been responsible for the construction of the Balineum Antiochiani, one of the ancient baths in Rome

Thermae

In ancient Rome, thermae and balnea were facilities for bathing...

.

Sources

• The Cities and Bishoprics of Phyrgia: Being an Essay of the Local History of Phrygia from the Earliest Times to the Turkish Conquest Volume One, Part One - By William M. Ramsay, 2004
• Aurelian the third century, by Alaric Watson 1999, Routledge
• Bathing in Public in the Roman World by Garrett G. Fagan, 2002
• A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, Lawrence Richardson, JHU Press, 1992
• Bathing in Public in the Roman World, Garrett G. Fagan, University of Michigan Press, 2002
• http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavio_Antiochiano
• http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Antiochianus
• eric.exeter.ac.uk/exeter/bitstream/10036/55073/5/CollarACF.doc