Volusius Venustus was a politician 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....

.

Biography

Volusius Venustus set up a monument in the forum of Canosa

Canosa

Canosa di Puglia is a town and comune in Apulia in southern Italy, between Bari and Foggia, located in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, not far from the position on the Ofanto River where the Romans found refuge after the defeat of the Battle of Cannae...

 in honour of Constantine I

Constantine I

Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...

 and his two sons (the fact that only two sons are honoured means that the monument was set up between 317 and 333, less the period between 324 and 326). This monument is a clue that he was from this city in southern Italia

Italia (Roman province)

Italia was the name of the Italian peninsula of the Roman Empire.-Under the Republic and Augustan organization:During the Republic and the first centuries of the empire, Italia was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status: for example, military...

; it also marks his office, the one of corrector

Corrector

A corrector is a person who or object that practices correction, usually by removing or rectifying errors.The word is originally a Roman title corrector, derived from the Latin verb corrigēre, meaning "an action to rectify, to make right a wrong."Apart from the general sense of anyone who corrects...

 Apuliae et Calabriae (governor of the region corresponding to modern Puglia).

A Venustus is attested in 362

362

Year 362 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamertinus and Nevitta...

, as member of a senatorial legation to 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...

 to emperor Julian

Julian the Apostate

Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....

, who, in this occasion, nominated this Venustus vicarius

Vicarius

Vicarius is a Latin word, meaning substitute or deputy. It is the root and origin of the English word "vicar" and cognate to the Persian word most familiar in the variant vizier....

 Hispaniarum (362-363

363

Year 363 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iulianus and Sallustius...

). In 370

370

Year 370 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Valens...

, together with Vettius Agorius Praetextatus

Vettius Agorius Praetextatus

Vettius Agorius Praetextatus was a wealthy pagan aristocrat in 4th-century Roman Empire and a high priest in the cults of numerous gods...

 and Minervius, he formed a senatorial legation to the Emperor Valentinian I

Valentinian I

Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....

, asking him to avoid torture for those senators involved in trials.

According to a long-standing reconstruction by Otto Seek, the two previous officers were the same person, who is to be identified with the Venustus father of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus

Virius Nicomachus Flavianus

Virius Nicomachus Flavianus was a grammarian, a historian and a politician of the Roman Empire.A pagan and close friend of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, he was Praetorian prefect of Italy in 390–392 and, under usurper Eugenius , again praetorian prefect and consul...

 and grandfather of Nicomachus Flavianus

Nicomachus Flavianus (son)

Nicomachus Flavianus , sometimes referred to as Flavianus the younger, was a grammarian and a politician of the Roman Empire. He was the son of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus...

 and maybe another nephew called Venustus. This Venustus was, therefore, related to orator 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...

 (also father-in-law of Flavianus the younger), since he was brother-in-law of Lucius Avianus Symmachus, father of Aurelius.

However, recently this interpretation has been put under discussion. The most-widely accepted reconstruction is that the Venustus corrector Apuliae et Calabriae and the vicarius Hispaniarum are two different officers; the first, Volusius Venustus, would be a member of the Ragonii, belonging to the generation between Ragonius Venustus consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 in 260 and the Lucius Ragonius Venustus who performed a taurobolium in 390; the second, Venustus, might have been Nicomachus' father.