Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/183

Rh FLAVIAN us. his re-appointment. Flamma, with the second and fourth legions, invaded Samnium ; but there is great likelihood in Niebuhr's conjecture {Hist, of Rome, vol. iii. p. 379), that he was again called into Etruria, where the brunt of the war was, and that he took part in the battle of Sentinura, B. c. 295. He married Virginia, daughter of A. Virginius, who consecrated a chapel and altar to Plebeian Chastity. [Virginia.] (Liv. x. 15, &c.) [W. B. D.] FLA'VIA CONSTA'NTTA. [Constantia.] FLA'VIA CONSTANTI'NA. [Constan- TINA.] FLA'VIA GENS, plebeian. Members of it are mentioned in Roman history only during the last three centuries before the Christian era. It seems to have been of Sabine origin, and may have been con- nected with the Flavii that occur at Reate in the first century after Christ, and to whom the emperor Ves- pasian belonged. But the name Flavius occurs also in other countries of Italy, as Etruria and Lucania. During the later period of the Roman empire, the name Flavius descended from one emperor to an- other, Constantius, the father of Constantine the Great, being the first in the series. The cognomens that occur in the Flavia gens during the repub- lic are Fimbria, Gallus, Lucanus, and Pu- sio. [L. S.] FLAVIANUS. 169 COIN OF FLAVIA GENS. FLA'VIA DOMITILLA. [Domitilla.] FLA'VIA TITIA'NA. [Titiana.J FLAVIA'NUS. This name, of comparatively rare occurrence in the early imperial period, be- came more common in the later period of the em- pire, after the accession to the throne of the Flavian house in the person of Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine the Great, and the assumption of the name Flavius by the successive dynasties that occupied the Byzantine throne. A considerable num- ber of officers of high rank during and between the reigns of Constantine the Great and Valentinian III. are enumerated in the Prosopographia sub- joined to the edition of the Codex T/ieodosianus by Gothofredus (vol. vi. part ii. pp. 54, 55, ed. Leipzig, ] 73b"-45). The following persons of the name re- quire distinct notice : — 1. T. Ami'ius Flavianus, consular legate or governor of Pannonia during the civil wars which followed the death of Galba, A. d. 69, at which time he was old and wealthy, and reluctant to take part in the contest ; and when the legions of his province (the Thirteenth and the Seventh or Gal- bian legions) embraced the party of Vespasian, he fled into Italy. He returned, however, into Pannonia, and joined the pnrty of Vespasian at the instigation of Cornelius Fuscus, procurator of the province, who was anxious to obtain for the insurgents the influence which the rank of Flavia- nus would give. His previous reluctance and a connection by marriage with Vitellius had however rendered the soldiers mistrustful, and they suspected that his return to the province had some treacherous object. He appears to have accompanied the Pan- nonian legions on their march into Italy ; and during the siege or blockade of Verona, a false alarm having caused the smothered suspicions of the soldiery to break out, a tumultuous body of them demanded his death. His abject entreaties for life they interpreted as the mark of conscious treachery ; but he was rescued by the intervention of Antonius Primus, the most influential general of the troops of Vespasian, and was sent off in cus- tody the same evening to meet Vespasian, but be- fore he reached him received letters from him re- lieving him from all danger of punishment. (Tac. Hist ii. 86, iii. 4, 10.) 2. Flavianus, one of the praefects of the prae- torium under Alexander Severus. He was ap- pointed to the office on the accession of Alexander, in conjunction with Chrestus (a. d. 222). They were both men of military and administrative abi- lity ; but the appointment of Ulpian nominally as their colleague, but really as their superior, having led to conspiracies on the part of the praetorian soldiers against Ulpian, Flavian and Chrestus were deposed and executed, and Ulpian made sole prae- fect. Tlie year of their death is not ascertained, but it was not long before that of Ulpian himself, which took place at latest a. d. 228. (Dion Cass. Ixxx. 2 ; Zosim. i. 1 1 ; Zonar. xii. 1 5.) 3. Ulpius Flavianus, consular of the provinces of Aemilia and Liguria, in Italy, under Constan- tine the Great, a. d. 323. (Cod. Theodos. 11. tit. 16. s. 2 ; Gothofred. Frosop. Cod. Theod.) 4. Proconsul of Africa, apparently under Con- stantius, son of Constantine the Great, A. D. 357- 61. It is probable that this is the proconsul Flavian, to whom some of the rhetorical exercises of the sophist Himerius are addressed ; though Fabricius supposes the Flavian of Himerius to be No. 7. (Cod. Theod. 8. tit. 5. s. 10, 11. tit. 36. s. 14, 15. tit. 1. s. 1 ; Gothofred. Prosop. Cod. Tlieod,; Himerius, ap. Phot. Bihl. Cod. 165, 243, pp. 108, 376, ed. Bekker ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec, vol. vi. p. 57.) 5. Vicarius of Africa, under Gratian, A. d. 377. He was one of those commissioned to inquire into the malpractices of Count Romanus and his con- federates ; and Ammianus Marcellinus records the uprightness of his conduct in the business. It is probable that he is the Flavian mentioned by Au- gustin as an adherent of the sect of the Donatists, by whom, however, he was excommunicated, be- cause, in the discharge of his office, he had punished some criminals capitally. An inscription, belong- ing to a statue at Rome, " Virius Nicomachus, Consularis Siciliae, Vicarius Africae, Quaestor intra Palatium ; Praef. Praetor iterum et Cos.," is by Gothofredus referred to this Flavian, but we rather refer it to No. 6. Gothofredus also regards this Flavian as the person mentioned by Himerius ; but the mention of his administration of Africa equally well suits No. 4, to whom the title avQiira- Tos determines the reference. ( Amm. Marc, xxviii. 6 ; Augustin. ad Emeritum, Epist. 164 (or 87, ed. Paris, 1836) ; Cod. Theod. 16. tit. 6. s. 2 ; Gotho- fred. Prosop. Cod. Theod.) 6. Praetorian praefectof Itjily and lUyricum A. D. 382-3. He was the intimate friend of Q. Aurelius Symmachus, many of whose letters (nearly the whole of the second book) are addressed to hira. Symmachus continually addresses him as his "bro- ther Flavian," which moderns (we know not for what reason) understand as expressive of close in-