Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/311

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 291 satisfied with the Plebeian honours of tribunes of the people.!^ One hundi'ed and sixty-eight years before the Christian aera, the family was ennobled by the praetorship of Anieius, who gloriously terminated the Illyrian war by the conquest of the nation and the captivity of their king.^'' From the triumph of that general, three consulships in distant periods mark the succession of the Anician name.^~ From the reign of Diocletian to the final ex- tinction of the Western empire that name shone with a lustre which was not eclipsed in the public estimation by the majesty of the Imperial purple. ^^ The several branches to whom it was communicated united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian and the Olybrian houses ; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim. i" The Anician ftnnily excelled in faith and in riches ; they were the first of the Roman senate who em- braced Christianity ; and it is probable that Anieius Julian, who was afterwards consul and prefect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine.^o Their ample patrimony Avas increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family ; who shared with Gratian the honours ofiuTjs^s' the consulship, and exercised four times the high office of Prae- ^ luiy^lrf 15 The earliest date in the annals of Pighius is that of M. Anieius Gallus, Trib. PI. A.u.c. 506. Another Tribune, Q. Anieius, A.u.C. 508, is distinguished by the epithet of Prasnestinus. Livy (xlv. 43) places the Anicii below the great families of Rome. [Q. Anieius Prasnestinus. was curule sedile B.C. 304.] 1^ Livy, xliv. 30, 31 ; .xlv. 3, 26, 43. He fairly appreciates the merit of Anieius and justly observes that his fame was clouded by the superior lustre of the Mace- donian, which preceded the Illyrian, triumph. 1" The dates of the three consulships are, A.u.C. 593, 818, 967 ; the two last under the reigns of Nero and Caracalla. The second of these consuls distinguished himself only by his infamous flattery (Tacit. Annal. .v. 74), but even the evidence of crimes, if they bear the stamp of greatness and antiquity, is admitted without reluctance to prove the genealogy of a noble house. 18 In the sixth century the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. 1. x. Ep. 10, 12) with singular respect by the minister of a Gothic king of Italy. 1^ Fixus in omnes Cognatos pro^edit honos ; quemcumque requires Hac de stirpe virum, certum est de Consule nasci. Per fasces numerantur Avi, semperque renata Nobilitate virent, et prolem fata sequuntur. (Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.) The Annii, whose name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships, from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century. 2* The title of first Christian senator may be justified by the authority of Pru- dentius (in .Symmach. i. 553), and the dislike of the pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn; iv. p. 183, v. p. 44. Baron. Annal. A.D. 312, No. 78, A.D. 322, No. 2.